Things are looking up for the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL playoff race

It looked like a second straight nightmarish season for a franchise that rarely suffers such things.

The St. Louis Cardinals had a 71-91 record last season and finished last in the National League Central. It marked their first losing season since 2007. The Cardinals’ most recent finish in the basement was in 1990.

The outlook was again dismal this season on May 11 when the Cardinals lost their seventh straight game to fall to 15-24. Speculation swirled around baseball that the jobs of general manager John Mozeliak and manager Oliver Marmol were in jeopardy.

However, the Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 the next day on Mother’s Day, and it sparked quite a turnaround. St. Louis has won 30 of its last 47 games to improve to 45-41.

The Cardinals are in second place in the NL Central and trail the Brewers by six games. However, they hold the third and final NL wild-card spot by 2 ½ games over the Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Mets.

So how did the Cardinals turn their season around?

“The guys remained committed to playing the good, solid type of baseball we know we can play,” Marmol said. “Our offense has been more productive and consistent and the combination of what our pitching has done, and our bullpen has done has led to wins."

“Our guys haven't given in. I'll tell you that. It's a tough group, it's a different group than last year. Actually, this group is pretty damn resilient, and they don’t give in to a whole lot. They don't get too high, too low, they know what they're capable of and they've been committed to winning.”

An example of that resiliency is second baseman Nolan Gorman, who entered the Cardinals’ series with the Pittsburgh Pirates earlier this week in a terrible slump. He had just seven hits in his previous 84 at-bats with 37 strikeouts.

Gorman hit a grand slam Tuesday night to spark the Cardinals to a 7-4 win in the series opener. They went on to take two of three games from the Pirates.

“I think anyone going through the failure that we go through, it would be tough,” Gorman said. “But I think we all know that this is the game we love to play, and there’s always another day to play this game. So, you can’t put too much on yourself and beat yourself up. You’ve got to go out there and compete again for another nine innings against another professional team.”

The Cardinals average just 3.98 runs scored a game, which stands 26th among the 30 MLB teams. However, their pitchers are 12th in baseball with a 3.85 ERA.

Mozeliak struck quickly in free agency last winter and signed three veteran right-handed starters -- Sonny Gray (three years, $75 million), Kyle Gibson (one year, $13 million) and Lance Lynn (one year, $11 million).

All three are pitching well. Gray is 9-5 with a 2.98 ERA in 15 starts, Lynn has a 4-3 record and 3.59 ERA in 17 starts and Gibson is 6-3 with a 3.88 ERA through 16 starts.

“It’s extremely important for those guys to perform well, especially when you feel like that’s the missing part,” Marmol said. “You have young guys, too, and you want examples of guys like a Lance and a Gibby and a Sonny to model success and failure for them, how to handle the tough parts of the season and they’ve do that extremely well too. We got the right guys. We identified the right guys, got the deals done early. We got them for a reason. We knew who we wanted, why we wanted them, and they have delivered.”

Closer Ryan Helsley has converted a team-record 31 save opportunities since blowing his first chance of the season. His 31 saves lead MLB.

Marmol has used Helsley in shorter stints and believes that’s the key to the closer’s big season.

“Having him for the ninth (inning) only has been great,” Marmol said. “Having him be a three-out closer has allowed him to be available more often, which is very helpful for us.”

Helsley is on board with the strategy.

“If they’re going to give me that option to only throw three outs, I need to be available to throw a lot more than I’m not,” he said. “That’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and I think it’s helped.”