It's Time To Stop Overlooking The St Louis Cardinals.

Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

Everybody In Major League Baseball Has Been Talking About The New York Yankees, Houston Astros And The Los Angeles Dodgers For Almost The Entire 2nd Half Of The Season.

However I Have News For All Of You, There's a New Team That Could Be In The Mix For The World Series Before It's All Said And Done. The St Louis Cardinals Are For Real In The 2nd Half Of The 2019 Major League Baseball Season, And How Have The Cardinals Done That, Well It's Very Simple.

The St Louis Cardinals Have Won 20-Of Their Last-25 Games And They Have a 34-16 Record Since The All-Star Break, And That's The Best In The National League. They Also Own a 3-Game Lead Over The Chicago Cubs In The National League Central Race, And Right Now There's No Let Up In The Cardinals At The Moment.

The Cardinals Pitching Is The Real Reason Why The Cardinals Are In The Spot They Are Now. On Monday Adam Wainwright Pitched a Gem In a 3-1 Win Over The San Francisco Giants, And On Tuesday Jack Flaherty Followed That With a Gem Of His Own.

Adam Wainwright: He Does Have a 10-9 Record With a 4.30 ERA And With 131 Strikeouts. In Wainwrights Last 13 Starts He Has Lowered His ERA To 2.43, And He Became The 4th Cardinals Pitcher In History To Have 10 Wins Or More In 10 Seasons. I So No Let Up In Wainwright Going Forward Because He's The Best Pitcher On The Cardinals Staff.

Jack Flaherty: He Has a 9-7 Record With a 3.14 ERA And He Leads The Team In Strikeouts With 186. On Tuesday Against The Giants, Flaherty Took a No-Hitter Into The 6th Inning. He Had a Career High 113 Pitches On Tuesday, 84 Of Those Were For Strikes, He Ended Up With 8 Strikeouts In The Game Against The Giants. Flaherty Has Lowered His ERA To 0.90 Over His Last 11 Starts Dating Back To July 7th.

The Hitting For The Cardinals Has Been, Well I'm Not So Sure, And Here's What I Mean.

Runs Scored: 635-Ranks 21st.

Batting Average: .246-Ranks 22nd.

OBP: .322-Ranks 19th.

Slugging: .410-Ranks 25th

However The Cardinals Do Have Some Fire Power On Their Rooster In Kolten Wong, Paul Goldschmidt And Marcell Ozuna. All Three Have Provided An Offensive Spark Or More When Needed, And Here's What I Mean.

Kolten Wong: He Leads The Team In Batting Average And On Base Percentage.

.285/.367/.430

Paul Goldschmidt: He Leads The Team In Home Runs And Hits With 29 And 131 Respectively. .255/.332/.458

Marcell Ozuna: He Leads The Team In RBI's With 79. .263/.339/.508

Here's My Take..

The Pitching Has Been The Reason For The Cardinals Success. The Cardinals Here Lately Have Played A lot Of 3-1 Or 4-3 Baseball Over The Last Few Games. They Have The Power Hitters And It Needs To Start Showing Down The Stretch Because They Have The Cubs Coming Up In The Next Couple Of Weeks. And Then The Playoffs Will Be Here Before You Know And Everybody's Been Talking The Yankees, Dodgers And Astros. Hey People Look At What The Cardinals Have Done In The 2nd Half Of The Season Since The All-Star Break. They Didn't Go 34-16 By Accident And 20-5 In Their Last 25 Games Just By Coincidence, All Of This Has Happen Because The Cardinals Have Proven That They Want To Be In The Discussion In October.

So The Bottom Line Is This, We Need To Think About The St Louis Cardinals, And A lot Of You Have Slept On Them All-Season. So It's Time To Start Talking About St Louis Contending In October Because They Have The Team That Can Get The Job Done And a Pitching Staff That Any Other Team Would Want. I Have Not Forgot About The Hitting Either, So Don't Tell Me The Cardinals Are Dead In The Water Because They're Not, They're Alive And Well.

Bottom Line..