2022 in Review: Albert Pujols Is Great but the Cards Choke in the Playoffs

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Courtesy Ben Munson/St. Louis Cardinals

Albert Pujols hit his 703rd career home run in PNC Park — the final of his regular season career — on October 3.

This year was a magical one to be a St. Louis Cardinals fan: the final year of Albert Pujols. It was the cliché storybook ending that, if you wrote for a movie, would seem fake. Albert Pujols at the age of 42 coming back to St. Louis for his final season? And then somehow, someway turning into a former version of himself? And then making a run at the milestone 700 home-run mark — a feat no one thought was possible at the start of the season? And then somehow hitting his 700th home run in Dodgers Stadium, his second home run of the game? It doesn't even seem real now.

It was the kind of year that, 20 years into the future, you'll tell your kids or grandkids or whoever will listen.

The thing you won't tell your kids? That the Cardinals lost, in the first round, again. It wasn't always destined to be that way. With 40-year-old Pujols playing like 20-year-old Pujols. Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt earning their superstar contracts. Tommy Edman scurrying around the bases the Cards looked good. But they lost. They didn't just lose in the first round — they blew the first round, squandering a 2-0 ninth-inning lead against the struggling Philadelphia Phillies, who barely squeaked into the playoffs.

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It was another year marked by mediocrity — a team good enough to make the playoffs but not good enough to win. And there's nothing more painful in sports than mediocrity.

It's been four years since the Cardinals made the playoffs. It's been eight years since the Cardinals made the conference pennant game. It's been 12 years since the team won its last World Series. Next season, there won't be any Pujols (though, we're not saying we wouldn't welcome him back), and the Cardinals will have to prove they can win more than regular-season games.