CHICAGO -- The National League Central, long the playground of the St. Louis Cardinals, has been dominated by a usurper the past few years. The Chicago Cubs -- the franchise once known as the "lovable losers" -- have reigned supreme, with two division titles, two wild-card berths, a pennant and a World Series title. That spree is now on life support, and after three stunning St. Louis victories at Wrigley Field, the Cubs' woes have taken on a decidedly reddish hue.
The Cardinals have won all three games by a lone tally and each of the contests has been singular in style and rhythm. On Thursday, the Cubs rallied late after a dominant outing from Cardinals ace Jack Flaherty, but in extra innings, scuffling third baseman Matt Carpenter successfully hunted a Craig Kimbrel fastball and blasted it into the center-field seats. (Put a pin in that image.) On Friday, St. Louis eked out a 2-1 nail-biter thanks to a two-run single from Yadier Molina and a whole lot of situational pitching.
Finally, there came Saturday's classic, a 4-hour, 24-minute grinder that was the longest nine-inning game in the history of Wrigley Field. After the Cardinals grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first, the lead changed hands six times. The sixth, and final, flip-flop came in the form of twin lightning bolts. Again, Kimbrel was on the mound. Again the Cardinals were seeking early-count heaters to destroy. And again, the hunt was successful.
The maudlin tones of Kimbrel's walk-in music ("Sweet Child of Mine") as the closer came in to protect an 8-7 lead had barely died down when Molina got his first pitch up and into the wind tunnel roaring out to center field. Tie game. Molina was barely back to the dugout, exchanging high-fives and chest-bumps with his teammates, when Kimbrel's next pitch -- another fastball -- was rocketed into the left-center-field bleachers off the bat of Paul DeJong. Two pitches. Two homers. Catharsis three years in the making.
"Fastball down the middle against a nasty closer," DeJong said. "Yeah, I'm going to take that one."
With the 9-8 thriller, the Cardinals are on the cusp of their first postseason appearance since 2015, the beginning of the Cubs' rise. Over in Cincinnati, the Reds knocked off the Mets. That means if the Cardinals finish off the four-game sweep on Sunday, in a ballpark at which they lost their first six games this season, St. Louis will clinch a playoff spot. There's still work to do to clinch the Central title, because the Milwaukee Brewers seem to be finished with losing games, but October baseball will make its return to the Gateway City.
"We knew what we were getting ourselves into coming here to Chicago for this series," DeJong said. "For us to win these three games, all by one run, it's pretty incredible how we fight back and pick each other up."
Let's do a quick recap: The Cardinals exited the All-Star break with a 44-44 record and a run differential of plus-2. They were as average as average could get. A couple of weeks later, the trade deadline came and went without a notable St. Louis transaction, and the uproar along the Mississippi was notable. But after losing its first game after the break, St. Louis has gone 22 games over .500 and plus-101 in run differential. Its post-break record (44-22) is the best in the NL.
How did this happen?
With the Cardinals, you know there just isn't going to be a sexy explanation, but Saturday's game gave us a glimpse of the dynamic that has fueled their amazing run the past two-plus months. And they are expressed in the most banal of sports clichés: They all do their part, and they never quit. The Cardinals have now won 40 times in games in which they once trailed, tied for sixth in the majors in come-from-behind wins.
"We've seen resilience all year," Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said. "You can't be surprised by it. We proved it yet again. That's how we play the game, the whole way. We just kept fighting back."
Shildt deployed three pinch hitters, a pinch runner and a fielding replacement (via a double switch) on Saturday. He used nine pitchers, a necessity after he pinch hit for starter Dakota Hudson after just three innings. There was a good reason: St. Louis trailed 3-2 and had the bases loaded with one out in the fourth, with Hudson's spot due in the batting order.
Hudson (16-7, 3.45 ERA) had a rocky first inning, walking four batters in one frame for the first time in his career, but he had smoothed things out, and given the run he's been on in recent weeks, it looked like he was doing what good pitchers do -- adjusting.
But the leverage for that plate appearance was too high for Shildt to ignore, so he sent Rangel Ravelo to pinch hit, and the powerful righty singled to tie the game and set up a three-run rally. The downside was that the Cardinals had at least six more innings of run prevention to cover and they'd used their two chief bullpenners -- Andrew Miller and Carlos Martinez -- in each of the previous three games. That meant Shildt had to turn to Dominic Leone and Junior Fernandez, pitchers he hadn't used all week, to navigate the middle innings.
"These guys came to play," Hudson said. "I think just about everybody got in the game today and did something. It's exciting. It's great baseball to watch."
Just as the St. Louis pitching staff has picked up an inconsistent offense time and again during the second half, on Saturday the batsmen picked up the hurlers. After the Cubs regained a 6-5 lead, Marcell Ozuna cranked a two-run homer in the seventh off reliever Kyle Ryan. Ozuna entered the game with a .110 average over his previous 28 games.
"Marcell is an easy guy to stick with," Shildt said. "Similar to everybody else, he's got that competition that he loves. He's felt for it a little bit, but he's worked hard to get where he is. He's optimistic, and that's the thing you appreciate about it."
The Cubs came right back. After it appeared that Giovanny Gallegos had pinch hitter Tony Kemp struck out in the bottom of the seventh, Gallegos was tagged with a balk to keep the at-bat alive. Kemp promptly stroked a two-run homer to give Chicago an 8-7 lead. But that only set the stage for the Cardinals' rally in the ninth.
"We don't give up," Molina said with a shrug. "We battle back. We believe in ourselves."
Even after St. Louis went back ahead, there was the little problem of getting through the bottom of the ninth on a warm day at Wrigley Field with a stiff wind blowing out toward Murphy's Bleachers. Where would Shildt turn? Miller and Martinez had both taken the ball in three consecutive games and four days out of five.
But on his 28th birthday, there was no way Martinez wasn't getting the ball.
"What do you say about Carlos?" Shildt said. "Four days in a row. That's just straight heart and a desire to compete for your team."
Martinez walked Kris Bryant, perhaps just to heighten the drama, but set down the next three Cubs, including pinch hitter Javier Baez. Baez, who might just be the current mayor of Wrigleyville, has been out with a thumb injury and his insertion was a bit of a surprise -- and just the sort of thing you expect from Cubs manager Joe Maddon. The fans at the Friendly Confines exploded over the storybook possibilities. You knew Baez wouldn't get cheated and he wasn't -- three mighty swings, three strikes, three outs, three Cardinals wins and the near extinguishing of three years of St. Louis frustration.
All in all, 22 Cardinals got into Saturday's game. Eight of them had hits. Eight of them scored runs. Six of them collected RBIs. And nine of them faced at least one Cubs batter from the mound. It's just the way Shildt, and his players, would have drawn it up.
"Everybody is happy for everybody here," Molina said. "We battle. It was a team win."
Next, on Sunday, could be the payoff for these kinds of everyman platitudes. The Cardinals have a chance to fly out of Wrigley Field and into October, leaving their rivals behind, wondering what became of the Era of the Cubs.