Hunt and Peck

The Cardinals probably won’t win their division, but... - A Hunt and Peck

we can sill dream.

By lil_scooter93 Sep 7, 2018, 1:00pm EDT

St Louis Cardinals v Washington Nationals

The title of this post is stupid. It is not even a complete thought - just a sentence fragment designed to grab the reader’s attention and allow the reader to fill it in with his or her own narrative. That does not make it less true, though. The Cardinals probably won’t win their division, but... they have made it interesting. The Cardinals probably won’t win their division, but the last month will be fun. A lot of things probably won’t happen in life, in baseball, but... they still do. And how boring of an article would this be if we just unpacked all the reasons why the Cardinals probably won’t win their division? That is no fun. Let’s do the other thing.

Near the end of July the Cardinals were as much as 8.5 games back of the division leader. The team then went on to go 22-6 in the month of August. That is nearly an .800 winning percentage. They are still 5 games back of the division-leading Cubs, but there is still a small chance. Here is how the Cardinals can catch the Cubs.

The Cardinals need to keep playing their socks off.

Duh, right? But there is a point. Let’s not forget that the Cubs got hot in August as well, perhaps coincidentally or perhaps in response to the Cardinals coming out swinging. The Cubbies went 18-10 in August. The Cardinals went an even better 22-6. The Cubs are going to continue playing well, the Cardinals need to keep playing better.

The Cardinals need the reinforcements to reinforce.

The team has a few key players on the disabled list. Notably Michael Wacha, Kolten Wong, and Jedd Gyorko. Adam Wainwright will soon return to the club. Hopefully the return of these players will breathe some more life into the club and allow the players that have taken over the brunt of the workload some much needed rest.

The Cubs competition needs to step it up, please.

In the month of August the Cubs played the:

Pittsburgh Pirates five times
San Diego Padres four times
Kansas City Royals three times
Washington Nationals three times
Milwaukee Brewers two times
Cincinnati Reds four times
New York Mets three times
Atlanta Braves one time
Philadelphia Phillies one time

Not a lot of playoff contenders in the bunch. In the month of September the Cubs play the:

Philadelphia Phillies two times
Milwaukee Brewers six times
Washington Nationals four times
Cincinnati Reds three times
Arizona Diamondbacks three times
Chicago White Sox three times
Pittsburgh Pirates four times
St. Louis Cardinals three times

There are few tough games there. The Cardinals need some of these teams to squeak out a few unlikely victories.

The Cardinals need to sweep the Cubs.

When the Cardinals play the Cubs a Cardinals win equals a Cubs loss. It is a lot easier to catch a team in the standings that way than relying on other teams to beat them. The two teams play three games at the conclusion of the season. The Cardinals need to be within three games at the time and need to sweep the Cubs.

It will be tough. Fangraphs has the Cardinals division odds at 2.6%. The Cardinals probably won’t win their division, but

what if they did?