The following article appeared on Viva El Birdos on Friday, July 26th. My commentary on each paragraph shortly followed.

The Cardinals’ series loss to the Pirates felt like a reality check

First and foremost, I want to just say that I love this title because it is completely and totally irrefutable. It tells us how Curtis is feeling. And I think we can all agree how important his feelings are. His feelings are valid and they are very real.

Before everybody makes assumptions based on the title, I want to clarify something. No, I don’t think the Cardinals are a bad team. They’ve much better baseball since May 12 and have found their way back into contention. That’s all well and good, and I’ve been very impressed by the way they’ve handled adversity this year.

The only assumption I made from the title was that you, Curtis Bishop, have feelings. And you are allowed to have them. You don’t owe us an explanation good Sir. You are an internet marketing genius and I bow to your awesomeness.

That being said, however, I do want to get to what I mean by "reality check." This series against the Pirates was very important for the Cardinals, as it was their second straight against a fellow playoff contender, and after winning the series with the Braves, St. Louis had a ton of momentum. But it all went down the drain yesterday when they dropped the series to Pittsburgh.

I love a good "That being said, however" in both the articles I read and the conversations I have. Lets me know I’m dealing with advanced intellect. As for the rest of this paragraph, well, let me bust out a few cliches here. First, basically all but two teams in the NL are playoff contenders this year. Second, I’m not sure if momentum really exists in baseball, but if it does, I love that it can be measured empirically and I’m sorry a whole two thousand pounds of it went down the proverbial drain here.

This was a chance for the Cardinals to separate themselves from the rest of the pack in the NL Wild Card race. It’s important to note right now that the Mets, Diamondbacks, and Padres are all hot in addition to the Pirates. But instead of getting some separation, the Cardinals just fell flat, only scoring three runs in the series.

Anemic offense was anemic and the race is tight. Indeed, that was a bummer.

Keep in mind that the Cardinals have a tough schedule coming up. This weekend series against the Nationals should provide a bit of a break, as Washington is on a slide right now. But after that, they’ve got to deal with the Rangers, who are suddenly red-hot and right back in contention. Then in August, they face the Mets, Royals, Dodgers, Brewers, Twins, Padres, and Yankees and start September with another series against the Brewers and a matchup with the Mariners. This is just one series, but it certainly isn’t a good sign that they lost it.

I love a good "keep in mind" in both the articles I read and the conversations I have—lets me know where to put my focus. Also, and I’m no mathematician, but regardless of how many games the Cardinals lost to the Pirates last series, I’m pretty sure they would still have to play all of these games and I’m equally sure the Cardinals aren’t going into a series in September with the Brewers thinking to themselves, "There’s no way we can do this. I mean remember when Mitch Keller beat us?"

The Cardinals were bound for a little regression. That’s just the way the baseball season works. It ebbs and flows. And I’m not saying the Cardinals are doomed by any means. But considering the schedule they have coming up, this was not encouraging, and it felt to me as though the Cardinals may just be one of those teams that beats up on bad teams while not being able to beat their fellow contenders.

Bishop’s all like, look it’s a long season, stuff happens, and we’re not good.

Sure, they’ve beaten some good teams, but they haven’t beaten them consistently, and that’s what they’re going to have to do in order to be a playoff team. I know I sound like a broken record, but I’m still hesitant to say the Cardinals are "back." Couple that with the fact that they probably won’t go big at the deadline for what they really need and there’s not a lot to get super fired up about. They’re in contention because the National League is as bad as it’s ever been.

To be a playoff team, they basically need to have the sixth best record in a league that is as bad as its ever been and that’s tough to do if you’re not consistently beating the good teams in the bad league.

Again, this is not a bad team, but they still aren’t a World Series contender. They were linked to Nathan Eovaldi, but with Texas hot again, I don’t see them trading him. And what evidence suggests that they’re going to go big at the deadline?

If you make the playoffs, you are by definition a World Series Contender. The Cardinals are basically a coinflip for making the playoffs. Also, I love that Detective Bishop is on the case looking for evidence of the Cardinals deadline acquisition efforts. Regular Sherlock Holmes here.

If they want to beat the best teams, that’s what they need to do. If they do that, then I’ll be a little more excited. But the series loss in Pittsburgh kind of felt like the Cardinals coming back down to earth a little bit.

Seriously, the Cardinals were like one lucky bloop from taking two out of three from the Pirates and on the strength of that one loss we have an entire article based on nothing more than how a specific writer feels about the entire season (but just a little bit).

We’ll see if they can pull it together against the Nationals, get what they need at the deadline, and stick it to their fellow contenders. But the task, while not impossible, will not be easy. For now, we should hope for the best at the deadline.

My fellow Americans, we finish the baseball season with hopes of the playoffs not because it easy but because it is not impossible. Also, we should hope for the best because this bad team is not that bad and also not that good and they may be coming back to earth after losing two out of three to the Pirates, coming off that crazy high wherein they won two out of three from the Braves. As we all know, over the course of a 162 game season, everything depends on a road series against the Pittsburgh Pirates.