Dan Sanford

Sports Editor

das6267@psu

On August 8th, the St. Louis Cardinals had a losing record and stood less than a 3 percent  chance of making the Major League Baseball playoffs. Seven-and-a-half weeks later, incredibly, they beat those odds.

The Cardinals clinched the last wild card spot in the National League on September 28th, capping off a 17-game winning streak against their leading NL Central division rival, the Milwaukee Brewers, by a score of 6-2. The streak is a franchise record, and the longest by any National League team since 1937. The Cardinals have now qualified for their 31st postseason berth, and they are making a bid to win the franchise’s 12th World Series title. Since the turn of the millennium — 22 years ago — the Cardinals have qualified for the playoffs a total of 15 times. Amazingly, even when they could not reach the postseason, their streak of winning seasons has been kept alive, now having recorded their 14th straight season above .500 and totaling 90 wins on the season.

During this unprecedented run, first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and outfielder O’Neill each have made good cases for the NL Most Valuable Player. The team defense was arguably baseball’s best during the hot streak, and 40-year-old pitcher Adam Wainwright posted numbers well exceeding expectations for his age with a 3.05 earned run average in over 200 innings. 

Although the team was a little more relaxed and closed the season winning only two of their last five games, the team could breathe for a little while: they had made it to the dance. Team-leading homer hitter Nolan Arenado and company are off to face the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night in Los Angeles in a winner-moves-on Wild Card game. Joining these two in the NL playoffs are the Brewers, Atlanta Braves, and San Francisco Giants; the American League playoffs will feature the Tampa Bay Rays, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox and Houston Astros.