To play baseball is to persevere. 162 games from the warm of spring to the cool of autumn, it's the marathon, it's the race. Playing every day for weeks on end, sun beating down, hour after hour, game after game, weeks after months after years. When you lose your ace, when you lose your bats. When your rising star loses his life, tragically and sensically– you persevere. This Cardinals team persevered. It took to the end of one of the most grueling seasons in history in the most competitive division in history for the Cardinals to finally cede a sweep. After every loss, on the field and on the roster, the Cardinals would not give up, they would not accept anything less than the best.