There’s only about 6 days left in the Major League Baseball season and the St. Louis Cardinals are by far the hottest team in the game right now and as I mentioned in my last video, they tied the franchise record with 14 straight wins – within hours of that video they broke the franchise record with their 15th straight win and yesterday made it 16. Yes, there is time for them to slow down and they certainly can and probably will lose at least one more game before the playoffs, but I just don’t think there’s time for this team to slow down much before that Wild Card Game. That game, whether it’s versus the Giants or Dodgers – hopefully Dodgers- will be absolutely epic and a must-watch baseball game. Maybe that’s the point of the one-game Wild Card but I still think it’s a terrible idea as it would still be a must-watch game if it was a Game 3 in a best of 3, and at least then the team with 100+ wins would get another crack at it should they lose Game 1. But it is what it is and the Cardinals are going to be in that game unless they pretty much lose for the rest of the year and the Phillies win for the rest of the year – which is pretty much not happening.

To recap the last couple games, Sunday it was the red-hot Harrison Bader going deep right away to put the Cards up 1 nothing. The Cubs came back to make it 2-1, at which time I got some comments in my video indicating the Cubs were winning and I responded – yeah, this game is far from over. Tyler O’Neil smashes a home run to tie it. The Cubs came roaring back again so shoutout to the Cubbies for putting up a good fight, but in the 7th, Bader drives in Arenado, Nootbaar drives in Molina and Paul Dejong drives in Bader to give the Cards the lead for good. Paul Dejong hits a 2-run bomb for some insurance and the Cardinals break their all-time winning streak record.

Yesterday to make it 16 in a row, it was the scorching hot Paul Goldschmidt who went deep to make it 1-0 in the first. The Cubs again came back to take a 2-1 lead just like they did Sunday, but once again – the Cardainals offense was just too much for the Cubbies and Harrison Bader hits another home run, tying the game at 2. The Cards rallied for 2 more in the top of the 9th to take this one 4-2. This team is definitely red hot right now and barring an epic collapse over the next 5-6 days, this team will be extremely confident going into to that one-game Wild Card, which brings up to an update for the National League West.

The Giants keep winning and now hold a 2-game lead in the West, which is not a very big lead in July but on September 27th, it’s a fairly strong lead. If the Giants just go .500 the rest of the way, the Dodgers will have to win every single game to win the division. So, as of now, the Giants are clear favorites to win the division and even Fangraphs finally agrees with at, although they somehow still have the Dodgers as favorites to win the World Series which makes no sense to me since they have to go through an extra game if they are the Wild Card, but that’s fine.

Right now, the Giants control their destiny and things are lining up as of now for the San Francisco Giants to win the west and go straight into the National League Division series, but that could change so don’t misquote me; I’m just saying that’s how it’s looking right now. Let me know Cardinals fans, who would you rather face in that Wild Card game – the Giants at Oracle Park with a young Logan Webb or perhaps Kevin Gausman or the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium with perhaps Max Scherzer taking the mound or if not him, well there’s Walker Buehler or Julio Urias, so that’s going to be tough regardless.

I would be terrified of that game and am terrified of that game as it’s not yet a guarantee the Giants won’t be in it. The hot hand wins in the playoffs and yes, I get it- the Giants could face the Cardinals anyway but I am so much more confident in a series. I still remember 2012 very well – the Giants were down 3-1 to the Cardinals in the NLCS and had lost Game 1 with the Cardinals – the only time I ever remember Madison Bumgarner sucking the playoffs. David Frese went deep, Carlos Beltran went deep and if that had been a one game or go home series, it would’ve been a wrap. But the Giants came back and won the series against a Cardinals team who was the Wild Card team that year but they didn’t have to play the Giants, because the Giants won their division that year with 94 wins – nowhere near as many as they’ll have this year. So, anything can happen in one game and the Cardinals have reason be extremely confident. And by the way, the Cardinals are 45-36 on the road this year including wins in Dodger Stadium and Oracle Park. Also, remember the 2014 American League Wild Card team, the Kansas Royals, who won 6 of their last 8 games and then went on the sweep the entire playoffs up until they met up with the Giants in the World Series. Momentum matters in baseball and the Cardinals got it right now, but the Giants have had it pretty much all year so what a matchup it would be if the Giants and Cardinals collide the playoffs; I’m just hoping it’s not in that one Game Wild Card.

The St. Louis Cardinals are on fire right now. They have won 14 games in a row and are now the new favorites to win the second Wild Card in the National League, which I predicted would happen a couple weeks ago when both the Padres and Reds were in front of them. I felt that the is team has underperformed for the majority of the season and that their talent would shine through in the last few weeks of the season and that’s exactly what’s been happening. Yesterday, they won their 14th consecutive game thanks in part to Jack Flaherty and Dakota Hudson, who are both returning from injury, making this club even better for the stretch run.

The Cardinals are now 5 games up on the second Wild Card and with a Magic Number of 7 are the heavy favorites to be in that game, which brings me to the elephant in the room – whoever does not win the National League West is going to have to play a one-game Wild Card against this team. This is something that both the Giants and Dodgers want desperately to avoid. Keep in mind, if you’re a Giants fan like I am, the G-Men lost both series this year to the Cardinals and have a season 2-4 record against them. And those games were played before they got red-hot. The Dodgers are 3-3 against them this year. In other words, literally any team can win in this Wild Card Game.

So I’m going to through a very quick recap of the last 14 games and to give an idea why this team is so dangerous. Starting with the obvious, they have Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado heating up at the same time. Yesterday, the Cards won 8-5 over the Cubs and they combined to go 3-8 with 3 RBI with Goldschmidt hitting his 30th bomb of the season in Game 1 of a double-header. In Game 2, they went 4-7 with 3 runs scored. The day before that in Milwaukee, Goldschmidt hit his 29th of the year and went 3-5 with 3 RBI and 2 runs scored. On the day before that, the Cardinals pounded the Brewers 10-2 with these studs combining to go 5-6 with 4 RBI, 4 Runs scored, 2 doubles and a bomb. This duo is one of the best is baseball and they’re not slowing down.

But this Cardinals offense has been more hot than just two guys. A rookie named Lars Nootbaar went deep twice yesterday and had 3 hits. Tyler O’Neil has 3 home runs in the last seven games. Paul DeJong, who has struggled with the bat for most of 2021 is heating up, going 4 for his last 14 with a couple bombs. Harrison Bader is absolutely on fire right now, going 20 for his last 55. Jose Rondon has been coming through with some big hits lately. Dylan Carlson has been hitting the ball well. Offensively, this team has been simply unstoppable, even against solid pitchers like Brett Anderson who they touched up for 6 runs in less than 2 innings.

When they do go up against a great pitcher like Yu Darvish or Brandon Woodruff, the Cardinals always seem to have an arm of their own that stands toe-to-toe such as the legend Adam Wainwright, who has been unbelievable this year. He is 16-7 with a 3.05 ERA and by doing more than just hanging on these last few years, he is starting earn some serious Hall of Fame talk. Right hander Jake Woodford has also been very solid and helped the Cardinals win recent games against Brandon Woodruff and Marcus Stroman. On Tuesday against Woodruff and the Brew Crew, he threw 5 scoreless innings giving up just 2 hits.

As for their bullpen, they’ve been a bit overworked this year but have done what’s necessary lately to get the W’s. There are a lot of solid names there like Andrew Miller, Alex Reyes, Luis Garcia, Genesis Cabrera and of course Giovanny Gallegos as their shutdown closer. And once again, with Flaherty and Hudson back off the injured list, this team is going to be very scary down the stretch and especially in that Wild Card. I’ve voiced my opinion on the one-game Wild Card. I hate it as playoff baseball should not be decided in one game. Furthermore, the risk of a 100+ win team losing to an 80 something win team is a risk that should not be taken. It could happen this year. Giants and Dodgers should avoid this game at all costs, but the unfortunate reality is one or the other will have to win one game just to get in the NLDS despite winning over 100 games in the regular season. Welcome to Manfred ball.

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