The St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs began the newest chapter in one of sport’s greatest rivalries on Tuesday. While the Cardinals entered the series with National League’s best record and riding a six-game win streak that ran completely over the Brewers, in series between these two clubs, anything can happen…and it actually did. The Cubs entered with an opposite record and place in the NL Central, yet when the series started everybody was on equal ground as usual between these two teams.

The series played out to show that equality as well, as the two clubs split the mid-week series, and played two intense games that took some timely baseball to work out and win. In the end, both games were won on the backs of each club’s closer-of-the moment, as well as some tight relief pitching, as well as by a grand total of one run in club’s favor. Yet the Cardinals survived their brush with their oldest rivals, and still sit with the best record in baseball. Here are three factors that made that possible:

1. Lynn’s Strange Start: Lance Lynn took the mound on Tuesday night riding more momentum than anybody else on the club. He was the winner of five straight contests, and was looking to win his NL-best sixth contest already. He also entered the start as a beneficiary of just over eight runs of support per game, a league-best level of assistance. After Allen Craig’s second inning home run, the Cardinals failed to score another run. The one run was the lowest amount of support he’d received since September 13^th last year, a 2-1 game that ended in his favor.

This time the game didn’t end on his side, as he dropped his first start since April 3^rd despite the fact he surrendered only two runs off four hits over seven innings. By not gaining the victory, he failed to match the longest winning streak by a Cardinals pitcher since Chris Carpenter in 2011.

2. Yadi giveth and taketh away: One of the oddest (or at least telling) turns of the Cardinal approach over the past few years is that Yadier Molina is among the most active base runners on the team. Despite his obvious lack of natural deftness, he has managed to steal at least eight bases in three of the last four seasons, including 12 a year ago. His trip to Chicago was a showing in both crapping and cashing out with gambles on the bases for him. In game one, in the midst of an eighth inning comeback, he followed a single up by stealing second with two outs. However, then after nearly being picked off on a long lead based on inducing a balk from the sometimes erratic Marmol, he took too far of a lead was cleanly picked off after the next pitch, ending the inning and the Cardinal hopes for the evening.

The next day, his footwork made the deciding difference. In a similar situation to the night before, Molina found himself back at second, but this time Jon Jay came through with a single into center field, where Molina turned the corner at third and scored the game’s final run. The gambling man continues to pay out…even if it’s just breaking even.

3. Who’s the Man(ess): Recently promoted righty Seth Maness has wasted no time in making an impact with the big club, and has done so under pressure each time out. He has produced game-saving, eighth inning double plays in both of his last two times on the mound, and has taken home the win in two of his first three appearances. He recorded the last five outs of Wednesday’s game, and has retired seven of the eight batters he’s faced. He has been a major factor in steadying the late game situations that sank the club repeatedly over the first month, and is doing a lot to make his first cup coffee up count.

The Cardinals completed their most dominant weekend in recent years over the weekend, completing the rare four-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers. The potential of the team has never been in doubt, yet the reality of it had been. The team put that to rest for the moment, as the offense woke up in a major way, cranking out 48 hits across the series, while surrendering only 12 runs across the series. These runs surrendered actually came from the starting rotation mostly, as the bullpen, propelled by some new additions, became a strength for the team, holding the lead in a way that has been uncharacteristic far too often this season.

All in all, the team leaves for the next stop on its current NL Central road spin, firmly ahead in the division and tied with the Boston Red Sox for the best record in baseball. The current six-game win streak the club is on is its second longest in the last four seasons, and also gives them four more road wins than any team in the National League. Here are three of the major factors that have played into the series that was.

1. Heart of lineup wakes up: Many of the struggles of the offense getting started this year has come at the heart of it. Matt Holliday has hit at a rate much lower than his average career output, and Allen Craig was a cleanup hitter than couldn’t hit the ball over the fence…or do much else of anything unless there was already somebody in place. And quite often, Holliday’s issue spilled into Craig’s, and it was just as frustrating to get them started as watching somebody try to bite their own ear.

Well, the power source of the club got to their job over the weekend, and it was no coincidence at all that the team had its best production of the year thus far as well. Holliday stepped into his usual role as a hammer, rocking the Brewers to the tone of a .333 average, 5 RBI and two home runs, including a monstrous 460 foot shot on Friday. Cardinal left fielder also scored seven runs in 3 games, and Craig is the cause of several of those. Craig had a prolific series, driving in seven runs on eight hits, including a double, triple and his first home run of the season. Overall, he hit .470 for the series, and got his clutch-hitting stats up to 22 RBI and a .412 average with runners in scoring position.

2. Baby Birds Hatched: The two most shocking moves of the season were both the comings and goings from the bullpen. In mercifully moving the struggling Mitchell Boggs and Marc Rzepczynski to Memphis to work out their issues, the club brought up two of its best minor league starters to boost the pen. Seth Maness and, more shockingly, Carlos Martinez came up and immediately showcased why they have the billing they brought with them.

Maness, the organization’s minor league pitcher of the year in 2012, made two appearances, and quickly earned his stripes. He induced a bases-loaded double play in the eighth inning in his second appearance to hold off the Brewers and set up the club’s third win of the series. Martinez made a stunning impact, showcasing the high-90’s fastball that made him a Top 25 prospect in all of baseball a year ago. Both showed that the potential of the much-hyped Cardinal system is living up to the eye test standard as well.

3. Thawing Out: After entering the series in the worst stretch of his career, David Freese joined the break out party as well. He had three multi-hit games to start the series, and looked much more comfortable than he had all season. It was an encouraging effort from the laboring Freese to come to life and beginning to bring the much needed balance to the lower half of the Cardinal lineup.

The St. Louis Cardinals have gone through a 15-game stretch when they’ve scored more than three runs just five times, yet they’ve won eight of those games. So despite near panic that the lineup has forgotten how to hit, the team is still winning ballgames mostly because the starting pitchers have been terrific to start the season.

The starting rotation likely won’t continue to pitch with a historically low 2.15 earned-run average, which was the fourth-lowest starters ERA for April in franchise history, but there are several reasons to believe the offense will start scoring many more runs on a consistent basis.

Third baseman David Freese is currently in a horrible slump, hitting just .163 with no homeruns and three RBIs, and centerfielder Jon Jay is hitting .213 with two homeruns and eight RBIs. Those sound like great numbers compared to Freese, but the Cardinals need at least average production from both of those spots to contend in the National League Central Division.

The other aspect of this situation is the Cardinals’ opponents. The Cardinals have faced arguably four of the six toughest non-divisional opponents in April, the Arizona Diamondbacks, San Francisco Giants, Philadelphia Phillies and Washington Nationals, and every NL Central team they’ve played has a winning record.

This isn’t going to be an easy season no matter how well the Cardinals play. Sure, the Cardinals could have four or five more wins already if the bullpen hadn’t been horrible to start the season, but chances are slim the Cardinals are going to go on any long winning streaks this season. The competition is just too good.

The Pittsburgh Pirates took two of three games from the Cardinals last weekend as A.J. Burnett threw another quality start Saturday, and rookie Jeff Locke shut them down Sunday (which isn’t surprising given the Cardinals typical struggles against left-handed pitchers, especially ones they haven’t faced before).

Then the Cincinnati Reds visited Busch Stadium for a very well-pitched series in which Reds starter Homer Bailey was the only starting pitcher to give up more than two runs in the three-game series when the Cardinals scored four against him Wednesday.

Those types of games are unquestionably difficult to watch when the Cardinals lose, but they are well-played games nonetheless. The offense does need to produce more runs, but good pitching has always beaten good hitting, and thankfully the Cardinals have good pitching.

Also, several Cardinals hitters are unlikely to stay stuck in their slumps.

Freese and Jay have proven throughout their careers they are good hitters who can make significant contributions to a lineup. Freese has a career .290 batting average, including his poor start to the 2013 season, and Jay is a career .294 hitter who has shown recent signs of life at the plate with three hits in a recent series against the Pirates.

Plus, the Cardinals schedule lightens up a bit in May. They will face the Chicago Cubs, New York Mets and San Diego Padres, which are already a combined 17 games under .500, for nine games in the next month. By comparison, the Cardinals’ April opponents are a combined 10 games over .500 as they head into May.

So although it’s easy to look at the winnable games the Cardinals lost in May, they should win more of those types of games this month because the schedule will be a little easier and, based on career averages, the offense should begin to produce more runs, especially against teams with weaker pitching staffs.

That all sets up what could be a fun month of baseball so long as the Cardinals avoid injuries, which isn’t a guarantee. This is the point in the season when they lost Allen Craig, Lance Berkman and Matt Carpenter to injuries for extended time in 2012.

The NL Central is too good this season for the Cardinals to jump out to a large lead, but St. Louis fans should be confident their team will still be at or near the top of the division by the time the calendar turns to June.

The Cardinals, returning back home after completing their first sweep of the season, experienced another set of firsts this weekend, of the less positive variety. After taking the opening game of the series and reaching a season-high five game winning streak, they dropped the final two games of weekend series versus the Pittsburgh Pirates and in the course also surrendered their lead atop the NL Central.

The team will now move into a second consecutive series with a divisional rival that is coming to town a game behind them, in the Cincinnati Reds. But before the Cardinal rebound effort comes to the forefront, here’s a look back at three points to take from the series that was:

1. Picking their spot: The Pirates showed a flare for the big moment in pulling out the series win, which a suddenly anemic Cardinal offense (three runs over the last 18 innings) could not match. Of the 14 runs scored to win the series, they hit five home runs (four of which were solo shots on Sunday) including three from Russell Martin. For the series, the Pittsburgh catcher hit .461 and drove in five runs, with four extra base hits.

Overall, they managed to hang around long enough to win, and for the second time in a week’s time, won a crucial series over their prime contention in the Central so far this year. And did so with Andrew McCutchen both slumping and out of the lineup on Sunday, and second baseman Neil Walker out of the series completely with a lacerated hand.

2. Late Inning Woes Continue: While the Cardinal bullpen received some encouraging news regarding the potential improving situation regarding Jason Motte, in the mean time it continued to struggle to find outs without damage weaved in-between. In 7.1 series innings, the pen surrendered 10 earned runs, with Mitchell Boggs on the hook for three and Marc Rzepczynski another three in two appearances totaling 2/3rds of an inning. Joe Kelly was credited with the four decisive runs in Saturday’s loss, but a Trevor Rosenthal bases loaded walk to Andrew McCutchen is what pulled Pitt ahead for good. The ninth inning is currently looking good, and potentially looking better, but there’s no sign of an upturn ahead of it in sight as of yet.

3.  Miller’s Maturation: Shelby Miller’s streak of 14 scoreless innings in Busch came to an end on Sunday. He didn’t pitch badly, striking out seven over 5.2 innings and allowing three runs. However, he did give up seven hits, including two home runs. Part of Miller’s success this season has been his ability to work at a quick pace, control the zone, limit walks and win with his fastball with regularity. However, as he sees teams repeatedly, he’ll have to start making the adjustments to overcome them. The Pirates waited him out in many situations to get a fastball they could hit, and they did so with success. These are the scenarios that will call for his off-speed repertoire to develop, so that good fastball hitting teams such as Pittsburgh aren’t able to linger for him pitch to their favor.

The season high seven hits he allowed, coupled with the three walks he surrendered (which is the sum of his previous three starts combined), put him in his toughest spot of the season, and produced his second shortest start. However, he has also pitched in rough situations in his two starts versus Pittsburgh this season as well; the Cardinals have been shut out in both of his starts, limited to just three hits in both contests.

After a tough end to the weekend on Sunday night in Philadelphia, the Cardinals rebounded nicely a day later and haven’t let up yet. The club pulled off its first series sweep of the season against the Washington Nationals in DC, wrapping it up against their ace Stephen Strasburg on Wednesday afternoon. It was the club’s first return back to DC since the improbable end of their Division Series matchup in the city last October. All in all, the longest road trip of the season ended with an impressive 6-3 record, with one game lost to rain. And as the club returns back home a half game ahead in the NL Central, here are three things to take from tilt with the Nationals.

1.Fear the Koz: Clearly Nationals fans have not forgotten the last time Pete Kozma made an appearance in their city. Kozma was routinely booed through the series each time he stepped to the plate, as an after effect of the two run single he plated to complete the Cardinal comeback in the decisive game of the 2012’s Division Series. Kozma, who is rather stoic even on a regular day, was also unflappable at the plate for the series. Despite the constant outpour of boos, he had four hits in nine at-bats for the series, and played his usual hard nose style on the basepaths. On the year, he’s turned in a respectable .262/.306/.675 effort thus far, and has been one of the most consistent everyday performers on the club.

2. Missing in Action: Jon Jay, who has been knees deep in a major slump, was sat down the last two games of the series. With lefty Ross Detwiler on the mound on Tuesday, it seemed to be a matchup move, yet when he sat again versus Strasberg on Wednesday, it became clear that the intention perhaps is to let him get all the way relaxed and back in Busch Stadium (where he is a career .329 hitter, yet only .250 in 2013) before putting him back in the mix again. His prolonged slump has dropped his season total at the plate to .205, which is tough to stomach out the leadoff spot. While a drop down to seventh didn’t help him much to start the series, he did manage a crucial sliding grab in the 8^th inning of Monday’s victory.

3. Mujica makes a way: For now, the Chief is in charge. Edward Mujica, who was really turned to as the last reasonable resort in the bullpen for the closer position, turned in series that has (for the time being) fanned the flames on much maligned closer role. He saved each game in the series, without surrendering a hit in the process. He pitched to contact, striking out only one batter, but has maintained the impeccable control that’s made him the exception in the late inning mix all year (one walk in nine appearances). While he doesn’t have the track record or the stuff that Boggs and Rosenthal boast, there’s nobody else that’s even gotten close the effectiveness he’s shown thus far.

The Cardinals won their third consecutive series over the weekend, and second consecutive against a division foe, by taking down the Milwaukee Brewers. In a series that was consistently spectacular early, yet ended in a manner that’s becoming quickly familiar in a not so positive way, the Cardinals finished their first home stand with a 4-2 record, and in sole possession of first place in the NL Central. While it was (nearly) a completely smooth ride, here are three things to pull away from the series, as the club heads out to tough 10 game road stretch.

1 .Big Inning Birds: The Cardinals are living, and dying, by the big inning thus far. When it works in their favor, it’s been potent. On Saturday, the Cardinals exploded for seven runs in an inning to put down Brewers ace Yovani Gallardo. This marked the fourth time in a week that the team topped at least four runs in an inning to put itself ahead for good. This has been by and large the way that the offense has worked, as it has hit a MLB-best .400 with runners in scoring position. However, the lineup has struggled to produce otherwise, has the team’s average falls to .208 with no runners on, 13^th best in the National League.

What does this say? Considering they are winners of their previous three series and atop the National League Central, at face value, not much. However, digging deeper it is clear that this trend cannot keep up. The team has to start producing more steadily. This can be achieved by getting Jon Jay going better at the top of the lineup (.245 average) and Allen Craig and Carlos Beltran (both at .222) getting more sporadic hits, over just clutch production.

On the flip side, the bullpen is becoming prone to the big inning as well. Mitchell Boggs blew his first save of the season on Sunday, while watching his ERA rise to 9.95. He split his save chances in the series, and didn’t make easy work of the one that went over. Torches are beginning to spread for his head amongst the town people. Overall on the season, the bullpen is sporting an NL-worst 6.09 ERA, along with three losses and supporting a .278 batting average against. While it is early, it’s never too soon to figure out how to stop a leak before it sinks the boat.

2. They went streaking: Until Ryan Braun’s two-run, eighth inning homer, the Cardinals held the Brewers scoreless for the first 25.1 innings of the series, and it was due to a remarkable three start effort from Shelby Miller, Adam Wainwright and Jaime Garcia. If Jake Westbrook’s shutout of the Reds on Wednesday is factored in, Cardinal starters are currently on a 32-inning shutout streak.

The back-to-back efforts of Miller and Wainwright were the two of the most masterful starts of the season, overall. Miller tossed seven shutout innings of one-hit baseball, retiring 17 consecutive at one point and running his record up to 2-0. Wainwright followed the next afternoon by throwing as dominant of a shutout as possible, striking out 12, surrendering only four hits and finishing what he started to seal the series win for the Cardinals. Garcia had a more laboring effort, surrendering seven hits over as many innings, but still kept the Brewers off the board as well.

3. The long and winding road: Friday brought an appreciation of the life (and musical acumen) of Stan Musial, but it also brought back Kyle Lohse, who opposed the club for the first time since his much discussed foray through free agency. In what was sure to be a mixed emotional start, Lohse took the mound against the Cardinals less than a month after finding a new home within the division he has spent the majority of his career.

On his first at-bat, he received roughly a 30 second standing ovation from Cardinal fans, appreciative of both his work for the club from 2008 to 2011 (55 wins, 3.90 ERA) and his difficult road to finding a new home. He fared well against his former teammates, throwing seven innings, surrending only six hits and two runs. He completed the cycle of closing out his moving on process, by visiting with his former teammates and manager before Saturday’s game in the Cardinals clubhouse.

The final scores of the first three games between the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals this season weren’t all that close, but the games were tighter than the margins of victory indicated.

That could foreshadow another season of great baseball between the National League Central Division’s two best teams, but it probably won’t determine which team wins the division.

The Cincinnati Reds destroyed the St. Louis Cardinals 13-4 Monday in the Cardinals’ home-opener, but that was a close game until the ninth, and the Cardinals ripped the Reds the next two days, 5-1 and 10-0, to take an extremely early 2-1 lead in the season series against their most dangerous divisional opponent.

That’s obviously a good way to kick off what could be a fun race for the 2013 division crown, but the Cardinals’ records against teams outside the National League Central Division might be even more important.

Based on how the teams played in their recent series at Busch Stadium, the Cardinals and Reds are both good, but they are pretty evenly matched.  One team probably won’t win the vast majority of the 19 games the rivals play against each other this season, nor will one team likely falter against a specific divisional opponent.

The Milwaukee Brewers and Pittsburgh Pirates are decent, but the Cardinals and Reds are better than both of those teams, as well as the lowly Chicago Cubs, and they should run through the division relatively easily. Now, the division race could be drastically altered if the Cardinals or Reds continually falter against a particular opponent, but that is still improbable.

The more likely scenario is a season series that ends up 10-9, 11-8 or 12-7. Sure, those couple of games will be extremely important if the Reds and Cardinals end up in a tight battle in the standings near the end of the season, but the winner of that battle will likely be the team that wins the most games against teams in every other divisions, especially now that Major League Baseball has implemented season-long interleague play.

The Cardinals beat the Reds in eight of their 15 games last season, and both teams had similar records within the division. The Cardinals went 45-32 against NL Central opponents, while the Reds went 49-30. Again, those few games do matter, but the biggest difference between the Cardinals and Reds in 2012 was their performance against NL East teams.

The Reds won 19 of 34 games against the NL East last season. While that’s not a great record by any means, it is significantly better than the Cardinals 14-20 record against those same teams. And that’s largely the reason the Reds finished nine games ahead of the Cardinals in the final standings.

But that doesn’t mean Reds-Cardinals games won’t be a lot of fun to watch this season. Both teams have good pitching, and they have balanced lineups that can score a lot of runs at any time. That combination makes for games that will usually be close throughout, as the last three games were through the first half.

The Cardinals would’ve outscored the Reds 3-2 for the series if the teams had play just the first four innings each day. Instead, the Cardinals outscored the Reds 19-14 in what looks like an offensively charged series, when in reality pitchers shut down each offense for the majority of each game.

The teams will meet again April 29 for round two at Busch Stadium, and they’ll play four more series after that. But what each team does in the games between those meetings will play just as large a role in which team represents the NL Central in the 2013 playoffs.

The St. Louis Cardinals have been blessed to have two of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball throughout the past seven years. Unfortunately, they rarely got to see that blessing in full effect.

The Cardinals announced Tuesday that Chris Carpenter won’t pitch in 2013, which likely ends his career as a player for the Cardinals. It also ends a very successful era that still could have been exponentially better without injuries to Carpenter and his co-ace Adam Wainwright.

The Cardinals won two World Series titles and made the playoffs in four of the seven seasons Carpenter and Wainwright were both on the roster. That is arguably the most success any franchise has had during that time.

The San Francisco Giants won just as many championships, but they only made the playoffs those two seasons. The New York Yankees made the playoffs in six of those seven seasons, but they won just one World Series.

Still, the Cardinals had all of that success while rarely having Carpenter and Wainwright healthy at the same time. The only years both pitchers were able to be on the mound regularly during the same season were 2006 (although Wainwright was in the bullpen as a rookie), 2009 and 2010. One of the two pitchers was on the disabled list for an extended period of time in those other four seasons.

Most of the injuries happened to Carpenter. He led the Cardinals onto the field on Opening Day 2007 against the New York Mets and gave up five runs in six innings as the Cardinals lost 6-1. They would go on to finish 78-84, good for third place in the NL Central.

Wainwright moved into the starting rotation in 2007 and compiled a 25-15 record over the course of the next two seasons. But Carpenter didn’t return until 2009, which also happened to be the next time the Cardinals returned to the playoffs.

Carpenter and Wainwright combined for a 72-32 record in 2009 and 2010, the first time since 2006 the two pitchers were both healthy at the same time. The Cardinals won 91 games in 2009 and 86 in 2010, but then injuries destroyed the dynamic duo once again.

Wainwright blew out his elbow in the opening days of spring training in 2011 and missed the entire year after having Tommy John surgery. Carpenter picked up the slack that season with an 11-9 record that betrays his 3.45 earned-run average and his leadership that led the Cardinals to the World Series. He won the playoff-clinching game on the final day of the season in Houston, Game Five of the division series in Philadelphia and Game Seven of the World Series against the Texas Rangers.

Coming off the championship season, the Cardinals hopes were high that they could repeat because Wainwright would be back, and the team would have its two best pitchers healthy again.

Then Carpenter started to feel discomfort in his next during spring training workouts. He wouldn’t make his first start of the season until Sept. 21.

The Cardinals still did well last year and came within one win of reaching the World Series again, but Carpenter struggled against the Giants in the National League Championship Series. He didn’t make it beyond the fourth inning in either of his starts, and his arm wasn’t fully healed.

So while the Cardinals’ announcement that Carpenter wouldn’t be able to pitch this season wasn’t terribly shocking, it still closes the book on one of the most successful eras in franchise history.

But despite that success, the franchise and its fans will close that book wondering how great those teams could’ve been if their two best pitchers hadn’t so often fallen victim to injuries.

The St. Louis Cardinals took the field June 10, 2012 against the Cleveland Indians with seven of their projected starters on the disabled list and Matt Holliday on the bench with a minor injury. Not surprisingly, the team was mired in an 11-19 slump. But the Cardinals might be better prepared to handle a similar rash of injuries in 2013.

Ty Wigginton will add depth to the Cardinals bench.

The 2012 Cardinals fought through much of May and June without the likes of Jon Jay, Skip Schumaker, Lance Berkman and Matt Carpenter. That stretch tested the team’s depth as players such as Shane Robinson, Daniel Descalso and Matt Adams did their best to fill the holes left in the lineup and on the field.

The Cardinals were far from a great team at that point in the season, and their record during that portion of the season is a large reason why they finished nine games behind the Cincinnati Reds in the NL Central.

Sure, the Cardinals likely wouldn’t have caught the Reds regardless, but they would’ve been five games out if they went 15-15 in the 30-game stretch in May and June, and they would’ve been in a final-week battle with the Reds had they played above .500 in that stretch.

Looking ahead to 2013, the Cardinals still have a fairly veteran lineup that will probably feature at least four players 30 years old or older. Age and health were concerns for the Cardinals heading into last season, and many of those same concerns will remain this year. Lance Berkman is the only player age 30 or older who is no longer with the team.

That means the Cardinals will need to have players ready to fill in and contribute at a high level when injuries hit.

The only free agent hitter they signed in the offseason was 35-year-old Ty Wigginton, so they didn’t bolster their bench, especially after trading Schumaker to the Los Angeles Dodgers. However, the team still has more depth on its roster and in the minor leagues.

If shortstop Rafael Furcal gets hurt, the Cardinals can call on last year’s late-season hero Pete Kozma, who showed last year he can be productive. If Carlos Beltran or Matt Holliday get hurt, Allen Craig could move from first base or Matt Carpenter could fill those spots. Plus, minor leaguers such as outfielder Oscar Taveras and second baseman Kolten Wong are nearly ready to play in the big leagues, anyway.

Realistically, the Cardinals would have to have more than five starters hurt at the same time before they would start running out of decent replacement options. But even in that case, Adams is still an option to fill in at first base from time to time, so long as he shows some improvement from his 27-game stint in the big leagues that yielded a .244 batting average with two homeruns and 13 RBIs.

In addition to depth in the field, the Cardinals found last year that they have quite a stockpile of young pitchers who now have postseason experience and can certainly fill any gaps if someone in the rotation or bullpen gets hurt. Lance Lynn, Joe Kelly, Shelby Miller and Trevor Rosenthal are all more-than-decent options should Adam Wainwright or Chris Carpenter get hurt again, or if Jaime Garcia continues to have shoulder problems.

The Cardinals haven’t done much during the offseason to fortify their bench, but they already have enough interchangeable parts on their roster to keep the team competitive should they face another year when the regular lineup struggles to stay healthy.

And with a veteran team, those replacement parts are most likely going to be vital to the team’s success in 2013.

The St. Louis Cardinals entered Game 5 of the National League Championship Series on Friday up three games to one on the San Francisco Giants, just one win from securing a spot in the World Series. All they had to do was beat Giants starter Barry Zito, who hasn’t had an earned-run average under 4.03 in six years.

That sounds doable enough. The Cardinals scored eight runs the night before against 2008 and 2009 Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum. Instead, Zito, who did win a Cy Young award with the Oakland A’s in 2002, shut the Cardinals down for eight innings, and the Giants won 5-0.

That means instead of a free weekend to rest and prepare for Game 1 of the World Series on Wednesday at home against the Detroit Tigers, the Cardinals had to trek back out to San Francisco. Additionally, they will face Ryan Vogelsong and Matt Cain in games 6 and 7, against whom the Cardinals have scored a combined four runs in their first starts of the series.

The Cardinals could have wrapped up the NL pennant Friday, but no, that wouldn’t have let them win in their typical pull-your-hair-out, blood-vessel-bursting excitement and drama. This is the 2012 Cardinals, who are an extension of the 2011 Cardinals. They do things the hard way.

The Cardinals could’ve wrapped up the second wild card spot by beating the Cincinnati Reds in the second-to-last game of the season, but they didn’t. They lost 3-1 and had to rely on the Giants to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers later that night to clinch the NL Central.

They also could’ve knocked out the Washington Nationals in Game 4 of the Division Series but lost 2-1 on a walk-off homerun by Jayson Werth. That led into a 6-0 deficit in Game 5 that required a miracle comeback just to make the National League Championship Series.

The Cardinals could have saved lots of stress and heartburn for their fans had they won Game 5 Friday night, but that’s not how the Cardinals operate. They seek out the most tense moments possible and still prevail. Sometimes it feels like the Cardinals are in on a big prank where they know they will win, but they want to make that victory as dramatic as possible.

That now might have to be how they win the NLCS. Vogelsong and Cain are very good pitchers, and the Giants will have both games at home. Of course, the Cardinals will counter with Chris Carpenter and Kyle Lohse on the mound, but gosh it would’ve been nice to wrap up the series at home with a little bit of a cushion.

The one benefit of all of the close, back-against-the-wall victories is that they are certainly fun to celebrate. Thankfully, the Cardinals have won every one of those games in the last two years, but that possibility of a loss looms over those games larger than a Directv blimp.

But with Friday’s loss, they once again opened the door on the possibility that Game 5 might have been the last game in Busch Stadium this year.

The Cardinals knew going into the series the Giants wouldn’t be easy to eliminate. San Francisco has a very good team that pitches well and can generate runs without having to hit the ball out of the park. That’s going to make the remainder of the NLCS fun to watch for baseball fans, especially fun for the winning team’s fans and heartbreaking for the losing team.

The Cardinals have once again let a postseason series head toward the brink of an elimination, win-or-go-home game that will be seared into the memories of Cardinals fans forever.

It’s more fun that way, right?