ST. LOUIS — It took a record winning streak longer and unlike any before in club history to get these Cardinals to the place where all Cardinals through history are ultimately measured.
Led as usual by starter Adam Wainwright, the hottest team in baseball coolly claimed their place in the postseason by rallying to defeat Milwaukee, 6-2, on Tuesday night at Busch Stadium. The win secured the National League’s second wild-card berth and extended the club record winning streak to 17 consecutive games.
In his 17th season, Wainwright got his 17th win on the night of the 17th consecutive victory because of course he did. It’s been that kind of September.
Bring on October.
"There's no reason to stop now," Wainwright said.
In the postseason for the third consecutive fall and the 11th time in Wainwright’s tenure with the club, the Cardinals will play either the Dodgers or Giants in a one-game playoff next week in California. The NL West rivals remain engaged in a duel for the division crown, and that peer pressure has pushed both teams beyond 100 wins. The Cardinals’ victory Tuesday eliminated the Cincinnati Reds from the race just six months after the Reds flexed their intent in a season-opening series and three months after the Reds swept the Cardinals at home to accelerate a June spiral. The color of the season changed faster than the leaves.
Their 17th consecutive victory had all the trappings of previous ones: a comeback, a few hits from Paul Goldschmidt, and the exclamation point – a homer from Nolan Arenado. Harrison Bader caught the final out in center field to set off a celebration at Busch.
The Cardinals snapped a 2-2 tie in the fifth inning when Milwaukee starter Brandon Woodruff yielded the mound to prepare for the playoffs and an error amplified reliever Jandel Gustave’s early troubles. Goldschmidt greeted Gustave with a double, and he promptly scored to break the tie when Tyler O’Neill’s single slipped under the glove of right fielder Avisail Garcia. O’Neill dashed for third.
Arenado brought him home with a sacrifice fly for a two-run lead and his 104th RBI of the season. Jose Rondon added a solo homer in the sixth to widen the lead when he pinch-hit for Wainwright, and Arenado punctuated the win with his 34th homer. His laser in the seventh tied the Cardinals’ single-season record for homers by a third baseman.
Add that to the list of records matched or surpassed in this September to remember.
The Cardinals’ winning streak is the longest in the National League in 70 years, and not since 1935 has a team had this long of a winning streak this late in a season.
In what’s likely his last regular-season start of the year at Busch, Wainwright warmed up and walked from the bullpen as game-by-game highlights from the winning streak played on the scoreboard behind him and welcomed fans to Busch.
On a porch out in left field, overlooking the field, Frenchy, visiting from New Orleans, had his canvas set up and swished his paintbrush through a palette that, according to his website, produces “vibrantly colored brushstrokes inspired by rhythms and melodies, giving emotions a shape in real time.”
He was working on a piece featuring Wainwright delivering a pitch.
The righthander had partnered with the Cardinals to offer reduced-priced tickets to the games that would also include a contribution to his charity, Big League Impact. The winning streak and chance to clinch a playoff berth had set the stage for a raucous evening at Busch Stadium, and Wainwright, always a draw, had done his part to assure there would be an audience. A ticket-sold crowd of 35,726 attended. Then he gave them the show.
Frenchy had put away his brushes when the Cardinals’ artist went to work.
Wainwright retired the first four batters he faced, sneaking a fastball past Garcia for the first out of the second inning. He pitched around two singles by getting a couple of grounders and carried a scoreless game into the top of the fourth. Wainwright’s six innings and two runs allowed gave him his 29th quality start since the beginning of the 2020 season. No pitcher in the majors has more, and he’s tied for the lead with Marlins’ righthander and former teammate Sandy Alcantara.
His win on the mound was made possible by his bat at the plate.
A Silver Slugger winner four years ago who spent most of his career annually advertising his hope to win one, Wainwright leveled the game when he dropped a bunt.
The Cardinals trailed by two runs going into the bottom of the fourth inning. The bullpen had started to stir in the top of the inning. Wainwright’s spot was due up fifth if the bottom of the inning got that far. Rookie Dylan Carlson propelled it in that direction when he cleaved the Brewers’ lead in half with a solo homer that momentarily paused the action in the Cardinals’ bullpen to watch it landed amidst the relievers.
Harrison Bader, the reigning NL player of the week, followed Carlson’s 16th homer of the season with a single. He took second on Paul DeJong’s single and raced for third on Andrew Knizner’s fly ball to center field.
In a one-run game with one out and runners at the corners, the Cardinals had a call.
Wainwright got the at-bat.
A bunt could tie the game.
On a 1-1 pitch, Milwaukee catcher Omar Narvaez set up with his glove outside the zone, right about the spot that the top of Wainwright’s bat could reach for a squeeze bunt. Woodruff’s pitch veered inside and over the plate. The fastball veered away from target of Narvaez’s mitt and toward the barrel of Wainwright’s bat. The Cardinals’ pitcher pushed a bunt up the first-base line as Bader broke from third and scored easily to level the game, 2-2.
The Brewers took a 2-0 lead in the top of the fourth inning in part because of a double play that got stuck briefly in Tommy Edman’s glove.
Garcia’s leadoff single against Wainwright – the Brewers’ third hit of the game – put the inning in motion. Daniel Vogelbach skipped a grounder to the left side that Edman gloved, but he double-clutched and that cost them the double play. That turned Luis Urias’ home run a few pitches later into a two-run shot instead of a solo mission. Urias was only in the Brewers’ lineup as a replacement for shortstop Willy Adames. A transformative force for the Brewers since his arrival via trade from Tampa Bay, Adames was a pregame scratch with ongoing quadriceps soreness.
The Cardinals started the day needing only a win to secure the second wild-card berth, though other routes to the postseason existed. A Philadelphia loss and a Cincinnati loss would have ushered the Cardinals into the playoffs and sent them onto the field for a celebration.
They didn’t need the help.
On the first day this year champagne had a spot reserved for it at Busch Stadium it was uncorked shortly after it arrived. After all, the ice would melt around this team.
