Cardinals' Hot Start to 2026 Draws Comparison to 2025 Brewers

There are some stark similarities.

May 2, 2026; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals center fielder Victor Scott II (11), St. Louis Cardinals left fielder Nathan Church (27) and St. Louis Cardinals right fielder Jordan Walker (18) celebrate after beating the Los Angeles Dodgers at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joe Puetz-Imagn Images | Joe Puetz-Imagn Images

The St. Louis Cardinals came into Wednesday's series finale with the Milwaukee Brewers looking for their third consecutive series victory. After Monday's win in the opener, St. Louis was 21-14 and hot on the Chicago Cubs' heels for first place in the National League Central.

They are scoring plenty of runs and simply finding ways to win with limited resources. Fans are invested again as the Cardinals have been a fun team to watch. Amid their hot start to the season, former MLB.com writer John Denton discussed what is working for St. Louis and even compared them to last year's Brewers.

"The Cardinals have kind of become the Brewers. Last year everybody was like 'Why are the Brewers winning?'" Denton said. "They're playing great defense and they're running the heck out of the bases. If you miss a cutoff man, they're taking the extra 90 feet. If you ignore Pedro Pages at first base, he's going to take a base."

Cardinals eerily similar to 2025 Brewers

May 4, 2026; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals center fielder Victor Scott II (11) lays down a bunt against the Milwaukee Brewers during the fourth inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images | Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

The Brewers won 97 games last season due to their pitching, defense and baserunning. In truth, it's very similar to how the Cardinals found their success in the 1980s under Whitey Herzog.

The Brewers didn't have a ton of power in their lineup, but they found other ways to generate offense. The Cardinals are similar this year in that they don't have a lot of power. Willson Contreras and Nolan Arenado are both gone after being traded away this past offseason.

Still, both last year's Brewers and this year's Cardinals are showing that hitting a lot of home runs is not the only way to win games or even score runs. The Cardinals are also simply playing loose and relaxed thanks to their expectations being so low this season.

The same was true for the Brewers last year after they had traded Devin Williams to the New York Yankees. But there are a lot of similarities. The Cardinals have been able to beat some very good teams this season because of their approach.

They are eighth in the National League in stolen bases, but have plenty of players with speed, including Victor Scott II, Masyn Winn, JJ Wetherholt, Jordan Walker and Nathan Church.

If they can keep this approach up, then they could ultimately find themselves winning a lot of games in 2026, which should make for a very fun summer in St. Louis.