“What a team, What a ride” Revisiting the 2011 St.Louis Cardinals Part 1
It was August 23rd 2011. I was at Busch Stadium with my entire family and I was stoked. You see the downside of being a Cardinals fan who lives on the East Coast is most of the Cardinal games I go to are on the road. Seeing the Cardinals at Busch like I was that night was a rare and cherished opportunity. Sadly the game turned out to be lopsided and not in the good way. I watched helplessly from the stands as Kyle Lohse gave up a 3 run homer in the first inning to Matt Kemp. The Dodgers offense continued to rip apart Cardinal pitching and with Clayton Kershaw on the mound that night, the writing was on the wall. 13-2 was the final score in a game that saw the Cardinals fall to 67-62. They were now 10 games out of the division lead and 10.5 games out of the Wild Card. The situation looked bleak and hopeless.
Fast forward a little over two months later. October 28th 2011, Game 7 of the World Series…at Busch Stadium. After one of the most amazing runs in the history of baseball, the Cardinals went from 10 out to the Wild Card, to the Pennant, to World Champions. A wild ride unlike anything baseball had seen before. So how did this happen? How did the Cardinals go from 10 out to World Champs?
It started in the spring. The Cardinals entered 2011 coming off what had been a disappointing 2010. The Cards had been fighting with the Reds for the division lead up through the middle of August. Then they fell apart down the stretch and ended up missing out on the division title, and the postseason all together. Despite the late season collapse, the Cards entered Spring Training the following year confident that they could compete for the division again. Most of the 2010 team was back for another go around, and they added veteran leader Lance Berkman in the offseason to add to the offensive power of the club.
But right out of the gate, this would be a Cardinals team that would have to face severe adversity. Before the team could even make it to Opening Day, key started Adam Wainwright was out for the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Once the season did start, the Cardinals were slow out of the gate. Albert was off to his worst start to a season, and the bullpen was unreliable late in games.
Slowly but surely the team found their way. Lance Berkman was having a career resurgence, the pitching staff started to solidify, and the offense got going. By the All-Star break, the team was right back in the thick of it. But they needed a big move at the deadline to jolt the team. GM John Mozeliak made his move late in July, trading away promising youngster Colby Rasmus and adding to the pitching by acquiring started Edwin Jackson, and relievers Octavio Dotel, and Marc Rzepczynski.
Despite the moves, the Cardinals endured a rough August. One that saw them seemingly fall out of contention for the division and the wild card. After that late season drubbing (and eventually sweep) by the Dodgers at home. The Cardinals held a players only meeting. They knew they were too good of a team to go down like this. They knew they had to better.
Starting with the following series against the Pirates, the Cardinals finally found their groove. The team started winning game after game. At the same time, the Wild Card leading Braves began to slide. When the two sides met in St.Louis in early September, the Cards swept the Braves. Quickly the Cardinals got closer and closer to the Braves.
Heading into the last night of the regular season, the two teams were tied. The Cards were in Houston, the Braves at home against the Phillies. Chris Carpenter went out and gave the Cardinals a complete game shutout, one of his best performances of the regular season. The Braves took the Phillies to extra innings, but came up short.
A month after they were left for dead, the Cardinals were in the postseason. It was already a run for the ages. But no one in Cardinal Nation, or in the rest of the league, could have imagined that the run, was only just beginning….
To be continued…