Mariners sweep stings, but Cardinals show they can hang with elite competition

Getting swept at home is always going to sting, but the St. Louis Cardinals should hold their heads high after the fight they showed against a World Series-contending Seattle Mariners team.

Walking away from this weekend's series, it's hard not to have the bullpen's frequent implosions, Matthew Liberatore's poor start, the offense failing to come through with runners in scoring position, and other fair critiques of the club front and center. We spent plenty of time unpacking the concerns this series raised for the Cardinals over on Dealin' the Cards, but I did want to take some time to look at some positive notes from a series against a really tough opponent.

3 encouraging things the Cardinals showed us against the Mariners

They could have won each game of the series

While it's frustrating that they managed to drop each game of the series, it is really refreshing to see the Cardinals fight in each game and have a chance to win each contest. On the season, there have really only been one or two games that they felt "out of it" early on. Otherwise, the club has been playing competitive baseball each and every game, and that is a great trait to have as a young club building for the future.

Nathan Church's monster weekend

The Cardinals' outfielder managed to go 5-12 at the plate in this series, smashing three home runs and robbing a home run as well in the series.

With Nathan Church raising his OPS on the year to .818 while playing great defense, he has laid claim to the left field job in Lars Nootbaar's absence, and once Nootbaar returns, the Cardinals will have to seriously consider allowing Church to bump Victor Scott II out of the starting center field role.

Two of the Cardinals starting pitchers turned in improved outings

With all of the chatter about the Cardinals' rotation being a mess, both Andre Pallante and Michael McGreevy turned in starts that were encouraging for where they have been as of late.

Starting with Pallante, while he allowed three runs in 5.1 innings of work, the right-hander actually struck out eight batters, just one strikeout shy of tying his personal record in a Major League game. If Pallante can have a bit more swing in his miss in his game as he did on Friday, that will go a long way for the Cardinals. He only allowed four hits in the outing, so it really was the lack of command at times (three walks) that ultimately hurt him against a good lineup.

McGreevy was even better, lowering his season ERA to 2.97 after allowing just one run in six innings of work on Sunday. The Cardinals really needed some length out of him, and he delivered.

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