Once again it’s late September. The weather in St. Louis has started to cool down. Some of those around town are asking when the Rams will be moving to Los Angeles. Others are counting down the three weeks until the St. Louis Blues take the ice. I wonder all of these things but my mind is mainly thinking about those St. Louis Cardinals and this year’s playoff push. As of today, the Cardinals magic number to clinch the National League Central is down to single digits.

How hot has Adam Wainwright been? Just last night he broke up a no hitter with a single and picked up his 19th win of the season which just happened to be shutout. He’s 19-9 on the season with a 2.45 earned run average, has pitched 220 innings with 171 strikeouts. He will probably finish second in the Cy Young award voting to the Dodgers Clayton Kershaw. If the playoffs started right now, Wainwright and Kershaw may face off in Game 1 of the National League Division Series. Hey network TV, put that game in primetime on your best channel now!

Lance Lynn and Shelby Miller have impressed lately to round off my playoff starting pitchers. Throw in John Lackey and the drama of Michael Wacha and the Cardinals look pretty set starting pitching wise. The bullpen has the closer Trevor Rosenthal along with Carlos Martinez, Pat Neshek, Seth Maness, and who knows else. Some are worried about Rosenthal closing games, I am not. He has gotten 44 out of 50 saves. Not sure anyone else on the team can do better.

Matt Carpenter, Jon Jay, Matt Holliday, Matt Adams, Yadier Molina, Jhonny Peralta, Oscar Tavares and Kolten Wong make a great starting lineup. Let’s just see if manager Mike Matheny will let them play to mesh together. A recent scoreless innings slump proved to me that we just need to let them play. Use Peter Bourjos, A. J. Pierzynski, and even Daniel Descalso sparingly and as needed only. I have no clue how Descalso survived this season but I hope he plays well the rest of the way and deep into October.

Let them play. Let them hit. Let them be the best team they can be. Please manager, coaches, and whoever else, please just give them a chance.