The Cardinals have looked pretty dominant in the second half of the season after a mediocre season. They have hit a bit of a rough patch the past two games, with losses to the Reds and Padres.
Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado continue to impress each and every night with their dominant plays on the field and at the plate. As of now, they are the top two candidates for MVP.
Goldy is batting .322 and has smacked a whopping 35 homers with 112 RBIs. Nolan has also had a terrific season with 29 bombs plus 98 runs batted in.
These two guys have carried St. Louis Cardinals all season to give them such an outstanding record. Expect them to be dominant in the playoffs.
How The Pitchers Have Been and Their Playoff Expectations
The pitching has been very solid this year, and they’ve had a great rotation between Adam Wainwright, Miles Mikolas, and Jordan Montgomery. They’ve filled in the final two spots with Jose Quintana and Steven Matz in time for the playoffs.
Waino and Mikolas will have to continue to be the aces and pitch against teams like the Dodgers and Mets in the postseason. Jordan Montgomery has played really well since coming to St. Louis and owns an 8-5 record.
Jose Quintana has had a ton of playoff experiences and should be a solid guy in the rotation. Steven Matz will have to get in the swing of things and get back to his former self in these last few starts of the regular season.
The bullpen has been sensational, with Ryan Helsley, Jordan Hicks, and Giovanny Gallegos as the backbones. All of these pitchers have the talent but will have to continue to work on their control for playoff baseball.
The Cardinals Offense and Who Needs To Break Out in the Playoffs
The Cardinal’s offense hasn’t generated runs in two games but will surely bounce back with the amount of talent. Of course, Albert Pujols has generated so much hype over the past month and is now 2 homers away from 700.
Tommy Edman has been a great leadoff man and scored a whopping 90 runs. Dylan Carlson and Tyler O’Neill have had decent seasons, and the Cardinals will need their power come playoff time.
Overall, St. Louis has scored plenty of runs this season, but the real test will be against guys like Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer in the postseason.
This is potentially Yadier Molina, Albert Pujols, and Waino’s final season in the MLB, so the Cardinals need their production for the last hurrah. This squad has been so exciting with all of the monumental achievements in the regular season; now, they need to end it off with a World Series win.
