PART 4: Major League Baseball - St. Louis Cardinals in 2011
The St. Louis Cardinals’ getting into the playoffs, beyond any shadow of doubt, was not an ordinary feat. It could only be achieved through colossal efforts which the players never ceased to put, proving their professional credentials.
The fact that the team had been able to win 23 of the last 31 games they had played in the regular season served as a reminder of their laudably genuine efforts. However, the intimidating challenge lying ahead was that of confronting the Philadelphia Phillies.
The ability of the Cardinals to make it to the playoffs was stunning. To take on the Philadelphia Phillies was a herculean task. The Phillies, after all, were the team which had won over 100 of the games in the season, seemingly all braced to win the World
Series even.
The Cardinals had shown in September that any underdog can outperform any side on a given day. While the Philadelphia Phillies were able to win the first game by 11-6, the Cardinals made a comeback, winning the second by 5-4. The Phillies won the third by
3-2.
However, the Cardinals had to re-adjust everything in the final two games and they succeeded in winning the playoffs too, much to the incredible surprise and disappointment of the Phillies with 5-3 and 1-0 wins.
So, a five-game series that the Philadelphia Phillies hoped would go in their favour had a result to the contrary. The Cardinals had trailed 2-1 in the Series, but they were never ready to yield in so easily. They fought and prevailed. The Phillies
had hoped to get into the World Series final, but the side saw all their dreams shattered here. The ‘dream match’ was fated to be won by the St. Louis Cardinals.
“Actually, I don't know what to say,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “I just got through talking to our team, and basically when I look at it, we played 162 games, and definitely we had the best record in baseball. I know that we're capable of going
farther in the playoffs. Our goal was to get to the World Series. It's been that way for two years now.”
The Cardinals, despite the difficulties which descended upon them in the start of the season, braved the weather. That is what kept them heads and shoulders above any other rival throughout the season.
With their steel nerves, the team under the auspices of Tony La Russa had been making significant inroads into the territories which were thought to be stony, but the Cardinals crossed them in a manner that merited laudation.
Continued in PART 5
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