In the days and weeks leading to the end of the regular season, many superstitious St. Louis Cardinals fans hoped and prayed the team would finish with 99 wins instead of 100. The logic behind the asinine aspiration was due to the fear that the number 100 would somehow evoke some heinous hocus pocus that would transform the best team in baseball into a bumbling, stumbling, whiffing machine overnight. Maybe those fans were on to something.
After all, the previous two times the Redbirds won at least 100 games (2005, 2004) ended in bitter disappointment. The 2005 team fell to an inferior 89-win Houston Astros team in the NLCS. The 2004 club was crushed and swept away by the Boston Red Sox. In fact, the Cardinals have not won the World Series after crossing the century mark since 1967. With Halloween approaching, it would be easy to believe the number 100 somehow haunts the Cardinals. In reality though, it wasn’t the number of wins that haunted the ball club, it was the number of injuries.
What the Cardinals achieved during the regular season was nothing short of remarkable. Cardinals players took trips to the DL like they were recurring characters on Grey’s Anatomy. The team lost important players for extended periods of time. Adam Wainwright, Yadier Molina, Matt Holliday, Matt Adams, Carlos Martinez, Jaime Garcia, John Jay, Lance Lynn, Randal Grichuk and others suffered significant throughout the season. Amazingly the team was able to continue plowing through opponents regardless of who was missing from the lineup or pitching rotation. Youngsters like Stephen Piscotty, Tommy Pham and Grichuk stepped up big when the Redbirds needed a boost. Add Jason Heyward to that list as well. Though he’s a veteran of six seasons, J-Hey is still only 26 years old.
As the season wound down, the aftereffects of all the injuries began to show. Manager Mike Matheny had the tough job of trying to balance between playing his hot, young players and finding at bats for his returning vets in order to have them ready for the postseason. Martinez, the team’s interim ace, had to be shut down for the season. His shoulder couldn’t bear the burden of nearly 180 innings pitched. Fatigue had the talented Michael Wacha pitching like Waka Flocka minus the Flame. The biggest injury was Molina’s. Molina is the “pitcher whisperer” and the heart and soul of the club. His achy thumb turned him into an easy out at the plate and forced him to miss Game 4, when his hurlers needed him most.
Though it’s embarrassing to ever lose to the Chicago Cubs, the baby bears must be given credit for pummeling the Cardinals out of the postseason. This wasn’t the usual band of bums we’ve come to know and laugh at in Chi-town. Theo Epstein and Joe Maddon have made the organization relevant again. They finished the regular season with 97 wins, including an eight-game winning streak. The Cubs’ big bats hit 171 home runs during the regular season and seemingly matched that total in the NLDS against the Cardinals as they teed off on Cardinals pitching. Weary Cardinals pitchers served up four-course meals to nearly everybody in the Cubs’ lineup, including a postseason record with six home runs in Game 3.
After years of watching the Cardinals rule the NL Central, the Cubs finally got took their revenge by brute force. They took decades of frustration out on the baseball – over and over again. Regardless of the inning, the count or the pitcher, Cubs batters were locked in and knocking the ball out of the park.
Unsurprisingly the knee-jerk national media is ready to crown the Cubs as Cardinals conquerors who will now rule the division for years to come. Washington Post columnist Adam Kilgore talked about the “power shift in the National League Central.” Nonsense. Should the Cubs go on to prove Marty McFly as a soothsayer and win the organization’s first World Series since 1908, they’ll still remain under the behemoth shadow of greatness cast by the St. Louis Cardinals. The NL Central will be a three-headed monster for years to come.
Still, it’s painful to go out to the Cubs, regardless of the circumstances. Whether it’s a daily dose of Wheaties or Flintstone vitamins, the Cardinals training staff need to find out a way to get and keep its players healthy for next season. Playoff losses to the Cubs don’t go down easy. For now, Cardinals fans must borrow the Cubs official motto: Maybe next season!
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