After a roller-coaster season punctuated by the longest winning streak in team history, the Cardinals can finally say they're postseason bound.
The Cardinals clinched a spot in the 2021 National League Wild Card game with a 6 to 2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers Tuesday night at Busch Stadium.
The Cardinals' winning streak now stands at 17 games, the longest in National League history since the 1937-1938 Pittsburgh Pirates also won 17 games straight across two regular seasons.
As late in the season as Sept. 7, the 2021 Cardinals were in sixth place in the NL Wild Card race and had just a 2.8% chance to make the postseason according to FanGraphs.
The Cardinals have come alive in the final month of the regular season, going 20-6 in September coming into Tuesday. During those games, the offense has exploded, averaging more than five runs a game in the month.
The Cardinals still don't know who they'll be facing in the one-game Wild Card round, but they do know they'll be heading to California. The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants are continuing to battle for the NL West crown, and the loser of that race will host the Cardinals in the one-game Wild Card playoff.
This will be the third straight season the Cardinals have made the playoffs. The team fell in 2020's 3-game Wild Card round against the San Diego Padres, and were swept by the eventual champion Washington Nationals in the 2019 NLCS. Cardinals manager Mike Shildt has now made the postseason in all three of his full seasons at the helm.
The Cardinals last played in the Wild Card game in 2012, the first year of the expanded format. They beat the Atlanta Braves 6-3 in what infamously came to be known as the "infield fly" game.
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