Answer: The St. Louis Cardinals clubhouse.
Let’s put this in perspective. 10 days ago, the Cardinals won their game that day and the Stros lost theirs. At that time, the Cards were 79-69 and the Stros were 72-77. The Stros were trailing the Redbirds by a seemingly insurmountable 8.5 games.
After completing a sweep of the Pirates yesterday afternoon, the Stros are now 81-78 and a mere half game behind the 81- 77 Cards, who got creamed by the Brewers last night. So, in a week and a half, the Stros have gone from less than a five percent chance of making the playoffs to being a legitimate contender. You gotta love baseball.
Although there is a element of luck in what has happened, it’s really not that surprising when you look at the statistics. The Stros stellar pitching has continued to improve — as it usually does over the 2nd half of the season — and the hitting, although still well below Naitional League average, has improved enough so as not to undermine the excellent pitching. On the other hand, the Cardinals’ pitching — which has been deteriorating for over a season now — has gone into the tank while their hitting has been pretty much relegated to an occasional Pujols tater.
The Stros have three games against the Braves in Atlanta and the Cards have three more games at home against the Brewers and a make-up game, if necessary, against the Giants on Monday in St. Louis. If the Stros and Cards tie, the one-game playoff is on Tuesday at Minute Maid Park in Houston.