rick ankiel on the cardinals' promising start

Rick Ankiel got the big hit in the ninth last night to beat the Washington Nationals. Afterward, he summed up St. Louis' season (to this point, anyway) pretty well:

“Last year, if we lost a lead late, it seemed like our bats were dead and we just didn’t come around,” Ankiel said. “It’s early, but as early as it is, it seems like the game is never over with this team. We’ve always got a chance to come back.”

I've noticed that, too. There's no reason to even start talking about this baseball season seriously yet -- it's not even May 15 -- but thus far in the National League, both the Cardinals and Dodgers have been adept at getting late-inning hits to win games. And that's part of the reason they're the top two teams in the NL right now -- although, again, it's only May 1.