Don't look now but the St. Louis Cardinals still have a shot at a playoff spot.
The Cardinals have a 61-60 record right now and have been better since the trade deadline than expected. The Cardinals sold off, but still are just four games back of a National League Wild Card spot. The Cardinals lost 3-0 against the Colorado Rockies, but still have looked like a team that could at least be in contention for a spot for much of the stretch.
St. Louis traded away three bullpen pieces but guys have stepped up in the aftermath, like JoJo Romero, for example. The Cardinals are finding ways to win games and Brendan Donovan opened up about the team's mindset, as transcribed by MLB.com's John Denton.
"Unfortunately, there’s still a lot of season left when the Deadline happens, and it’s baseball, and luckily it’s a very long season,” Donovan said. “Even though we did a sell at the Deadline, you still don’t lose belief. If you lose belief, you have nothing. One of the things this team has done a good job of is responding, and it was very cool to see that tonight...
"I try to be present and supportive, but I’ve been bouncing around from place to place and seat to seat (in the dugout), and I’ve probably been driving people nuts. But I do want to be in there, and I value playing every day."
Donovan has been a guy who has stepped up in a big way this year. He was an All-Star for the first time, but even more so has stepped into a bigger leadership role with Paul Goldschmidt no longer with the organization. This was a topic that was discussed a lot towards the beginning of the season and now it's important to bring back. The Cardinals struggled to kick off the second half and that led to the firesale. But, clearly, the players in the locker room still believe in this team. And that's even with guys like Nolan Arenado and Lars Nootbaar dealing with injuries.
This Cardinals team has shown all season that they have some fight in them and this stretch is another example of it. Don't count out St. Louis yet with enough time left in the season to make a run.
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