The Cardinals had a promising start to their new beginning, winning five of their first seven games after their All-Star break. The Giants and Cubs came into Busch Stadium, and the Cardinals won both series. Let the good times roll.

At that point the Cardinals were 5-2 after the break, 8-4 in their last 12, and 12-7 in their last 19. Finally, a little momentum. Finally, an enlivened offense. Finally, some solid pitching from the rotation. The Cardinals hadn’t turned the corner, per se. But they were making progress. But there are no parades organized for a team that wins 12 out of 19, or eight of 12, or five out of seven.

The challenge, of course, is to keep winning. Keep going. Win games, win series, and go off on an extensive run. Just as Milwaukee did earlier this season. The Brewers were 21-23 after losing a game on May 21. From there, the Crew has gone 39-19 in a power move that’s included dominant stretches of 10-1 and 11-0. And when the Brewers cool down, and have a tough time, they quickly warm up and resume winning.

The Cardinals are not that kind of team. They’re still searching for consistency. And consistency isn’t defined or confirmed by going 5-2 in your first week after the All-Star break, then heading to Ohio to lose three of five games to the Reds and Indians.

Before the Cardinals came to town, the Reds had been flattened at home by the Brewers and Mets, losing five out of six and getting stomped 51-25 in the run differential. When the Cardinals reached Cincinnati, they did not have to worry about getting clobbered by the dangerous bat carried by Nicholas Castellanos; he missed the series with a wrist injury. The Cardinals had a chance to tee off a Reds bullpen that was shredded for a 6.98 ERA in the previous six games.

All of this presented the Cardinals with an opportunity to keep going, keep winning, and maintain their consistency.

The Cardinals lost two of three to the Reds.

Before the Cardinals arrived in Cleveland to play two games, the Indians had lost 17 of their last 25. The Indians were vulnerable; their tattered pitching staff had been slapped around for a 5.62 ERA over the 25 games.

This was a swell opportunity for the Cardinals to grab two quick wins and rebound from the 1-2 weekend in Cincinnati. But after winning 4-2 on Tuesday, the Cards were pummeled for a 7-2 loss on Wednesday afternoon. They managed only six lousy runs in their 18 innings of at-bats against ripe Cleveland pitching.

The Cardinals settled for a split and returned to St. Louis with a 2-3 record on disappointing five-game tour of Ohio.

And at 51-51, the Cardinals are were back to .500 again.

In Wednesday’s post-game, manager Mike Shildt was asked a good question about his team’s pattern of getting to level ground at .500, then struggling to climb higher above it. As Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold noted, “putting together a run of wins just hasn’t happened.” Shildt got defensive.

“I might take exception to that,” Shildt told Goold. “We won seven out of 10 coming into the game. That’s .700 baseball. Before that we beat the Giants (in two series) two out of three and two out of three. So, um, I don’t know how much more consistent you want. Clearly we would have liked to get that one today, and get another one in Cincinnati, no question about that. But like I said (we won) seven out of 10. I’d like to know what more we’d like. We do that the rest of the year, and we’d be pretty happy you know.”

Shildt added, “I understand the question. But listen, I’ve got to be able to defend what we’ve done recently. Also, I do appreciate the question of consistency. But I feel like we’re playing (well) and getting the most out of what we have pretty consistently. That’s ultimately all we can do.”

Post-Dispatch columnist Benjamin Hochman asked a natural follow-up. After noting the Cardinals’ recent success (before the road trip), Hochman sought the manager’s opinion on what the Cardinals needed to do to take the next step in August and into September to really be a contender. Excellent question.

“Look, I don’t know what to say,” Shildt responded. The manager pointed out that the Cardinals were 7-4 in their last 11 games, using that as an example of recent consistency.

The conversation got weird.

“I know everybody wants it to happen, happen, happen,” Shildt said. “Would it be sexier if it was 10 (wins) in a row? Sure, it would be super sexy. Would we like that to happen? Absolutely. But I really, candidly, don’t know how to answer that question Benjamin about what needs to happen more when, since we played San Francisco in their place, we’ve played good baseball, and we’ve been above .500. Are we 10 games over .500? No. Is it sexy that we’re three or four games over .500? I don’t know.”

Sexy? Sexier? Super sexy?

Well, that’s a new one from a Cardinals manager.

Then Shildt — harkening back to 2019 — suggested that if the Cardinals went 6-4 in each 10-game block the rest of the schedule, they’d pile up a lot of wins. Just as they did in ‘19, with a surge that lifted them to a final 91-71 record and division title.

Shildt wants everyone to know and remember that. With a laugh he again mentioned the Cards’ recent 7-3 stretch and how the “group” (the media) keeps asking, “Yeah but really what are you going to do?” His point: keep winning seven out of 10 — or even six of 10 — and everything should work out just fine.

A few things:

1) Before clicking in for a 46-26 mark in their final 72 games, the 2019 Cardinals were never more than 3 games out of first place. Not even when they sat at 45-45 on July 13. At that time, FanGraphs gave them a 20.1 percent chance of making the playoffs.

2) The 2021 Cardinals haven’t been closer than 7 games out of first since June 24. They currently trail Milwaukee by 9 games, and are 7 games behind the Padres for the second NL wild card. FanGraphs gives Sexy Shildty’s team a 2.8% chance of reaching the playoffs.

3) The 2019 Cardinals had to erase a three-game division deficit over 72 games.The 2021 Cards must eradicate a nine-game division deficit or wipe out a seven-game gap in the wild-card standings — and only have 60 games to work with.

4) While I can appreciate the recent, positive developments — heck, I wrote at length about them on Wednesday morning — I’ll have to push back against Shildt’s repeated mentions of his team going 7-3. Anyone can play that game.

What good is a 5-2 home stand, or some other mini-run, if you can’t keep the momentum churning? The Cardinals had a little something going before and after the break, which added up to an 8-4 record — and then lost three out of five on the road. So that 8-4 is now 10-7. That isn’t terrible, mind you. But that 8-4 easily could have been a 12-5 or 13-4. The point is, the Cardinals have to do a lot more than just get hot for a brief spell.

5) When Shildt says “I don’t know how much more consistent you want” the Cardinals to be … OK, I’ll take a stab at it.

Your team is now 23-31 on the road this season. And with all due respect, why should we be so impressed by the Cards winning two out of three in San Francisco when they followed that up by failing to win a series at Cincinnati and Cleveland on their next road trip? The Cardinals are 8-19 in their last 27 road games. They are 1-6-2 in their last nine road series. And if we want to start the count with the good visit to San Francisco, the Cardinals are 1-1-2 in their last four road series, with a record of 5-5. This isn’t progress, sir. Not for a team that’s staring at such a formidable climb in the NL Central and wild card standings.

6) It is perfectly reasonable for D. Goold to ask about the Cardinals’ difficulties in getting above .500, staying there, and continuing to rise to higher altitudes. The Cardinals’ high point over their last 35 games was two games over .500 back on June 16. Since then, they have been over .500 only four times, and never by more than a game above it. So unless the Cardinals can scale .500 and increase their record to five games over .500 — then 10 games over … then 15 games over … and even 20 games over — where is the path to a division title or a wild-card ticket? Despite making gains, the Cardinals are still stuck at .500. Maybe a game above, or a game or two or three below. But they’ve still residing on the .500 block.

7) The Cardinals are 14-10 since June 28. As I wrote earlier this week, when the record was 14-9, the Cards are heading in the right direction. But they’ll have to do better than that to close ground on the Brewers, the wild-card race, and the other teams that are jockeying for position with them. And as much as Shildt likes to talk about the mini-runs of winning — six out of 10, seven out of 10, seven out of 11, whatever — they’re all but standing in place. At the All-Star break the Redbirds were 8.5 games behind the Brewers, and 8 games behind the Padres in the wild card.A dozen games later, the Cards trail Milwaukee by 9 and San Diego by 7. And they are two games in back of the second-place Reds in the NL Central. And the Reds are ahead of them in the hunt for the second wild card.

8) Despite an improved performance from the starting pitching and the offense in July, the Cardinals are only 11-10 this month. This is another example of what I’ve been talking about. We can yap all we want about positive areas of the team, and take note of the enhanced performances. But if things are going so well, then why does the team have such a flat record (11-10) in July? That kind of pace won’t get you anywhere. In their pursuit of the Brewers, the Cardinals have actually slipped a game in the division standings this month.

9) Now that I’ve reached the ninth inning … beginning Friday, the Cardinals will play their next 15 games against Minnesota (3), Atlanta (3), Kansas City (6) and Pittsburgh. As of Thursday morning only the Braves were close to .500 at 50-52. The Pirates are 25 games under .500, the Twins are 17 games under, and the Royals are 12 games under. This is a great time for the Cardinals to string a bunch of wins together and get some real momentum going.

And I’m not talking about grinding out a 9-6 record over the next 15 games. More like 13-2 or 12-3. Shildt loves to praise his team, even when the praise is unwarranted or completely out of touch with reality. He talks about his men in a way that would make you think they were 60-42 instead of 51-51. Well, it’s definitely time to stop with this silly bragging over a .500 baseball team — and get this inconsistent bunch above .500 and beyond to give at least some legitimacy to Shildt’s gushing. And if he wants to demand praise from the media for because his team did well for a week or 10 days, then stumbled on the road  — good grief. You need to really give us something worthy of praise.

Thanks for reading!

–Bernie

Check out Bernie’s sports-talk show on 590-AM The Fan, KFNS. It airs Monday through Thursday from 3-6 p.m. and Friday from 4-6 p.m. You can listen live online and download the Bernie Show podcast at 590thefan.com … the 590 app works great and is available in your preferred app store.

The weekly “Seeing Red” podcast with Bernie and Will Leitch is available at 590thefan.com …

Follow Bernie on Twitter @miklasz

* All stats used here are sourced from FanGraphs, Baseball Reference, Stathead, Bill James Online, Fielding Bible, Baseball Savant and Brooks Baseball Net unless otherwise noted.

Bernie Miklasz

Bernie Miklasz

For the last 36 years Bernie Miklasz has entertained, enlightened, and connected with generations of St. Louis sports fans.

While best known for his voice as the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch for 26 years, Bernie has also written for The Athletic, Dallas Morning News and Baltimore News American. A 2023 inductee into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, Bernie has hosted radio shows in St. Louis, Dallas, Baltimore and Washington D.C.

Bernie, his wife Kirsten and their cats reside in the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood of St. Louis.