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It is easy to overlook a team like the St. Louis Cardinals—which seemingly makes the playoffs every season—merely winning a division, but its 2015 National League Central championship was quite a feat.

St. Louis clinched its third straight division title Wednesday with an 11-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates in the second game of a doubleheader. It marked the fifth consecutive season the Cardinals made the postseason, and they became the first team in the majors to win 100 games in the process.

ESPN Stats & Info noted the Cardinals’ ninth 100-win season puts them behind only the New York Yankees (19) and Oakland Athletics (10) in baseball history.

A division title is worth celebrating any season, but the National League Central was a minefield in 2015. The Cardinals have the best record in Major League Baseball at 100-59, but the Pittsburgh Pirates boast the second-best mark at 96-63. The Chicago Cubs are also heading to the playoffs with the National League’s third-best record at 93-65.

That’s right, the top three teams in the National League, at least record-wise, all reside in the same division. The Cardinals had to play those formidable opponents throughout the season and still have 100 wins on their 2015 resume. It seems fitting St. Louis—which has been in first place since April 16—beat its closest challenger in a head-to-head showdown to clinch the crown.

Jon Morosi of Fox Sports highlighted just how dominant the division has been this year:

Divisional play began in 1969. Since then, there have been only two occasions in which three of the majors’ top four records came from a single division, according to STATS LLC:

* 1978 AL East: No. 1 Yankees (100-63), No. 2 Red Sox (99-64), No. 4 Brewers (93-69)

* 1983 AL East: No. 2 Orioles (98-64), No. 3 Tigers (92-70), No. 4 Yankees (91-71)

In other words, over nearly a half-century of divisional play, no NL divisional trio has been as dominant—relative to the rest of the majors—as the current Cardinals, Pirates and Cubs.

Overcoming that type of competition deserves a celebration, and the Cardinals delivered on that as well. The team shared the final out, and MLB captured the reaction:

ESPN provided a checklist of what St. Louis accomplished with its most recent win:

The team summed up its incredible season with a visual:

St. Louis seized the opportunity to revel in its accomplishments after Wednesday’s victory, as the club and Fox Sports Midwest provided a glimpse of the locker room after the game:

Jason Heyward, whom MLB showed celebrating, hit a home run and tallied four RBI in the victory:

Naturally with this team, pitching paved the way in the clinching performance Wednesday. Tyler Lyons threw seven innings of shutout baseball and only allowed four hits en route to the victory. Bob Pompeani of KDKA TV praised the pitcher’s ability to rise to the occasion with the division on the line despite significant time off:

It was business as usual for a Cardinals pitching staff that has the best ERA in baseball by a wide margin even though it lost ace Adam Wainwright for most of the season to injury (he is now back in the bullpen).

Entering play Wednesday, St. Louis’ 2.89 team ERA was far ahead of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 3.20 mark, which was second best in the league. The gap was closer between the Los Angeles Dodgers at No. 5 and the Pirates than between the Nos. 1 and 2 spots.

That is a credit to starters John Lackey, Michael Wacha, Lance Lynn, Carlos Martinez, Jaime Garcia and a strong bullpen anchored by Trevor Rosenthal and Kevin Siegrist, among others. Even with Wainwright ailing, the pitching staff carried this team through a daunting division all season.

Injuries were the other theme for the 2015 Cardinals.

Wainwright, Matt Adams, Matt Holliday, Randal Grichuk, Jon Jay, Lynn, Garcia, Martinez and Yadier Molina have all dealt with various ailments, and some of them are of the season-ending variety.

Despite the long-term loss of its ace, a budding pitching star in Martinez, a proven veteran and former All-Star in Holliday and the heart and soul of the team in Molina—even youngster Stephen Piscotty was hurt Monday in a nasty outfield collision—this is still the best squad in baseball.

Jon Heyman of CBS Sports praised St. Louis for its ability to persevere:    

At least Wainwright is back to bolster the bullpen and got to celebrate, per Drew Silva of NBC Sports:

While these setbacks may ultimately prove costly in the postseason, when every pitch is magnified and the best players perform under pressure, it is a testament to the Cardinals’ resiliency and the job manager Mike Matheny did all year that St. Louis sits atop the best division in baseball with the best record in baseball.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today wondered if Matheny is 2015’s best manager and also noted the Cardinals’ leader became the first skipper in MLB history to reach the playoffs in his first four years at the helm:

As a result of Matheny and the Cardinals’ season-long excellence, they will have home-field advantage throughout the National League playoffs as they battle for an appearance in the World Series.

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Stephen Piscotty exited in the bottom of the seventh inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday after colliding with teammate Peter Bourjos as the two attempted to field a fly ball off the bat of Josh Harrison. According to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the rookie outfielder took a knee to the head, which caused him to leave on a stretcher.

Continue for updates.

Piscotty Escapes With Minor Injuries

Tuesday, Sept. 29

Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said Piscotty was released from the hospital with “a couple bruises, but overall everything checked out very clean,” per MLB Network Radio.

Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak said, per Goold, it’s possible “Piscotty could play before regular season ends, depending on how he feels. Cleared neurological exams, slight concussion.”

Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan relayed the message from the Cardinals announcers on Fox Sports Midwest that certain angles were too “ugly” to be shown on TV.

Fox Sports Midwest posted a photo of the 24-year-old being carted back to the locker room:

Entering Monday, Piscotty was hitting .313 with seven home runs and 39 RBI in 249 plate appearances. He has provided some great pop since the team called him up from the minors.

Jon Jay replaced him in the lineup, and that could be the tentative plan for St. Louis going forward until Piscotty feels well enough to return to the lineup.

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St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Carlos Martinez saw his Friday start against the Milwaukee Brewers cut short, and afterward, it was revealed he suffered a shoulder strain that will end his season. 

Continue for updates.

Martinez’s Season Over After Leaving Start vs. Brewers

Saturday, Sept. 26

Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak confirmed the decision to end Martinez’s season Saturday, per the team. He added that Martinez would not need surgery but said shutting the pitcher down was the “right decision,” according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The news comes after Martinez exited Friday night after just seven pitches against the Brewers. Afterward, the pitcher revealed how long he had been dealing with shoulder issues, per Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com:

Martinez, using teammate Jon Jay as a translator, said afterward that shoulder tightness first became an issue in his Sunday start against the Cubs. Martinez pitched 6 2/3 innings in a win that day and did not inform the medical staff of any discomfort.

“I didn’t say anything because I thought it was normal,” Martinez said. “I just wanted to pitch through it.”

How Martinez’s Absence Impacts Cardinals

This is a worrisome injury for the Cardinals because Martinez underwent a breakout season in 2015. While he turned in a disappointing 5.08 ERA in 2013 and 4.03 ERA in 2014, he turned the corner this year and became one of the best pitchers in the National League. 

His ability to pick up the Cardinals after a loss is one reason they have stayed atop the National League Central for the majority of the season. In August, Craig Edwards of FanGraphs highlighted just how effective Martinez was when his team needed him most:

This is also a devastating blow for St. Louis because the team has been without ace Adam Wainwright for most of the season, and while Wainwright is trying to return to the team in a bullpen role, Martinez has been instrumental in picking up the slack in his absence. 

Fortunately for Cardinals fans, they still have Michael Wacha and Lance Lynn, two of the best pitchers in the league, and John Lackey as a veteran presence who brings plenty of postseason experience for the stretch run.

Teams often shorten their rotation come playoff time, and St. Louis still has a daunting top three in Wacha, Lynn and Lackey.

St. Louis must also rely on its offense (which has battled injuries of its own all season to Matt Holliday, Matt Adams and others), but the pitching has been the team’s backbone.

The Cardinals are well equipped to deal with injuries and have proved more than capable of doing so this season, but Martinez was poised to be a big part of helping the team reach its World Series aspirations.

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With the good news came the bad news.

The St. Louis Cardinals received a boost to their playoff pitching picture on Monday, but the leaders in the National League Central also took what could end up being a significant hit to their lineup and defense.

Ace Adam Wainwright, believed to be shelved for the entire season after he ripped up his Achilles tendon coming out of the batter’s box on April 25, has been cleared to resume baseball activities. That gives the Cardinals hope that Wainwright could pitch for them out of the bullpen, as he did during their 2006 World Series run, during this postseason and possibly even before the end of the regular season.

The hurtful blow was losing catcher Yadier Molina, one of the premier defensive catchers in the sport, to a torn ligament in his left thumb. Molina will be sidelined for at least seven days and be reevaluated within the next week. If his prognosis does not improve, it is possible the Cardinals won’t have their starting catcher for the playoffs.

Molina does not need surgery, and the tear is less severe than the one Molina suffered last year in his right thumb, which ended up costing the seven-time All-Star 40 games. That is the encouraging part for the Cardinals.

If the Cardinals clinch the division, they would not play their first playoff game until Oct. 9. General manager John Mozeliak gave a status update after the game:

Mozeliak, “Molina has a slight torn ligament in his left thumb. We’re optimistic he’ll return this regular season.” pic.twitter.com/Fzji6y9och

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) September 21, 2015

“There’s a reason to have some optimism,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny told Jennifer Langosch of MLB.com. “When he slid into third base last year, there was instantly, ‘OK, this is going to be a while.’ That is not the same message we’re hearing right now. Right now, it’s not definitive that he’s going to be out for a long period of time, which, for us, is good news.”

The Cardinals need that, because if Molina is out for any significant time and has to miss some or all of the postseason, it is a crippling blow to not only the offense, but the pitching staff as well.

Molina is hitting .270/.310/.350 with four home runs and an 80 OPS+, his worst season since 2010. But Molina’s numbers in the postseason are good. He has hit .290/.344/.375 with a .719 OPS in 86 games (335 plate appearances). In a struggling Cardinals offense, that kind of production could end up being much needed by the time the playoffs roll around.

The bigger issue is losing Molina behind the plate. He has a stellar reputation for handling pitching staffs, blocking balls and controlling the running game as well as anyone who has ever put on the tools of ignorance.

This year’s Cardinals pitching staff had a major league-best 2.92 ERA entering Monday. When throwing to Molina, it has as 2.79 ERA. That goes up to 3.70 when throwing to Molina’s backup, Tony Cruz, who will be the starting catcher until Molina returns.

Losing Molina for any part of the postseason would greatly impact the team’s chances of advancing just based on how he works with the pitchers—the team’s biggest strength.

“Hands in the game of baseball are so important, whether it’s receiving or throwing, because you need them both to hit,” Mozeliak told Langosch. “We’ll see when we can start testing it from an offensive standpoint. In the meantime, we’ll look at different ways that we can help protect the hand.”

Wainwright’s return could soften the blow of losing Molina, assuming he’s out for any meaningful time. Wainwright is scheduled to throw a simulated game this coming weekend, but because of the time remaining in the season, he would not be stretched out enough to start.

That is fine for the Cardinals, because the last time Wainwright pitched out of the bullpen in the postseason, he was as dominant as a reliever could possibly be with a 0.00 ERA and 15 strikeouts in 9.2 innings, although he did blow a save in the World Series (yet ended up with the win).

That was in 2006, and if he is 100 percent healthy, 2015 could give the Cardinals that same kind of weapon next month.

“I think I would have a much higher confidence level to have him throw in-season before you would put him on the [playoff] roster,” Mozeliak told Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

“He’s awfully optimistic. If you’ll recall last time he was in the bullpen, he was pretty good. I would imagine it would look just like that.”

If Wainwright were to be that good again, it would go a long way in absorbing the possible loss of Molina in the postseason. For now, the Cardinals are in the fluid state of wait-and-see.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired first-hand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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Yadier Molina has been a driving force for the St. Louis Cardinals throughout his career, but the star catcher’s season is in jeopardy after suffering a thumb injury.

Continue for updates. 

Molina has Ligament Tear in Injured Thumb

Monday, Sept. 21

Bob Nightengale of USA Today shared news of Molina’s injury, adding the catcher would be re-evaluated in a week to gauge whether he can return this season. However, Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak is “cautiously optimistic” Molina will be back before the playoffs, via Nightengale.

Baseball writer Molly Knight weighed in on what Molina’s absence would mean for the Cardinals if he is unable to return for the postseason:

With Molina out of commission, the Cardinals added Travis Tartamella to the roster to give them depth behind the plate, via Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

According to MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch, Molina suffered the injury during the Cardinals’ 4-3 win over the Chicago Cubs on Sunday. 

Injuries unfortunately seem to be following Molina now that he’s on the wrong side of 30. He did appear in 136 games during the 2013 season, an exceptional amount for an everyday a catcher, but he missed 52 games last year. 

This season is the healthiest Molina has been in two years, though his offensive numbers have taken a dip. His .660 OPS would be his worst since 2006, but the 33-year-old still ranks as one of the best defensive catchers by FanGraphs‘ metrics. 

Molina left a game against the Milwaukee Brewers on April 24 after taking a foul tip off of his right knee protector. Those kinds of nicks and dings come with the territory for catchers, but the dynamic of St. Louis’ roster is significantly altered in the absence of his backstop wizardry. 

The Cardinals haven’t missed a beat this season, despite a lot of injuries to key players. Adam Wainwright hasn’t started a game since April 25; Jordan Walden is on the 60-day disabled list; Matt Adams missed three months; Matt Holliday and Jon Jay are going to play in fewer than 100 games; Randal Grichuk’s stellar rookie season was interrupted by an elbow injury in August.

St. Louis’ front office has done a masterful job of building a deep, talented roster to not only withstand all of those blows, but continue to thrive. Being without a starting catcher is different because defense and the handling of a pitching staff are so crucial to success.

Losing Molina for any length of time down the stretch, especially with Pittsburgh and Chicago coming on strong in the National League Central, leaves the Cardinals with a lot of questions heading into the final postseason push.   

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The St. Louis Cardinals are finally starting to get healthy, with Randal Grichuk, Matt Adams and Jon Jay all back from the disabled list, and Matt Holliday possibly back as soon as next week.

But when I asked Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak what that all means for Stephen Piscotty, he gave the only answer he possibly could.

“It’s hard to imagine him not being an everyday player right now,” Mozeliak said by phone Thursday.

The Cardinals have had a hard-to-imagine season, overcoming all those injuries and more (don’t forget Adam Wainwright) to have baseball’s best record while playing in baseball’s best division. But when you list the reasons they’ve been able to do it (don’t forget the Adam Wainwright-less starting rotation owns baseball’s best ERA), the emergence of Piscotty as an offensive force has to be near the top of the list.

Longtime St. Louis columnist Bernie Miklasz wrote Thursday morning at 101sports.com that Piscotty has been the most valuable Cardinal in the second half of the season. Mozeliak didn’t rush to disagree.

“He really has had a tremendous impact on our club,” Mozeliak said.

The Cardinals have been so good, and have won so much, it’s easy to think from the outside they’ve been coasting to the National League Central title, that no one player or one game has really been that big. But if you saw their game against the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday, you know that’s not true.

The Cardinals had lost two of three to the Pittsburgh Pirates and two in a row to the Cubs, and in the eighth inning Wednesday they had just two hits and trailed the Cubs 3-1. By the end of the day, their lead over the Pirates could have been down to 3.5 games, with the Cubs just 5.5 games behind.

On the Cardinals telecast, Dan McLaughlin and Tim McCarver were talking about how there was going to be a real pennant race in the Central (albeit one where the second- and third-place teams would go to the Wild Card Game). All was glum—right up until Piscotty’s two-run double over Dexter Fowler’s head in center field put the Cardinals in front.

When I suggested it could have been the team’s biggest hit of the season, again Mozeliak didn’t disagree.

“It gave us oxygen,” he said.

The Piscotty story is a nice one because it’s proof that sometimes teams handle prospect promotions well, and sometimes those prospects understand what they need to do to have big league success.

He was the 36th overall draft pick out of Stanford in 2012, and he was a spring training star in 2014, but he never complained when the Cardinals sent him to Triple-A Memphis and left him there. Others sometimes complained for him (Miklasz wrote a column headlined, “Will Piscotty retire in Memphis?”), but all involved said Piscotty realized he needed time to adjust his swing to have the power necessary to be a productive corner outfielder in the major leagues.

He did it last winter, getting out of his crouch to stand more upright at the plate, allowing his swing to explode and allowing him to elevate the ball when he had a chance. His slugging percentage at Memphis jumped nearly 70 points in one year, to .475, and it’s been even better (.527) since his July 21 call-up to the Cardinals.

It’s still a small sample, but Piscotty has a higher slugging percentage than Andrew McCutchen, Manny Machado, Carlos Correa and Kris Bryant, among others.

Anyway, when agent Brodie Van Wagenen called Piscotty around the All-Star break this year and asked if he felt ready for the big leagues, the answer was, “Yes, I’m ready now.”

The Cardinals agreed. Not long after that, Holliday reinjured his quad, and Piscotty took over in left field.

He has basically stayed there, starting 31 of the Cardinals’ last 42 games in left. The nice thing for the Cardinals is Holliday’s return won’t force an either/or decision for manager Mike Matheny, because Piscotty can also play center field, right field or first base (and has started games at all three already).

Piscotty has settled in batting second in the Cardinals order, giving the top of the lineup a needed boost.

He was actually a third baseman at Stanford, where he studied atmosphere and energy engineering (solar wind power and renewable energy, he told MLB.com). He talks like a Stanford guy, as he did Wednesday when explaining to reporters (including Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch) why the Cardinals’ mini-slump against the Pirates and Cubs wasn’t such a bad thing.

“Sometimes things just have to flush out,” Piscotty said. “Sometimes for a market, the healthiest thing is a correction. Things hit the fan and it recovers.”

And sometimes, it takes a few injuries for teams to find out what they have. Sometimes a guy like Stephen Piscotty gets into the lineup, maybe a little ahead of schedule.

And sometimes, once he gets in, they find it’s hard to imagine ever taking him out.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.

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St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina is apparently pretty strong, and he doesn’t even know it.

During a game against the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday afternoon, Molina broke his bat while “tapping” home plate.

Yes, you read that correctly.

The unusual event went down in the bottom of the seventh inning after Yadi fouled off a pitch from Cubs pitcher Jon Lester, apparently cracking his bat. While getting ready for the next pitch, Molina snapped his bat when he hit home plate with it. All he could do was smile as he picked up the other half of the bat in awe.

The Cardinals ended up winning, 4-3.

[MLB]

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The division was once a runaway, and that was as recently as a week ago. 

In the six games since, the National League Central has turned into a legitimate race as the St. Louis Cardinals, the division’s dominant squad for nearly this entire year, have gone on an ill-timed slide. That run in the wrong direction has opened the window ever so slightly for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and even the Chicago Cubs, to climb through.

Michael Wacha, arguably the Cardinals’ most consistently dominant pitcher, was the latest piece of the rotation to get battered in the last week, allowing six runs over four innings Tuesday in what ended up being an 8-5 loss to the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis’ third consecutive defeat.

The team has also lost five of its last six, with four of the losses to the Pirates and Cubs, to see their lead over the Pirates shrink to 4.5 games. The Cubs, winners of five in a row and seven of their last 10, are 6.5 games back.

Per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny told reporters after the latest loss, in which his team scored five times in the seventh to make it a game:

You’re going to have days like this. You don’t like to see them consecutively. You don’t like to see them in the same week. You don’t like to see them at all. But they do happen. We’ve had so many of those one-run, two-run games all season long, and we’ve figured out how to stay in those and how to win those and how to come back in those. None of that has gone away. This is where we are right now.

The Cardinals had been a team on pace to win 100 games, picking up their 86th win on Sept. 1. The reason for that triple-digit projection was the team’s pitching staff, particularly its outstanding rotation.

However, over the last six games, the staff has a 6.00 ERA and the rotation sits at 6.25, although there are three quality starts mixed into that stretch. The pitching has allowed five or more runs in seven of its past nine games after doing so, amazingly, in just 32 of the previous 131 contests.

The worst of the outings came Monday from Lance Lynn, who allowed six runs in 2.1 innings and afterward griped about pitching on a few days of extra rest, per Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Wacha had been dazzling in his previous six starts before Tuesday’s blowup. In those previous turns, he had a 0.92 ERA and the team went 5-1. So while the pitching numbers don’t look great, there probably isn’t a need for extreme panic when it comes to that group.

“It hasn’t gone well for the Cardinals here in recent starts, particularly these last games against the Pirates and now the Cubs,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Jeff Gordon told CineSport’s Noah Coslov on Tuesday.

“This team was pitching at a historically great level start after start after start,” Gordon continued. “Some downturn is inevitable. Guys will get tired. Small injuries will occur.”

It has not just been the pitchers, though. The offense has not held its own, scoring just six times in the last three games, and not one of those runs has come before the seventh inning. Going into Tuesday, the lineup had a .244/.302/.310 slash line while scoring just 11 times in its previous five games.

After being shut out by the Cubs on Monday, the Cardinals had just three hits and no runs going into the seventh on Tuesday before they erupted for all five of their runs. That inning gave the team more runs in the span of 10 hitters than it had in each of its previous five games, but the Cardinals went down meekly again in the eighth and ninth innings.

While the Cardinals are enduring their struggles, the Pirates have gained ground in the division despite losing six of their last nine. As for the Cubs, their five-game winning streak has gained them four games in the standings, and while winning the division still seems like a long shot, they are helping the Pirates chase down the Cardinals with their last two victories in St. Louis.

The Cardinals still have a 100 percent chance of making the postseason, but their chances of winning the division have dropped from 91 percent six games ago to 88 percent, according to FanGraphs’ playoff projections.

“It’s not something we’re accustomed to,” Wacha told reporters of the team’s losing ways and the rotation’s struggles, per Goold. “It’s not something people should get used to. These past couple nights haven’t been typical of what we’ve been doing all year. We have to get back to what had been working, get back on the roll. We hate putting our team in that situation.”

The situation is quickly heading toward dire just days after the Cardinals had a stranglehold on the NL Central. Chances are they still win it, but this is suddenly a division worth watching after their latest skid.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Matt Adams has been out of action since May with a quad tear, and his progress toward a return has hit a stumbling block.  

Continue for updates.

Adams Suffers Setback in Recovery from Injury

Tuesday, Sept. 1

The Cards have thrived without Adams in the lineup as they are 85-46, which is the best record in Major League Baseball. Even so, Adams’ return would be huge for an offense that is somewhat lacking in terms of power.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals and their fans, the 27-year-old slugger revealed to Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he recently suffered a setback while rehabbing in Jupiter, Florida:

We’re back to taking it day by day. It’s nothing too serious. Just running the bases, it got kind of sore. … It’s something we’ve got to take care of before it gets out of control and we’ll revisit it whenever the time’s ready and get back, hopefully, in time to play some games. That was the goal. … It’s disappointing but stuff happens. You’ve got to have a good mindset with it and know it’s nothing too serious and I’ll be able to get back before the year’s over.

While Adams seems optimistic despite the setback, there is certainly some cause for concern as only one month remains in the regular season. The Cardinals are a surefire playoff team, which gives Adams some extra time, but there is no guarantee that he’ll be back.

The news is particularly disconcerting since rookie outfielder Randal Grichuk is currently on the disabled list as well with an elbow ailment.

Mark Reynolds and Brandon Moss have filled in at first base during Adams’ absence, and while they have 14 home runs combined, they are hitting just .238 and .222, respectively.

Adams was hitting .243 with four homers and 20 RBI before going down, but he previously hit .288 with 15 home runs and 68 RBI in 2014.

He is a feared lefty in the middle of St. Louis’ lineup, and the fact that he is out of action certainly limits what the Cards can do offensively.

It hasn’t come back to bite St. Louis yet, but if Adams is ultimately unable to return by the end of the season, it could potentially prevent the Cardinals from making a run to the World Series.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.

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When Adam Wainwright tore his Achilles tendon in April, the St. Louis Cardinals were left without their true ace—let alone one of baseball’s top pitchers—for most of the season. Despite the setback, the National League powerhouse has relied on a pitching staff on pace to challenge MLB record books.

At 73-41, St. Louis owns the majors’ best record in 2015—at least five games ahead of any other team and six in front of a tough NL Central that might produce three playoff teams.

Yet the Cardinals have done so not by scoring runs—sorry, Bill James apologists—but rather by preventing them.

St. Louis pitchers have allowed 2.93 runs per game this season—the best in the league by more than 0.5 runs—while scoring just 3.97 (21st in the league).

But it’s the 2.93 per game that could go down as one of the best marks ever when considering it’s 29.2 percent lower than the league average of 4.14.

The St. Louis pitching staff is one of the best of the past 20 years—a span that includes both the height of MLB’s “steroid era” and today’s “dead-ball era.”

Its dominance blows away the average MLB team at a rate that’s almost unheard of.

A study by Andrew Beaton of the Wall Street Journal pointed out the Cardinals arms corps is one of MLB’s best of the past century: “Only one team since 1900, the 1906 Chicago Cubs, performed better, allowing 2.46 runs a game compared with a league average of 3.62—a difference of 32 percent.”

Even without Wainwright, who went 2-1 with a 1.44 ERA in four starts before his injury, for much of the season, Cardinals starters own a collective 2.77 ERA so far this season.

If it holds up, that would be the lowest ERA by a starting rotation in 30 years—the 1985 Dodgers accumulated a 2.71 mark.

Paul Casella of Sports on Earth noted the unusual path the St. Louis starters have taken, though: “The Cardinals have seemed to collectively master run prevention, all without a single pitcher ranking within the top 15 in strikeouts, WHIP or strikeout-to-walk ratio.”

Either way, all five starting pitchers, from the 36-year-old John Lackey to the 23-year-old Carlos Martinez, sit below a 3.00 ERA at the moment.

Grantland’s Ben Lindbergh pointed out the St. Louis pitching staff strands baserunners at a rate no other team in history can match.

Some of the contributions might come from a resilient starting rotation. But the Cardinals employ a bullpen that isn’t shabby, either.

The relievers’ 2.26 ERA is the best since that of the 1972 Pittsburgh Pirates—the only bullpen better since the league lowered the mound in 1969.

More interesting are the members of the Cardinals pen.

There’s the starter-turned-closer, Trevor Rosenthal, who’s tied for the league lead with 35 saves. There’s Randy Choate, a 39-year-old workhorse, and Kevin Siegrist, a 26-year-old setup specialist. Then you have two recent additions in veterans Jonathan Broxton and Steve Cishek—former dominant closers who are now role players.

No matter the name or story, each reliever is capable of entering a game in a jam and shutting down opposing offenses.

The statistics show that Cardinals pitchers, as an entire unit, get more dominant once runners reach base, per Baseball-Reference.com:

St. Louis pitchers allow a .257 batting average when the bases are empty—23rd in MLB and 10 points worse than the league average this season.

When runners get on or, even worse, get in scoring position, they turn into monsters and allow batters to hit just .212 and .194, respectively, in those situations—both marks rank first in the majors by a wide margin.

Sports Illustrated‘s Tom Verducci credited catcher Yadier Molina for his game management behind the plate:

No other club is close to the Cardinals when it comes to the key moments of run prevention: when the opponent has scoring chances. Credit has to go not only to the pitchers, but also to veteran catcher Yadier Molina, whose skills at framing and calling pitchers are most valuable in those pressure situations.

Baseball’s new-age thinking based in analytics claims that scoring runs ultimately leads to winning ballgames. Yet the Cardinals are dispelling that notion in 2015. 

Even the offensive stars in St. Louis have bought in. Per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Cardinals third baseman Matt Carpenter said the following:

We’ve played in close ballgames before. Just scoring runs is not a good plan over the course of the season. You have to play good defense. You have to pitch. That’s how you win close games. That’s how you lead the league in wins, in my opinion.

A team that struggles with creating runs, as St. Louis does, needs to excel in run prevention—something the Cardinals do.

“I honestly think this is how you win in the playoffs,” outfielder Jason Heyward told Goold, “so we’re going to have a lot of experience built up.”

The Cardinals may be without their bona fide ace, but they have more than made up for the loss. 

Their pitching has them on pace for a 99-win season, according to FanGraphs’ projections, and one of the best overall performances by a staff in MLB history.

It’s safe to say, no matter how many runs the Cardinals score in a given game, they’ll be darned if they don’t allow fewer.

You can follow Dan on Twitter. He’s still bitter the 2011 Phillies and their four-headed monster of aces didn’t pan out as hoped.

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