The St. Louis Cardinals are one victory away from making it back to the World Series for the second time in three seasons and after blowing a chance to the San Francisco Giants last season, the team will pitch Joe Kelly against Zack Greinke as the Dodgers try to stay alive in the National League Championship Series.
The team has been playing some fantastic ball and that is no surprise for many around the sport, as the Cardinals have been one of the most successful franchises in history when it comes to postseason play. The team last made it back in 2011 when they won the title and that came just a few years after winning in 2006 against the Detroit Tigers and that came just a couple years after another appearance in 2004 against the Boston Red Sox when they were swept out.
The last time this team was in the World Series it won and it has been there more than any other franchise in baseball apart from the New York Yankees, who obviously are far and away over everyone else with nearly 30 championships to their name. The Cardinals have done their fair share in the National League and now they are just one win from getting back to the big show yet again.
The franchise has been the most successful apart from the Yankees in Major League Baseball, as they have won 11 titles over their history, the most recent coming in 2011 and they also have won 18 National League pennants over that time. The franchise has also won three wold card titles and nine central division titles and they rank second to only the Yankees in World Series titles and World Series appearances.
The Cardinals aren't always the best team in the National League when they make the playoffs, much like what happened a couple years ago when they were the wild card, but they simply know how to play postseason baseball. This is one reason why the Cardinals have continued to be successful and one example is with their manager Mike Matheny, as he has been making some fantastic decisions this postseason. Sure, some have not worked out at times, but it's hard to argue
Another example is from the Dodgers and shows why the Cards are a step above. Now just to state it, this is not a total rip on Don Mattingly as a manager or even completely ripping the move he made, but more of how decisions play into how a game plays out and another way the Cardinals seemingly continue to win.
Mattingly made a huge mistake in Game 1 and in hindsight sure, he may have made another choice, but taking out Adrian Gonzalez in the eighth inning ended up being a disaster. The team was down before the game eventually went into extra innings, so Mattingly, with his best batter on first base, replaced him with Dee Gordon, who preceded to get tagged out on a double play the following play and that led to a number of decisions that could have been made. The team then had to keep Gonzalez's bat out the lineup the rest of the game and on top of that, when Mark Ellis tagged from third and was out at home, he was running because Gordon was not available as a pinch runner...because he was already used.
Basically all I'm saying is that even when they aren't making the decisions, the Cardinals find a way to win and they did just that against the Dodgers and the possibly will do it again this season.
