Are you serious? Sixteen wins in a row? That’s WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW. Never in my wildest dreams would I believe that this team would win 16 in a row. The Cardinals win streak is the longest in the National League since 1951, and the franchises longest winning streak EVER. They’ve won 16 in a row while chasing down a playoff spot, seemingly wrecking the Reds, Mets, and Padres playoff aspirations, one series at a time. They postponed the inevitable, of Milwaukee winning the Central, and they beat the Cubs for 4 straight over the weekend at Wrigley – never an easy task at that dump. It’s been AMAZING.

What needs to happen for the Cardinals to be in the playoffs?

The Cardinals Magic Number is now down to 1. Weeks ago before all this winning happened, the Cardinals would have been lucky to have not been eliminated at this point, or to still be hanging on, needing a lot to go their way. On the morning of September 11th, Fan Graphs gave the Cardinals a 5% chance of winning the second wild card, today they are a virtual lock at 99%. Things have certainly been flipped sideways! Now all the Cardinals need this week is to win 1 out of their 6 remaining games, or have the Phillies and Reds not run the table to finish their last week, and both at least lose one more game.

Who do we want the Cardinals to play in the Wild Card game?

The biggest question now, is do the Cardinals want to face the Dodgers or Giants in the Wild Card game. This is a bit of a loaded question. In my opinion, the Giants would be easier to beat in a one game playoff, however the reward of that would be getting a series vs the Dodgers. It might be in the Cardinals best interest to play the Dodgers in the one game playoff, and then square off against the Giants in a series. Either way, the Cardinals will have to travel to the west coast for a winner take all game against a team with more than 100 wins.

Who will the Cardinals play in the Wild Card game?

The Giants are currently up by 2 games on the Dodgers, and have six home games against Arizona & San Diego. These are divisional games, so it wouldn’t surprise me if Arizona and San Diego gives them everything they can, as no team wants to roll over for a divisional foe.

The Dodgers are 2 games behind the Giants, and have six home games against San Diego & Milwaukee. Milwaukee won’t be playing for anything in their last 3 games, so I would say the Dodgers could potentially have a chance to pick up ground on the Giants.

The Cardinals hope the Dodgers and Giants tie, and have to play a one game playoff to determine who wins the division and who hosts St. Louis in the Wild Card game. However right now it looks like the Cardinals are headed to LA to face Max Scherzer and the Dodgers.

How much longer will the win streak go?

Now it’s time to see how much longer the Cardinals can extend their winning streak. If they finish the rest of the season without losing a game, they’d end up at 22 games – something completely unexpected, kind of like winning 16 in a row. Yesterday they tied the 1887 Philadelphia Quakers by winning their last 11 road games of the season, you remember the 1887 Quakers, right? I’m unsure if the Cardinals need to lose a game before the playoffs so they remember how it feels, but right now it seems like the Cardinals are expecting to go out each day and be victorious. Whatever they need to do in order to get ready for a long playoff run, is what needs to be done this week. If they can extend the streak, great, however this week is mostly about getting ready for Wednesday October 6th.

IN THE COMMENTS BELOW – TELL ME WHO YOU WANT THE CARDINALS TO PLAY IN THE WC GAME!

Thanks for reading!