Editorial: An improbable and memorable season for the St. Louis Cardinals

Members of the St. Louis Cardinals celebrate after defeating the Milwaukee Brewers in a baseball game to clinch a playoff spot Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

On Sept. 7, the St. Louis Cardinals had a 2.8% chance of making the playoffs, according to the website www.FanGraphs.com.

The season was dominated by injuries and prolonged, mediocrity on the field. But as Yogi Berra is quoted as saying, "It ain't over till it's over."

The team many expected to make the playoffs at the beginning of the season finally started clicking on all fronts to put together a franchise record 17 consecutive wins. This streak ultimately culminated with the clinching of a wild-card slot in the postseason.

St. Louis' otherwise inconsistent offense came together with the big three — Nolan Arenado, Paul Goldschmidt and Tyler O'Neill — all surging late to each reach 30 home runs for the season.

During the streak, defensively dominant centerfielder Harrison Bader started hitting at an elite level and earned National League Player of the Week.

The once beleaguered starting pitching, aided by mid-season additions of J.A. Happ, Jon Lester and Wade LeBlanc and the return of several injured players, kept opponents quiet down the late season stretch.

And the bullpen, so heavily relied on over the course of the year and battered at times, shut things down in the late innings.

Of course, there were players who performed well all season long. And at the top of the list are Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina. In his age 40 season, Wainwright led the Cardinals on the mound in 2021. Whenever the team was on a tough losing streak, Wainwright was usually the pitcher to help end the slide. His finesse and savvy approach to getting hitters out was simply masterful — a delight to watch every fifth day. And battery mate Molina, 39, continued to catch at an elite level and reach career milestones at the plate. Both have announced their plans to come back to the Cardinals in 2022 for one more season.

Young players such as Tommy Edman and Dylan Carlson provided excitement. And bench players and young bullpen heroes made their own contributions.

It's been a team effort.

Ten years ago, the Cardinals entered the final month of the season with slim odds of making the playoffs, not to mention winning the World Series. The 2011 Cardinals were 10.5 games behind Atlanta on Aug. 25, 2011, for a chance to make the playoffs. But the team put together an impressive run to make the postseason and ultimately claim the team's 11th World Series championship.

There are plenty of similarities with this year's ballclub. Though they didn't have as much ground to make up as the 2011 team, the 17-game winning streak will be remembered for years along with the team's never-give-up mentality.

St. Louis will head west Wednesday to play in the wild-card game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. It will be a tough, one-game playoff. But don't bet against this Cardinals club.

It doesn't matter how you get in the playoffs, you just have to get in. Any team can win on any given day.

We're hoping the Redbirds have 12 more wins left in them. World Series No. 12 for St. Louis sounds pretty good.