Pedro sees it.
The ferocious former starter the Cardinals’ young pitchers once idolized believes the local nine has captured something special.
Look at the Cardinals, the Hall of Famer advised via Twitter as Mike Shildt’s team claimed its first sweep of the Dodgers in Los Angeles since 2006, the same season Martinez was last named an All-Star.
“They have energy,†Martinez opined about the Cardinals. “They go out there and it seems like they are numb. They don’t feel like they have lost a game.â€
Martinez was mentioning the Cardinals as part of his bigger point about the energy that can be found in postseason-bound teams. He was comparing the surging Cardinals to a loaded Yankees club that has stalled a bit for the first time. Yes, Pedro Martinez was saying the Cardinals have what the Yankees do not. Imagine reading that sentence in June. (Imagine Giancarlo Stanton reading it in December!)
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From his desk inside the MLB Network studio, Martinez has pinpointed the Cardinals as a contender with the right kind of spirit. He doesn’t see that in the Yankees. Perhaps he is biased. His blood does pump Red Sox red. But I’m more interested in what he sees in the Redbirds. What has become obvious up close is now visible from afar.
It’s time to forget the first-half Cardinals. They are as gone as their manager. Their flaws should be wiped from our memories, deleted like the first-half notes at least one scout has admitted he should trash.
Why?
Because this is a different team.
This team loses its cleanup hitter to the disabled list, then goes out and completes a road sweep of the club that added Manny Machado. This team is pulsing with young talent that refuses to listen when told that a record-setting winning trajectory in Class AAA should not translate to this level. This team is loaded with veterans who have decided to ride the wave instead of resist it. Watch cornerstone catcher Yadier Molina. He’s in postseason, World Baseball Classic, man-on-fire mode. He senses what Pedro Martinez sees.
The Cardinals now have a catalyst for a manager. A once-underperforming offense is thriving after new hitting coaches pressed reset on the lineup’s identity. A reinforced bullpen has regained trust. Every pitcher takes the mound with confidence in a sharpened defense that is at its strongest up the middle, from Molina’s crouch to Harrison Bader’s prowl.
The second-half Cardinals entered Thursday’s off day with a 23-11 record. That gave them the National League’s best winning percentage (.676) since the break. Only two other teams, the Diamondbacks and the Rockies, had reached .600 during that span.
The Cardinals also topped the NL’s list in second-half ERA (3.18) and average runs allowed per game (3.44). Their average runs scored per game (4.97) ranked fourth. Their .784 OPS checked in at third.
The winners of eight consecutive series are 17-4 in August. Each of those losses was by one run. Including the defeats, the Cardinals have outscored August opponents 106-56.
We wanted to see the Cardinals take care of better teams after they thumped the Pirates, Marlins and Royals. The Nationals are falling apart, we said after that series win. Then they beat the Brewers. Then they swept the Dodgers. Now they head into Coors Field with a full head of steam.
It’s time to refresh the conversation. We have spent so much time debating what Shildt must do to ditch the interim tag — seems like when, not if at this point — and we have diligently charted the landscape of the chaotic scramble for wild cards. These Cards might not need one. And there is another sentence that seems crazy to type.
But look up, and you can see a familiar outline becoming clearer every time the Cardinals win again. A legitimate pennant race is percolating. The Cubs, back-to-back champions of the National League Central and on track to do it again since July 11, have left the door wide open.
Chicago started Thursday’s series against the Reds with a 17-15 mark since the All-Star break and a 2½-game lead over the Cardinals. Their second-half ERA of 4.25 ranked 11th in the NL. Their average runs allowed per game (4.41) checked in seventh, and their average runs scored per game (3.78) sat in 12th, making them one of just four NL teams — the others being the Reds, Marlins and Giants — to average fewer than four runs a game since play resumed. Yes, they were 11-8 this month. They had also been outscored 70-66. You can see why they risked recalibrating team chemistry and weakening their defense to add Daniel Murphy’s bat.
There has been much discussion about how hard the Cardinals’ schedule is to end the regular season. Consider this: The Cardinals and Cubs each play 16 more games against teams that woke up Thursday morning with a winning record.
The third-place Brewers have a much softer landing, yet appear to be losing ground. They are 16-15 since the break, and 8-11 this month. The good news for Milwaukee: Just nine games left against winning teams. The bad: Those nine games are against the Cubs and the Cardinals. The Brewers are 4-9 against the Cubs and even (8-8) against the Cardinals. More bad news: They can’t seem to beat the Pirates. They are 2-8 against them, with nine games left.
The Brewers are hoping to surge. The Cardinals continue to. In 34 games since the break, they have sliced five games from the Cubs’ lead. They have 34 more games to claim three. Fitting, then, that the Cardinals and Cubs meet just once more, in the final series of the regular season.
It’s no longer hard to imagine what might be on the line at Wrigley Field.