The St. Louis Cardinals might have limped their way into the 2019 National League Divisional Series five game playoff series against the Atlanta Braves, which starts Thursday. Heading into the postseason, the Cardinals had lost four of their last five games and barely beat the Milwaukee Brewers to win the National League Central Division title by two games.
However the final Cardinals game of the 2019 Major League Baseball regular season was a prime example why the Cardinals are among the final eight teams who have a chance of winning the World Series this year. In a dominating performance, the Cardinals beat the Cubs 9-0 to finish the season at 91 wins and 71 losses.
The most dominant Cardinals player was their ace starting pitcher, Jack Flaherty of Burbank, CA. Flaherty pitched seven shutout innings and only gave up two hits. He had strikeouts and one walk.
Even though the Cardinals are going with Miles Mikolas of Jupiter, FL as their game one starter against the Braves, Flaherty is definitely the Cardinals ace. He finished the year with only a record of 11 wins and eight losses, but had a strong earned run average of 2.75, a phenomenal WHIP of 0.97, and 231 strikeouts compared to only 55 walks in 196.3333 innings.
Flaherty’s WHIP of 0.97 was so strong, he led the National League in the category and was the third best in Major League Baseball. Houston Astros starting pitcher Justin Verlander of Manakin Sabot, VA led MLB with a WHIP of 0.80 and Astros starting pitcher Gerrit Cole of Newport Beach, CA was second with a WHIP of 0.90.
Meanwhile, offensively on Sunday, Paul Goldschmidt of Wilmington, DE led the Cardinals with three hits including his 34th home run of the season. Two other Cardinals players hit home runs as Dexter Fowler of Atlanta, GA and Matt Carpenter of Galveston, TX also went deep. Fowler and Goldschmidt each led the Cardinals with two runs scored and Carpenter led the Cardinals with three runs batted in.
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