2014 St. Louis Cardinals

2014 St. Louis Cardinals / Franchise: St. Louis Cardinals / BR Team Page[edit]

Record: 90-72, Finished 1st in NL Central Division (2014 NL)

Clinched Division: September 28, 2014, vs. Arizona Diamondbacks

Coaches: Mike Aldrete, David Bell, Derek Lilliquist, Blaise Ilsley, John Mabry, Chris Maloney and Jose Oquendo

History, Comments, Contributions[edit]

After winning the National League pennant in 2013, the 2014 St. Louis Cardinals took some time to get going. They fell into an early hole playing around .500 while the Milwaukee Brewers started red hot. By April 26th, they were already 5 1/2 games out of first place in the NL Central and settled around that mark until early July. After an 8-4 loss to the Miami Marlins on July 6th, their record stood at 47-42, and they were in 3rd place, five games back of the Brewers. The Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds were closely bunched with them, giving them a long hill to climb to return to the postseason. However, this was a low point in the Cards' season. By winning 5 of their next 6 games, they earned a tie for first place on July 12th. After some back-and-forth, the Brewers re-took the lead a week later, and then held on to it until the end of August. On August 31st, the Cardinals were back in a first-place tie with the Brewers, as the Brew Crew was going through a nine-game losing streak. For their part, the Cards immediately moved to another gear, winning 8 of 9 and with a 9-1 win over the Brewers on September 7th, they had built a comfortable lead atop the division, as they were now 4 1/2 games ahead of the second-place Pirates, with the free-falling Brewers now in third place.

When the Cardinals recorded the team's 21st shutout of the year in blanking the Brewers, 2-0, on September 17th behind another great pitching performance by Adam Wainwright, it was the most by any edition of the team since the National League champion 1968 Cardinals had recorded with 30 in what was dubbed "the Year of the Pitcher". No major league had come close to that number since then.