Cardinals sweep their way back into the NL Wildcard race

Molina (R) settles pitcher Martinez (L) in Cards key win

What a difference four days have made for the Saint Louis Cardinals. After being swept this past weekend by the arch-rival and NL Central-leading Chicago Cubs, it seemed their season was over.

National League standings following games of Sunday, September 17, showed the Cardinals with a 77-72 record. That left the team 4.5 games behind the Colorado Rockies for the final NL Wildcard berth with just 13 left to play.

Flash-forward five days. Following an off-day on Monday, the Cards proceeded to sweep the host Cincinnati Reds in a three-game series.

Meanwhile, the Rockies were collapsing on a four-game losing streak. The Milwaukee Brewers, also residing in the NL Central and also chasing Colorado, have dropped their last two games.

Suddenly, the Cardinals are right back in that NL Wildcard race. Thursday night's 8-5 win at Great American Ball Park raised their record to 80-72. That leaves Saint Louis tied in the loss column with Milwaukee, just a game behind Colorado.

"These guys were coming off a tough weekend, and they did a nice job of clearing their minds of that," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said per MLB.com's Mark Sheldon.

Starting Pitching Has Cardinals Flying High Again

Lance Lynn and his rotation mates leading Cardinals comeback

The Saint Louis Cardinals are the most historically successful franchise in the history of the National League. 

That success is not just ancient history. The Cards have dominated the NL Central Division for more than a decade.

The Cardinals have won more World Series titles (11), and more National League pennants (19) than any other NL team.

In this century alone, the Cards have tacked on nine division crowns, four pennants, and a pair of World Series titles to those totals.

But the 2017 season did not begin in typical fashion for Saint Louis. The team struggled out to a 3-9 start over the season’s first two weeks.

However, if opponents were hoping to take advantage of some down period for the Cardinals, that was the time to catch them. It has all turned around, and the Cardinals are now winning with consistency once again.

Saint Louis has now won 10 of their last 14 games. Following their most recent win on Tuesday night at Busch Stadium, a 2-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers, the Cards are back to the .500 mark at 13-13. They sit just 1.5 games behind the division-leading and arch-rival Chicago Cubs.

Too Soon to Count Out Slow-Starting Cardinals

The Saint Louis Cardinals, perennial National League contenders, are off to an uncharacteristically slow start this season. 

The team is currently sitting at the bottom of the overall National League standings with a 4-9 record.

Saint Louis has won an NL-record 11 World Series championships. In addition, the franchise has won 19 National League pennants. 

The club has captured 13 division crowns, including 10 in the NL Central, and has been an NL Wildcard playoff team on three occasions.

In recent years, Saint Louis has finished in either first or second place in the NL Central for eight straight seasons. They won the division four times in that span, reached the Fall Classic twice, and won the 2011 World Series.

While the longtime arch-rival Chicago Cubs ran away with the division a year ago, finishing 17.5 games in front of the Cards, that was more a reflection on the Cubbies dominant year.

The Cardinals went a solid 86-76 in the 2016 season, and fell just one game shy of both the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants in the race for another postseason berth.

Cardinals 2016 POY: Carlos Martinez

The St. Louis Cardinals are historically the most successful team in the National League. Unfortunately the 2016 season was not a great one for the history books for the team and their fans.

The Cards finished in second place in the NL Central Division. But they were a distant 17.5 games behind the arch-rival and eventual World Series champion Chicago Cubs.

Though they were never in the division race, the Cardinals were in the NL Wildcard conversation right down to the final day of the season.

Saint Louis ultimately finished 86-76, just one game behind the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants in that playoff race. It was the lowest wins total for the club since the 2010 campaign.

Mike Matheny did a good job keeping his injury-riddled club in contention. The Cardinals could, with just a couple of tweaks and some breaks with health, be right back in contention in 2017.

Cardinals Pitching Pipeline Set to Deliver Again

The St. Louis Cardinals have always produced strong homegrown talent, and a trio of pitchers are coming to continue that tradition.

The St. Louis Cardinals are one of the most successful teams in Major League Baseball history, arguably the National League's most consistently successful. The Cards have reached the MLB postseason a dozen times already in this new century. They have been World Series champions 11 times in the modern era, including in both 2006 and 2011.

One of the hallmarks of the organization has been the ability to develop and bring to the big leagues some great starting pitchers. From Dizzy Dean in the 1930s to Bob Gibson in the 1960s to Adam Wainwright in recent years, outstanding homegrown starting pitching has helped lead the way to World Series glory.

The Cardinals missed out on the postseason in a 2016 season that saw the club finish 86-76. After winning the NL Central Division crown in three straight seasons, the Cards finished in second place this year, a distant 17.5 games behind the eventual World Series champion Chicago Cubs.

The team wasn't far off from a return to the MLB playoffs, however. They finished just one game behind both the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants for an NL Wild Card berth.

One of the problems keeping the Cardinals from regular season success this year was the pitching.