Win or lose, the rebuilt Redbirds have already established hope for the future. But for now? They’re learning how to win the hard games
By Ryan K Boman | June 2, 2026 | @ryankboman44 on X
In the midst of a three-game home series with the Texas Rangers, the St. Louis Cardinals still haven’t faded as many MLB pundits expected by now. Despite a rough stretch that saw the retooled Redbirds go 9-11 over their last 20 games, they are still 31-27 on the year, and sitting in second place, 5.5 games behind Milwaukee. To the young team’s credit, they were only picked to win around 70 games this season, but the baby ‘Birds have blossomed early, and they’ve shown surprising maturity in the face of adversity.
It’s that resilience that carries this team through the potholes that have bounced them around in the last three weeks. And while they seem to take their shots, the team seems to just wear other teams down over the course of the series. With the way they work the pitch count, they tend to play rope-a-dope with their opponents. Then, just like Muhammad Ali, they rally back to take the scorecard.
That grueling battle of wills belies the team’s overall age and experience. The ability to not jump on everything near the plate helps get into – and hopefully wear down – an opposing team’s relief corps. They especially employ this tactic in the first game of a tilt, looking to drain the energy from arms out in the bullpen and hope it carries on throughout the rest of the set.
Perhaps that’s why Los Cardenales jóvenes seem to always drop a game here and there, but manage to win the series. In the end, they win by attrition; they are the last man standing, so to speak.
In other words, they aren’t sweating these close contests; they’re making their opponents do so. They don’t need to establish any form of dominance at this early stage of the team’s formation. They are learning how to play together and still winning plenty of games at the same time. Rather than being concerned with that, it should be considered a positive sign in the team’s overall growth. Not just in 2026, but for the years ahead.
St. Louis Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol emphasizes a disciplined approach where hitters work counts to drive up pitch counts, which often means the Cards are seemingly ‘waiting to strike’. throughout most of the contest. That’s perhaps where the Cardiac Cards nickname comes from, aside from its ties to the local past.
[It was originally a moniker given to the team’s NFL Cardinals before the franchise moved to Arizona in 1987.]
When other teams are starting to see their fuel gauge hitting ‘E’, the Cardinals are just getting their engines revving. That’s one of the reasons the team has had so many Maalox moments so far, to go along with the normal mistakes that come from youth. Still, this team has shown the mettle of a veteran squad more often than not, gaining what are often known around The Show as ‘character wins’, or ‘statement wins’.
Nonetheless, the St. Louis fans view it as a full-blown Redbird revival, one that has them shouting past the Gateway Arch for joy. In what was supposed to be a Cruel Summer, the team has the town feeling Good Vibrations. And it’s only going to get better from here, by the looks of things.
Right now, this squad is learning how to win that come down to the wire and are won in the late-inning dirt. For now? That ability to scratch out victories will add to their maturation process over the course of 2026 – win or lose. But down the road? That steely will should come in even handier for a team that hopes to become an eventual World Series contender.
