Top 5 moments of Paul Goldschmidt's career with the St. Louis Cardinals'

#2 - Game 4 of the 2019 NLDS vs. the Atlanta Braves

One of the biggest critiques of Goldschmidt's tenure with the Cardinals was the lack of postseason success both individually and collectively. In 15 games (66 plate appearances) with the Cardinals in the postseason, Goldschmidt slashed .233/.303/.517 with four home runs and five runs batted in.

Still, Goldschmidt did have some bright spots with the Cardinals in October, with the best series of his tenure being the first series he played in with the club, the 2019 National League Division Series against the Atlanta Braves.

Goldschmidt was red hot during that five-game series, slashing .429/.478/.905 with two home runs, but oddly enough, both of which were the only runs batted in he had in that series. He did come around to score five times though, and his bat was a huge reason why they were able to steal that series away from the Braves.

We all remember the 13-1 blowout the Cardinals had over the Braves in Game 5 of the NLDS, but it's important to remember that the Braves had them on the ropes in Game 4 with St. Louis being down 3-2 in the series, and Goldschmidt provided a huge performance to win them that game.

Goldschmidt reached base in five of his six plate appearances in Game 4, going 3-4 with a home run, an RBI, and two runs scored in the contest. Goldschmidt got the scoring started in Game 4 by slugging a solo home run in the bottom of the first inning off of Dallas Keuchel, and Marcell Ozuna followed Goldschmidt by going back to back and making it a 2-0 game early on. Ozuna would slug another home run in the fourth inning of that game, but the Cardinals eventually lost the lead and were down 4-3 in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Goldschmidt's solo home run was the second most impactful at-bat of his postseason career with the St. Louis Cardinals according to Championship Win Probability Added, but his at-bat in the eighth inning will go down at the most valuable at-bat of his Cardinals' tenure according to that same measurement.

Leading things off in the bottom of the eighth inning down by one run, Goldschmidt worked a 2-2 count off of Braves' reliever Shane Greene before dropping a 69.6 MPH broken-bat line drive down the left field line to claim a lead-off double and give the Cardinals a chance to punch back with their backs against the ropes.

That set up one of the more iconic moments in Yadier Molina's career, as he smacked a single just off the top of Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman's glove, and as the ball dribbled into right field, Goldschmidt came around to score, tying the game at 4-4.

In the bottom of the tenth, Kolten Wong ripped a ground-rule double down the left field line, and afraid of Goldschmidt ending the game, they intentionally walked him to avoid him doing damage. That once again set up another iconic moment in the career of Molina, as the future Hall of Famer smacked a deep fly ball to left field, resulting in a walk-off sacrifice fly, scoring Wong and sending the Cardinals to Game 5, where they'd win big and go on to the National League Championship Series for the first time since 2014.

Goldschmidt may not have reached the heights fans expected him to in the postseason with St. Louis, but in his first crack at it with the club in 2019, he was one of the biggest reasons they were even able to make it to the NLCS in the first place.