2017 St. Louis Cardinals

2017 St. Louis Cardinals / Franchise: St. Louis Cardinals / BR Team Page[edit]

Record: 83-79, Finished 3rd in NL Central Division (2017 NL)

Coaches: David Bell, Mark Budaska, Blaise Ilsley, Derek Lilliquist, John Mabry, Chris Maloney, Oliver Marmol, Bill Mueller, Mike Shildt and Ron Warner

Ballpark: Busch Stadium III

History, Comments, Contributions[edit]

The 2017 St. Louis Cardinals got off to a poor start, playing for exactly .500 in both April and May, before sputtering badly in the first days of June, when they lost 7 of their first 8 games. On June 9th, they made some changes, designating veteran IF Jhonny Peralta for assignment and shuffling the coaching staff. Third base coach Chris Maloney was reassigned and replaced by Mike Shildt, who was previously the quality assurance coach; assistant hitting coach Bill Mueller was given a leave of absence while Mark Budaska was promoted from AAA to take his place and Ron Warner was added to the staff.

The Cardinals were still 6 1/2 games out of first place and 3 games below .500 at 44-47 on July 16th, but began to climb their way back into the postseason race after hitting that low point. It took them until August 7th to reach .500, but by that time they were on a roll. That game was the first of a four-game sweep of the cross-state Kansas City Royals, in a series that was crucial to both teams' postseason hopes. In the final game on August 10th, Dexter Fowler drove in 5 runs to usher in an 8-6 win, the team's sixth consecutive victory, that put them within one game of the first-place Chicago Cubs. They continued their surge by winning their next two games as well to stretch their winning streak to 8 games. In the eighth win, a 6-5 victory over he Atlanta Braves on August 12th, rookie Paul DeJong hit his team-leading 17th homer, a remarkable total for a player who had not joined the team until the end of May. They were now in a virtual tie for first place, only trailing by percentage points. They could not get over that final hump, though, as they lost their next three games and 10 of 15 by the end of August. They finished the month at 67-66 and 6 games back of first place. They would fall to seven games back two days later before going on another hot streak. They won 7 of 8 games starting on September 3rd and began closing down on both the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers. A three-game sweep of the Pirates on September 8-10 virtually eliminated the Bucs from further contention and moved them to two games of the Cubs, in a virtual tie with Milwaukee with three weeks left to play. However, their hopes to reach the postseason took a huge blow when they were swept by the Cubs in a three-game series at Wrigley Field September 15-17, moving them back to six games out of first, with the Brewers two games in front of them too. After a valiant fight, they were officially eliminated from postseason contention on September 28th, following another defeat at the hands of the Cubs, 2-1. Their 5-14 record against their main rivals was a major reason they were unable to go any further.