On July 14, the Cardinals were 47-46, in third place in the National League Central. They sat 7.5 games behind the division leader, and were also four games behind for the second wild card. Their longtime manager, Mike Matheny, had just been fired, and it seemed as if 2018 might be yet another promising but lost season of Cardinals baseball.
The Cardinals are back in the playoff race after firing Mike Matheny
The Cardinals looked like they were headed for another lost season, but now they’ve got that post-Matheny bump.
Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images
Instead, it seems as if the firing of Matheny — who seemingly had problems from the day he became manager back in 2012, and was in the news for his role in allowing Bud Norris, Clubhouse Cop to exist — has rejuvenated St. Louis.
The Cardinals have gone 19-9 since dismissing Matheny, and while they’re still in third place in the Central behind the Cubs and Brewers, they’ve significantly narrowed the gap between them. St. Louis now sits just four games behind the first-place Cubs, and are one game behind the Phillies and Brewers for one of the two NL wild card spots. Winning eight games in a row, including three against the Nationals, whose own postseason dreams are dwindling, has helped.
It wasn’t a lucky 19-9 stretch, either. The Cardinals had outscored opponents by just nine runs on the season when they canned Matheny, but they’ve jumped that to +50 on the season over their last 28 games. The Cardinals have 41 games left to make up four games or one game in the standings, and right when they’re playing their best ball of the season.
St. Louis has three games against the Brewers this weekend, which could further shift the power within the NL Central. They won’t play Milwaukee again until the end of the season is nigh, and they’ve got just one three-game set left against the Cubs, in the 2018’s final regular-season weekend. There is a real chance that the Cards fired Matheny just in time to recover and make it to the postseason in 2018, and while they’ve still got some hills to climb to get there, the path is pretty clear ... and that’s more than you could say when they were still floundering under their former manager.
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