The St. Louis Cardinals have turned a corner since an underwhelming first month of the season and are starting to gain momentum on the national level while fans are beginning to buy into the recent surge. At the end of April, the Cardinals were 14-17 and closer to last place than first place in the division. Since the calendar has flipped to May, however, the Cardinals are among baseball’s best teams and their 24-20 record puts them one game behind the NL Central lead.

The Cardinals are 10-3 and held a 9-game winning streak so far in May

Prior to May, it looked like the Cardinals were going to continue to operate in mediocrity after an offseason of inactivity and a lack of fan interest early in the season. Busch Stadium attendance averaged under 30,000 fans per game after failing to reach the 3 million fan mark for the first time in 18 years and the team was playing uninspiring baseball with annoying losses taking center stage over positive vibes surrounding the organization.

That has all changed in the new month and hopefully fans start to file back into Busch when the Cardinals return home on Monday. In a stretch that has seen two doubleheaders while in the midst of a nine-game roadtrip, the Cardinals have turned a corner and become one of the top teams in the entire National League with a 10-3 record, including a nine-game winning streak, that has catapulted them back into the national spotlight. Their 10 wins are tied for the most in all of baseball and their .769 winning percentage is tops in the NL.

With few changes happening since April, how have the Cardinals progressed from a bottom-tier team to a legitimate playoff contender? Let’s start with the pitching staff.

Through 13 games, Cardinals pitchers have put up a 3.29 ERA, which is second-best in the National League and has been helped by Erick Fedde and Matthew Liberatore combining for a 3-1 record and a 2.18 ERA. The solid starts have been paired with a much-improved bullpen as the combination of Michael McGreevy (currently in AAA), Gordon Graceffo, JoJo Romero, Chris Roycroft, Steven Matz, Kyle Leahy, and Ryan Helsley has given up a total of three runs this month, good for a minuscule 0.91 ERA. The staff has thrown two shutouts and has saved five games, with Helsley notching four and Graceffo grabbing the other.

Helping the cause is Miles Mikolas, who has been effective in his shortened starts, giving up four runs in 10.1 innings to keep the team in games or holding a lead before giving way to the relief options. In order to keep positive momentum going, however, the team will need Andre Pallante and Phil Maton to get back into form as they have both struggled slightly in May. Without quality depth options waiting in Memphis, it will be up to the current big league squad to stay on the right track.

Things on the offensive side of the ball have been even better but when pitcher’s give up less than four runs per game, it keeps the team within striking distance at any time. The Cardinals have scored 66 runs in their 13 games, fourth-most in the league while hitting .267 for the month, which puts them in sixth place, trailing the Diamondbacks and Mets by .002 points. The team also sits top-three in the league in walks and is .001 on-base percentage points behind the Dodgers for the top spot. To continue on the plate discipline, the Cardinals also have the second-fewest strikeouts in the National League since the start of May.

Individually, Willson Contreras has been at the forefront of the hot stretch since being moved down in the lineup. This month, the first baseman is slashing .348/.453/.605 which are all within the top-12 among qualified NL hitters. He has also hit three homers and driven in 13 RBIs, good for second place behind Freddie Freeman. The Cardinals have also been helped by Alec Burleson’s return to form as he has put up a .978 OPS with four extra-base hits since May 1.

The Cardinals do still lack the overall power potential of the other top teams in the league. Despite the recent outburst, the team is still middle of the pack in homers, but sits in fourth place with 22 doubles this month. In order to keep up the offensive pace, players like Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman will need to turn it around quickly to help lengthen the lineup and create more run-scoring opportunities near the bottom of the order.

No matter how the rest of this month goes, it was impossible to not be emotionally invested into every game during the winning streak and the team’s offensive performance after the streak ended was great to see. The Cardinals continue to open eyes all across the league and look poised to prove preseason doubters (fans included) wrong in writing them off before the first pitch of the season was thrown.