The St. Louis Cardinals must have been feeling smurfy yesterday against the Milwaukee Brewers in their baby blue throwback unis.

In the past two games, the St. Louis Cardinals have pounded out a season high in hits. On Sunday, the Cardinals roped 18 hits against the slumping Los Angeles Dodgers while scoring 12 runs. They did one better on Tuesday by compiling 19 hits against the Milwaukee Brewers. The Cards have went from one of the worst offensive clubs in the NL in their first 35 games of the season to the top tier of the league in their last 80 or so games. If you need proof, check out lboros' post over at Viva El Birdos.

Jim Edmonds led the attack last night with 4 hits and 3 RBI. Edmonds, who is one of the streakiest hitters I have ever seen could finally be hitting his stride. The man is either feast or famine and if he is feasting, the Cards offense looks to be much more productive. Another highlight from last night was Kip Wells picking up his second consecutive win. He has put together 5 quality starts in his last 6 outings and is now 6-13 on the year after a 2-11 start.  The Cards now sit only 4.5 games back of the first place Brewers and only 3 games back of the Chicago Cubs. They are still 4 games under .500 and need to concentrate first and foremost on at least evening out that record.

Somehow the Cards are attempting to make a race out of the NL Central in the last two months. There have been multiple times throughout the year where it looked like the Cards needed to shut it down and start thinking about 2008, but they have continuously played well enough for short periods of time to stay in contention. It's amazing that they are within striking distance after everything the team has went through this year (La Russa, Hancock, Carp, injuries, Spiezeo, etc.). Perhaps all these problems have drawn the team closer together, much like what happened in 2002 after Daryl Kile's death. In that year, the Cards had a .553 winning percentage in the first half and came back after the break with a .649 winning percentage. This season the Cards had a .471 winning percentage in the first half and so far sit at .500 in the second half. The comparison is not great considering that the 2002 team was doing well in the first half of the season to begin with, but if the Cards keep playing well for the next month and a half they might have some chance to pull off the division crown.