St. Louis Cardinals playoff odds increase after recent surge

The St. Louis Cardinals’ playoff odds have increased after a recent surge.

The St. Louis Cardinals promised a run at some point this season. For the first 130 games, they remained stuck in mediocrity and doubts crept whether that run would ever come.

At long last, it appears that the run has finally begun. Kind of. The Cardinals have won their last two games, defeating the Cincinnati Reds while Nolan Arenado has shown signs of breaking out, while the Reds, San Diego Padres, New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies have all shown signs of crumbling in recent days/weeks.

Now, the Cardinals are one game back of the second spot in the National League wild card race. And their playoff odds, per FanGraphs, have increased to 12.5 percent, the highest that number has been in months. WynnBET, meanwhile, gives them a 50/1 chance at winning the pennant while their odds of winning the World Series are, uh, 75/1.

Let’s just focus on getting to the playoffs first. The Cardinals have the schedule to 1) get to the playoffs and 2) pull away from the competition, considering they have a three-game series against the Mets upcoming and play the Chicago Cubs in two separate series. On the flip side, the Cardinals play the Brewers in seven more games, with four of them coming in Milwaukee, and having to face a rotation featuring Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff and Freddy Peralta is never an easy task.

But if Arenado is getting hot, and there are signs that he is after a 3 for 7 with two home runs and five RBI, then the Cardinals are capable of beating anyone. That point was underscored in the final two games of the Red series, where Arenado’s homers were the difference in each game. The team is hopeful that those two games were a sign of things to come and what could vault them into the postseason.

There are 20 games left for the Cardinals to get into that second wild card spot. But there is more optimism among observers than there has been in months. The last two games, and Arenado getting hot, has warranted that.