LOS ANGELES – The Milwaukee Brewers knew what they were getting into by the time they got to downtown St. Louis late last week.
Since their previous series against the Cardinals back in late June, the Cardinals had re-engineered their leadership by firing manager Mike Matheny and both of his hitting coaches. They had overhauled their leaky bullpen by swapping struggling veterans with their most talented young pitchers from the minor leagues.
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The change in atmosphere and infusion of young talent was easy to see, even on TV.
“You can tell that they’re playing more free now,” Milwaukee pitcher Jhoulys Chacin said.
Chacin spoke those words a couple of days before pitching six scoreless innings Sunday to help the Brewers avoid a sweep at Busch Stadium and cling to their half-game lead for a wild-card berth. Entering yet another critical series, at Dodger Stadium, the Cardinals have won their past seven series under manager Mike Shildt after winning just one of Matheny’s last five.
Their move up the standings caught the attention of a division opponent even before the weekend began.
“I always thought that they were better than the way they were playing earlier this year,” Brewers infielder Travis Shaw said. “They have a good group over there. The pitching staff is very good. The starters are good. The bullpen is solid. I just thought it was a matter of time before they got on a bit of a roll. It may be a little bit of a coincidence the timing was when it was, but they’ve been this good of a team all year, I think.”
Simply swapping Matheny for Shildt has led to some challenges for the division’s other managers. While the Cardinals tended to be passive on the bases under Matheny, they have been appropriately bold in taking extra bases under Shildt. He also has tended to pull starting pitchers earlier in games.
Matching up with a new manager can be a challenge, particularly when the switch comes this deep into a season. Cubs manager Joe Maddon discussed that when the Cardinals were in Wrigley Field after the All-Star break.
“From my perspective, I’ve got to get used to a new guy,” Maddon told reporters.
Brewers manager Craig Counsell said he didn’t notice any glaring differences in style, largely because the core of the Cardinals’ position-player group remained the same.
“It’s tough to stylistically completely change with the same players, from my perspective,” Counsell said. “They’re playing good baseball, though. They’re a talented team that’s playing at a good level.”
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The Cardinals’ rise has further muddled the National League postseason picture, with five teams, including the Cardinals and Dodgers, within 1½ games of the two NL wild-card berths. The Cardinals and Colorado Rockies, who play next weekend at Coors Field, are the only two teams in that mix with an above-.500 record over their last 10 games.
Of the top five wild-card contenders, the Dodgers and Cardinals are the only teams with a run differential exceeding plus-50. The Rockies, oddly, have a minus-12 run differential, yet are 12 games over .500. The Cardinals don’t figure to sneak up on anybody since their history suggests they rarely stay irrelevant for long.
“They’re playing together,” Chacin said. “To beat a team like that, you have to do everything kind of perfect.”
It will be a good test of momentum vs. the schedule. The Arizona Diamondbacks are the only team in the National League with a tougher remaining schedule than the Cardinals. The Cardinals’ remaining opponents have a combined .520 winning percentage. Milwaukee and the Dodgers, meanwhile, have the two softest remaining schedules in the NL. The Chicago Cubs, who lead the NL Central by 3 1/2 games, have the third-easiest remaining schedule. Oddly, the Cardinals play the Dodgers and Rockies in 10 of their next 25 games. Per FanGraphs, the Cardinals have a 39.2-percent chance of making the playoffs.
The Milwaukee series was the first of a series of gauntlet games the Cardinals will have to navigate to reach the postseason for the first time since 2015. Shildt said he approached his most important series to date as he would any other series.
“There’s no different message,” he said. “We play our game. We’ll talk about what we need to do today, what we can expect to see out there and the opportunities that are presented that we need to be prepared for.”
This time of year, it’s difficult to distinguish an opportunity from a hazard, but maybe the point is not to bother.
(Top photo by Jeff Curry/Getty Images)