Cardinals stop slide, clinch NL Central

Way back on March 11, in a United Cardinal Blogger roundtable, I made the following predictions:

Cardinals finish 90-72 and win the wild card. Albert Pujols hits 50 HR. Todd Wellemeyer wins 20 games and the Cy Young.

Well some predictions are better than others. Wellemeyer certainly won't win 20. The Cy Young Award may well go to a Cardinal, but it will be Wainwright or Carpenter. Albert could still hit 50 HR. The Cardinals didn't win the wild card.

But they have won 90 games. Most of us wouldn't have believed it possible, especially since most experts picked St Louis to finish behind the Cubs and Brewers this season, but with their 90th victory, they've also qualified for the playoffs . . . . as NL Central Champions.

Would they have won the division without DeRosa, Lugo, and Holliday? Possible, but the division race certainly would have been closer than it turned out to be.

Congratulations are in order for the organization for making it to the post-season for the first time since winning it all in 2006. Now let's work on avoiding Colorado in the first round, OK?

A Feel Good Weekend

Nothing like visiting Kaufmann Stadium to set everything right in the world.

Outscoring the Royals 29-11 on the way to a series sweep. Khalil Greene returns to the team and homers in each game (and let's hope he's back in the lineup on Tuesday following the HBP today) Albert Pujols? Yeah, he's pretty good.

And, thanks to Detroit taking 2 of 3 from Milwaukee, the Cardinals are back in first, 1.5 games ahead of the Brewers.

Jeff Gordon discussed Yadier's at bat in the first inning against Verlander, and how it affected that entire game. Looks like the confidence that at brought has spread through the offense, and it's about time after a miserable May.

So it's off to New York to face the Mets. Keep it going, fellas.

Hope you can tune in Tuesday when I interview Bruce Sutter, as reported in this earlier post.