Behind resurgent Wainwright, red-hot St. Louis Cardinals streak to playoff clincher
The sea of fans was red and the sky was gray, and on September 7, the St. Louis Cardinals were one game over .500 and four games back in the race for the National League’s second wild card.
Tuesday night at Busch Stadium, a mere three weeks later, the Cardinals mathematically secured their grasp on that spot, punching their ticket to the postseason for the third consecutive season, representing each of manager Mike Shildt’s full seasons at the club’s helm.
“I think being able to go to the playoffs is what it’s all about,” third baseman Nolan Arenado said. “I’m just thankful to be a part of this team, and this team is unbelievable. That we’ve carried each other, you know, I’m just happy to be a part of it. I mean, this is why I’m here, just having a chance to get to the playoffs.”
They defeated the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-2, behind another solid start from Adam Wainwright, who recorded his 17th win of the season as the team extended its franchise-record winning streak to, also, 17 games.
They’re going to California soaring, without an aching to be found in their hearts.
With either the Los Angeles Dodgers or San Francisco Giants waiting for them, the Cardinals face the reality of a one game playoff with a 100-win team. And yet for baseball’s hottest ‘Birds, possessors of a now-franchise-long winning streak, momentum could not be any stronger.
“I’m an optimist by nature,” Shildt cracked, repeating one of his favorite lines. “I think they live longer.”
“It comes from within individually, top to bottom,” center fielder Harrison Bader said. “On the entire roster, whether you’re starting, whether you’re coming off the bench, whether you’re starting pitcher, whether you’re coming out of the relief position, whatever it is.
“It’s just looking in the mirror, owning what you do, be prepared for what you do, pass the baton because you trust the guy to your left, your right. That’s what a winning team does.”
The National League Wild Card game will be played on Wednesday, October 6 at either San Francisco’s Oracle Park or Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
The Cardinals took two of three road games from the Giants earlier this season and lost two of three in Los Angeles.
At the moment, the Dodgers and Giants could request to play the Cardinals at Ebbets Field or the Polo Grounds and it may not matter much. With a suddenly unrelenting offense that was sparked Tuesday night by both Dylan Carlson’s solo home run and Wainwright’s picturesque squeeze bunt, the Cardinals have found the final piece in a puzzle that at times delivered nothing but frustration.
“Thanks for sticking with us,” Wainwright said to the fans of St. Louis after his start on September 18, the seventh game of the current winning streak. “I know it’s been frustrating. We’ve been frustrating for you, but we love you.”
In front of a crowd of 35,726, that love was clearly — and loudly — reciprocated. The crowd roared at Wainwright’s game-tying bunt, leaped to its feet with José Rondón’s sixth inning pinch-hit homer to push the game out of reach, and erupted in euphoria on the occasion of the final out.
Their Cardinals were once again headed to the postseason with five games to spare, enough time to sort through any lingering ailments and align a pitching staff remade midseason into its best possible form.
By the time the celebration hit the field, players were already soaked from head to toe in all manner of bottled beverages which were sprayed in every direction. A sopping Adam Wainwright walked onto the field and his daughters, having been through a celebration before, knew well enough to turn tail and run because, as they put it, “you stink!”
His son, new to the scene, ran straight to his beaming father, and seemed not to mind the strange smells in the slightest.
Dylan Carlson and Lars Nootbaar, recent devourers of cookies sent from Mrs. to Mr. Arenado, lingered and laughed with the two of them as Paul DeJong greeted his mother nearby, until she herself was swept up in an embrace by Harrison Bader.
A group of young pitchers, among them Dakota Hudson, Jake Woodford and Kodi Whitley, stood wisely to the side, dodging cameras and microphones as they sipped peacefully from paper cups, gazing in awe at their teammates in turn as they all found someone new to meet; this was, due to pandemic restrictions, the first time that many in the Cardinal family had met each other at all.
“We love drinking; we’re Canadian,” Tyler O’Neill emphasized of himself and his fiancee. They bounded from group to group shaking hands, as everyone from chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. to clubhouse attendant Patrick Cramer made the rounds.
Bader, the recently crowned National League Player of the Week, declared in perhaps the understatement of the evening, “I’ve had a lot of fun,” talking about both the winning streak and the evening’s events. When he reached the field from the clubhouse, he spun around and exhorted the gathered crowd just as he did the small group of young fans who he celebrated alongside on Saturday afternoon at Wrigley Field.
The Dodgers and Giants are regular season behemoths, but over nine innings in a wild card game, Wainwright will stand on the hill in a mountain of dreams.
Nothing, from there, will be as hard, hard, hard as it seems.
This story was originally published September 28, 2021 at 9:40 PM.
