The Surging Cardinals

Photo Credit: Dilip Vishwanat | Getty Images

By: Ryan Cameron @RyanCameron22

On July 14, after an 8-2 loss, the St. Louis Cardinals in a somewhat surprising move fired manager Mike Matheny. One of the more stable franchises in all of sports was in a downward spiral and seemingly giving up on the season. They stood at 47-46 and had a ton of injuries and all signs led to the Cards missing the playoffs. 

What a difference a month makes.

St. Louis now stands at 66-55 and currently have an 8 game winning streak and are 12-2 in the month of August. They have kept their playoff hopes alive pushing themselves up to 1 game out of a Wild Card spot. How did they get here? It's simple, they are healthy and confident, not to mention have a manager in Mike Shildt they are 100 % behind and want to win for.

When I spoke with Yadier Molina on his rehab assignment with the Springfield Cardinals, he was supremely confident that the Cardinals were a playoff team and had just been hit by the injury bug. In fact, he even stated he had never seen that many injuries on one team in his career. St. Louis is a talented team, they just haven't been whole this season.

Matt Carpenter has stepped up and currently is the NL home run leader and on a short list for the NL MVP. With players like Molina and Martinez also swinging the bat well, the offense is clicking on all cylinders.

The pitching staff has impressed and currently sits 4th in the NL with a 3.78 ERA. Miles Mikolas is having a stellar year going 12-3 with a 2.85 ERA thus far. The bullpen has finally started to get it together after releasing a number of relievers including Greg Holland.

Yes, the Cardinals are still in 3rd in the NL Central and yes the Cardinals are still 4.5 games back of the Chicago Cubs but they are only 1 game out of a playoff birth with a month and a half to go and if your a St. Louis fan this is the best possible outcome you could have asked for in a months span. The race is on, let's see if they have enough in the tank to pull out what most of us thought wasn't possible just a month ago.