Dear Cardinals fans, please remain calm

It was bound to happen sooner or later. In baseball, no team wins them all.

In fact, even the most amazing teams lose more than one-third of their games.

The St. Louis Cardinals have begun 2012 on the best run in recent memory. As recently as last week the rookie redbirds were on pace for 110 wins.

While that's an impressive pace, anyone who expected them to keep it up forever has unrealistic expectations.

Losing to teams like the Miami Marlins and the Chicago Cubs, while not ideal, is just part of the game.

Baseball is like that. It's a game with peculiar ins and outs that carry their fair share of surprises. That's why we love it.

Football is far more predictable from a mathematical standpoint. Most often, the team that "should" win, does win.

Even basketball is slightly more predictable than baseball. Once in awhile the Cleveland Cavaliers will beat the Miami Heat, but that's the exception and not the rule.

Baseball is different. It's a game of streaks and slides, hot and cold, on and off.

Sometimes, the Houston Astros do beat the Anaheim Angels. When you look at the numbers it doesn't always make sense, but that's the great thing about baseball.

It's spontaneous, surprising and loves nothing more than to throw a change-up when you're looking for a fastball.

With the Marlins and Cubs in back-to-back series, that's exactly what happened. They were thinking fastball and swung through their change-up.

It happens.

Fortunately for the Cardinals, all season they have beaten the teams they should be beating, and frankly, they've beaten a few that surprised me.

While their division rivals haven't given them any wiggle room to speak of, the Cardinals could weather a skid and still finish this season well above the 90-game plateau. The question is, would that be enough to win the NL Central?

As of the morning of June 19, the top three spots in the division are separated by only three games.

The NL Central, once a division thought of as the weakest in all of baseball, now sports the two best records in all of MLB.

In its first season without the Houston Astros, the division is showing strength. While the Milwaukee Brewers have sunk to a level lower than expected, it's doubtful that they will stay there for long. That means that next year this division could sport four legitimate contenders.

The fact is, the importance of winning the NL Central is now bigger than ever. Making the playoffs via the Wild Card isn't the sure thing it once was.

Despite that, the 2013 Cardinals are very strong. They've shown a level of perseverance that no one predicted prior to the season and it has carried them a long way.

As the season nears its halfway point, the Cardinals are hitting a couple of road bumps, but it doesn't qualify as a skid.

At this point, I see little reason to be concerned.

Sure, there have been issues periodically throughout the season, but they've pushed through--repeatedly.

There's no doubt a period of struggle will come, but assuming the Cardinals don't suffer a major injury, they could very well hang on to this lead.

Their organizational depth has carried them a long way in 2013. That's a luxury few teams--including their division competition--can say they have.

For now, Cardinals fans, remain calm. There is still half a season to go and a couple of June losses shouldn't have anyone too worked up.

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Corey Noles is a Cardinals Writer and Columnist for The Daily Statesman. Contact him at cnoles@dailystatesman.com or on Twitter @coreynoles.