One Small Step For St. Louis. One Giant Step Towards Success?

You have to prove it to yourself. Whether you are a nine-to-fiver or a professional athlete. Prove that you are good enough to do the job. That you can manage the retail establishment entrusted to you, sell your company’s product or win when playing against a team perceived as better than the one that is paying you.

If you prove it, that success can create a cascading effect that leads to more success.

This describes the situation the St. Louis Cardinals found themselves in when they entered Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on Monday, May 12. Needing to prove that their eight-game winning streak could launch them into a cascade of success against better competition.

See, the eight-game winning streak was built on six wins versus two of the worst teams in baseball, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Washington Nationals. Combined, those two teams have a .369 winning percentage. That amounts to 60 wins over the 162-game schedule.

That’s not good. But what is good is that the win column doesn’t take into account the team you are playing; it simply gives you the win.

However, the mind does take into account the team you are playing, and I’ll bet the Cardinals, to a man, knew the Pirates and Nationals are nasty while their opponent, Monday and for the next two games after Monday, the Phillies, are the real deal. Thus, beating Philadelphia means more from a confidence level, cascading them to more success, than beating the doormats of the league.

That makes this three-game series something of a mini-playoff feel for the Cardinals and a proving ground. They have to prove to themselves that they aren’t a middling team good enough to beat bad teams but not good enough to beat the better teams. Rather, they are good enough to beat and be among the best.

In game one, after leaving three on in the first three innings and letting two one-run leads slip away after six innings, St. Louis could have begun to sink. After all, they were facing Christopher Sanchez and his 2.89 ERA. How many runners left on base and leads can go by the boards against a guy like Mr. Sanchez?

There is no answer to that question other than to keep on trying and look to make a break that gives you an edge. The Cards did that with base-running by Nolan Arenado to set up a run, quality at-bats by Ivan Herrera, one that was nine pitches resulting in a walk and later, a home run that briefly put them ahead. The pitching continued to be as great as it has been during the winning streak, and lastly, the mental toughness of right fielder Jordan Walker has to be noted.

Mr. Walker has woefully struggled as a batsman (.180 AVG, 0.41 OPS+) but leaves those woes in the dugout when he takes the field and made an impressive play for the final out of the game.

Cardinal Jordan Walker catches the final out for the winner. He is tied for 7th amongst RFers in Outs Above Average.

This young Cardinals team came to Citizens Bank Park and won the first game 3-2. They saw what a good ball club looks like in the Phillies. They left work last night, having seen that they can play at that level.

One win down, one more win to go to take the series. Do that, and let the cascading success begins.

Phillies pitcher Matthew Strahm reacts after Cardinal Masyn Winn hits a seventh-inning home run that proved to be the game-winning hit on Monday, May 12, 2025.

Stony Brook University study on cascading success

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Photo Credit: mlb.tv & Cardinals.com

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