St. Louis Cardinals: For the division, the team needs to stay hot

The St. Louis Cardinals got hot and took a lead in the division. After a rough weekend out West, the team has no time to keep sputtering.

While the St. Louis Cardinals had a hot month of July, now is no time to let up. Even with the series win over the rival Cubs that straddled the Trade Deadline, it seems like the energy has been drained out of this team on the whole.

In the last eight games, the team has scored just 2,2,2,0,8,3,2, and now 0 runs. The offense has begun to sputter again and minus the third game against the Cubs, the team is just averaging about a run and a half per game.

This is not the time to sputter…

If the Cardinals want to make the playoffs, they need to get back up on their horse against the Dodgers, a team that will undoubtedly be there in the playoffs. Honestly, the vibe around this team is very poor. As a fan, the fanbase seems drained still from the letdown of the Deadline and as I said at the time, I think the wind will be out of the sails for fans the rest of the regular season.

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If the team is to make the playoffs, I’m sure there will be all the buzz as usual, but right now, there’s not much hope on my end. It’s hard for fans to get behind the team when they a) refuse to make even a minor move at the Deadline, and b) refuse to play the best 25-man roster (CALL UP RANDY AROZARENA).

But nevertheless, I can’t say I won’t still be watching and I really try to stay optimistic about this team. Cardinals baseball is too far rooted into my blood to not get excited when I get the ESPN notification that the game has started, or to think of the possibility of a good game when the lineups are released. It’s just something that I can’t currently turn off.

After another extremely disappointing game last night, an 8-0 blowout by the superstar Dodgers, the team is back to playing without passion and drive. Now 1-4 since the Deadline, with no wind in the sails, the team looks lost again. Can they find their mojo again? Of course, but can you blame the team for being dejected or underperforming when the people in charge of making sure that doesn’t happen are sitting idly?

The team can still make the playoffs, but I wouldn’t bet any money on it right now. The front office has failed the team and the team is unsurprisingly responding without life and passion. If they want to stand a chance to avoid falling back into the abyss of the NL Central standings, they need to get motivated fast. How to do that I haven’t the slightest idea, but all I will say is it’s getting harder and harder to motivate myself to write, to watch, to believe in this team…