St. Louis Cardinals: Game 5 is the best you can ask for

The St. Louis Cardinals gutted out a win to force a Game 5 in the NLDS. Coming down to the wire, why should this final game make fans happy?

Not many people thought the St. Louis Cardinals would be in this spot after having a .500 record going into the All-Star Break. People might’ve believed you if you said the team would make the playoffs. Then you’d lose some people if you said they’d win the division, then you’d lose even more if you said they would push the Atlanta Braves to a Game 5 winner-take-all climax.

The path the Cardinals have taken to get to this point is long and windy but after Yadier Molina‘s late-game heroics on Monday, they are dead even in the series.

Why should fans be happy regardless of how things end?

All of this is borrowed time. The Cardinals didn’t play well for a lot of the season but got hot at the right times and found their way here. They backed into the postseason due to the Brewers losing concurrently with them. More than half of their roster had down years offensively.

The Cardinals are lucky to be in this spot and after pushing the series to a final game, that is a win.

Most fans agree so far that this season was still successful even if the Cardinals end up losing Game 5.

Had the Cardinals come in and gotten swept, I would’ve likely still called it a successful year because the team still played three games in a Division Series rather than a one-game shootout in the Wild Card.

The team might not be doing the best if you look at the expectations they set for themselves, but in general, with how the team looked at the All-Star Break, making it to a Game 5 in the NLDS is a hell of a turnaround.

Regardless of what happens on Wednesday, this team has given fans some amazing moments from 2019. There might be a couple more moments left to come.