The Cardinals have reached the postseason for the first time since 2014. They won their last few games against the Cubs and Diamondbacks to win the division. If they had lost their last three remaining games they would’ve had to play in a wild card game against the Nationals.

The Red Birds played the Atlanta Braves October third in a best of five series. This series was one of the most exciting playoff games in recent history. With the Braves and Cardinals exchanging wins, the Cards faced elimination in the 9th inning of game four.

The Cardinals were saved by Yadier Molina hitting a sacrifice fly to left field which allowed Kolten Wong to tag up from third base. The Cardinals forced a game five in Atlanta which would decide who advanced to the NLDS against the Dodgers or Nationals.

Game five was anything but a close game. In the first inning the Red Birds scored 10 runs off hits from the every cardinal in the lineup. Flaherty continued the good fortune for the cardinals, only allowing four hits and one earned run. After the game, Cardinals manager Mike Schildt gave a intense post game speech to his team that received a lot of press. Schildt eventually had to apologize for his language he used the day after.

After the big win against the Braves, the Cards went on to play the Nationals. But things have not gone well for them since the start of this series, they have their first two games at home and now have to head into game three in Washington down two in the series. Cardinals short-stop Kolten Wong was interviewed about being down 2-0. He said, “We feel like we’re right at home man. We’re right at home. We ain’t worried about it. This whole year people been counting us out, but we constantly come back fighting, we’re ready to go.”

The Cardinals play game three in Washington on October 14th. If they win both games in Washington they will get a chance to play two games in St. Louis where they can clinch the World Series.