USA TODAY International Edition
Cardinals were ‘ waiting to bust out all year’
It was the final year of the “Oprah Winfrey Show.” The rise of Adele. The year of Kim Kardashian’s 72- day marriage to Kris Humphries.
And the year the Cardinals rose from the dead to win the World Series. The year was 2011.
Now, here we are 10 years later, and the Cardinals are working on a sequel.
This is a team that was 53- 55 on Aug. 5, eight games out of the secondwild card spot in the National League, with a fan base calling for team President John Mozeliak’s head after acquiring only aging veterans J. A. Happ and
Jon Lester at the trade deadline.
“I actually gave up Twitter last November,” Mozeliak told USA TODAY Sports. “I didn’t want to hear what people were saying. “I was getting killed last offseason, so I took it off my phone. It’s hard to make anyone happy.” Well, it may be safe to jump back on. Funny how a month of winning will change the outlook for your loyal followers.
The Cardinals have since gone 24- 14, the fourth- best winning percentage in the NL while other league contenders have come apart. The Cardinals entered Sunday having won seven in a row by a combined score of 44- 18 and nine of their last 10 games.
Can they keep it going into October? Well, all they had to do Saturday was look on the field and watch the 10- year celebration of that 2011 team for inspiration.
You remember the one.
The 2011 Cardinals trailed the Braves by 10 games in the NL wild- card race in late August. . The Cardinals went on to win 18 of their final 26 games while Atlanta went 9- 18 in September, clinching a playoff berth on the final day of the regular season. It was the largest comeback after 130 games in Major League Baseball history.
The Cardinals shocked the powerful Phillies by beating future Hall of Famer Roy Halladay in Game 5 of the best- offive division series.
They beat the Central champion Brewers and MVP Ryan Braun in the NL Championship Series.
Then they staged a miracle comeback in Game 6 of the World Series against the Rangers where David Freese became a legend, forcing Game 7.
And the Cardinals were reveling in a boisterous downtown parade a few days later with manager Tony La Russa announcing his retirement.
You still can’t walk around Busch Stadium without memories flooding back, and considering what the Cardinals are doing these days, well, they’ve got a whole lot of folks in red dreaming of something big.
“We’ve been waiting to bust out all year,” Cardinals outfielder Tyler O’Neill said. “This is crunchtime. September baseball. Here to win. That’s what we do. We’re the Cardinals.”
Yes, indeed.
After losing to the Dodgers on Sept. 7, the Cardinals’ odds of reaching the postseason was at 2.8%, according to FanGraphs.
“People had us dead a month ago,” Mozeliak said, “and now all of a sudden, we’re playing for something. Internally, we always felt like we were playing for something. We needed to have some good fortune, play better, and have some teams come back to the pack.”
You know the stars must be aligned when Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina, who were on that 2011 team, were making their 303rd start together on Saturday night in front of their old teammates.
Wainwright, 40, has a 2.89 ERA after giving up two earned runs in six innings against the Padres on Saturday, while Happ and Lester have each found success since joining St. Louis.
Happ was 5- 6 with a 6.77 ERA in 19 starts with the Twins and now is 4- 2 with a 4.08 ERA in six starts with the Cardinals.
Lester was 3- 5 with a 5.02 ERA with the Nationals and is 3- 1 with a 4.14 ERA, including a 1.90 ERA in his last four starts with Molina as his catcher.
Mozeliak will tell you that he acquired Lester and Happ primarily to eat innings and save his bullpen, knowing the moves would be as popular as warm beer.
“We wanted to bring veteran stability to our rotation,” Mozeliak said. “They were very under- the- radar type deals. Just ask Twitter.”
Really, at that juncture, Mozeliak was thrilled they even had a pulse. In a matter of four days from May 31 to June 2, they lost 9- 2 to the woeful Diamondbacks, ace Jack Flaherty strained his oblique muscle that would sideline him for 2 months, and lost 14- 3 to the Dodgers when starter Carlos Martinez gave up 10 earned runs in two- thirds of an inning.
“That’s when it definitely felt like we had a dark cloud over us,” Mozeliak said. “Losing Flaherty, having our starters not go deep, that really carried over into June.”
Yet even after going 10- 17 in June, it was Wainwright who prevented a total collapse. He went 3- 1 with a 2.45 ERA in June, and then got better. Much better. The man is 9- 2 with a 2.02 ERA since the All- Star break and 5- 0 with a 1.26 ERA in the last month, pitching his way into the NL Cy Young discussion.
“No, I didn’t see it coming,” Mozeliak says, “but I can’t say I’m surprised, either. You never bet against this guy. What he’s done is incredible. It’s refreshing to see someone go out and have success as a pitcher, and not just a thrower. Man, it’s impressive.”
It’s the Cardinals Way, a veteran team, with a wealth of postseason experience, and players with nine World Series championship rings in the clubhouse.
“This team understands what’s at stake, and the experience helps,” Mozeliak says. “No matter how long your odds are, no matter the obstacles, you can still achieve what you want.
“Perseverance is the theme of this group.”
So go ahead, bring on the powerful Dodgers or Giants in the sudden- death wild- card game. The Cardinals will gladly take their chances.
“That one game play- in is cool, it’s fun,” Mozeliak says. “If the haves can have, it’s sort of nice when they have not.”