ST. LOUIS – What if I told you that the Cardinals pulled off a stunning rally to win on Thursday after being down to potentially their last strike … and it was only their third-best comeback victory of the season?

The cardiac Cardinals have had plenty of come-from-behind rallies to choose from thus far while being the surprise team of the baseball world with a 25-18 record through roughly a quarter of the season. Already, the Cards have 12 come-from-behind wins – good for the fifth most in MLB. Also, they have been exceptionally good in close games, winning nine one-run games (most in MLB) and they are 5-1 in extra-inning games.

Here is a ranking of the Cardinals’ five best come-from-behind wins, including Thursday’s ninth-inning rally to beat the Athletics 5-4, ranked in reverse order for effect:

A night after blowing a big lead and losing and seeming as if it was headed to a second straight defeat, St. Louis rallied from a 5-2 deficit. The Cards scored one in the seventh, two in the eighth on Nathan Church’s game-tying home runs and two more in the 10th on Thomas Saggese’s game-winning hit to stun the Nats.

This might forever be remembered as the night JJ Weatherholt homered twice in a game in his MLB career. Wetherholt tied the game at 1 with a solo blast and then went the other way in the eighth inning for a two-run long ball that cut it to 5-4.

The Cards still seemed dead and headed to their fourth straight loss with two outs in the ninth when Masyn Winn grounded to second – only to see Juan Brito boot the ball for an error. After advancing on a wild pitch, Winn scored on a pinch-hit double by Yohel Pozo.

Then, in the 10th inning, Church lofted a sacrifice fly that scored a hustling Saggese.

Trailing after a disastrous seventh inning where the bullpen surrendered three runs, the Cardinals got a lead-off single in the ninth by Pozo. Later, with Wetherholt facing a 3-2 count and two outs, he was clipped on the knee by a sweeper to keep the game alive. (It was the MLB-most 10th time this season that Wetherholt has been clipped by a pitch.) From there, Ivan Herrera singled in the tying run and Jordan Walker followed with an RBI double to push the Cards into the lead. Riley O’Brien locked up the ninth inning for his 13th save.

In the first game of a four-game series in Pittsburgh, the Cards set the tone with a stirring comeback late in the night.

They had a perfect game being thrown against them for 6 2/3 innings before Alec Burleson beat out a squibber down the third base line.

With an out in the ninth inning, the Cards still trailed before Pedro Pages drilled a solo shot over the wall in left field. Then, in a scene seemingly out of a Hollywood movie script, Wetherholt – the hometown hero who was playing his first game against the team he rooted for as a child – blasted a game-tying home run. Smiling ear to ear as his family cheering section and his former college teammates from West Virginia went bonkers in the crowd, Weatherholt sprinted around the bases in maybe the fastest home run trot of the season.

Three batters later, Jose Fermin kept the fun going by lacing a two-run double into the left field corner. Within a matter of minutes, the Cardinals scored four times and pulled off what would be four straight wins against the stunned and staggered Pirates.

Moreso than the result, the game will likely be remembered for Wetherholt blasting a solo home run in his second at bat to start his MLB career with a bang.

However, following a sixth-inning meltdown by the bullpen, the Cards found themselves in a 7-1 hole.

All the Cards did was score eight times in the bottom of the sixth inning – one of them on a Wetherholt deep sacrifice fly where he missed a second homer by only a few feet and two of them on Burleson’s titanic, two-run homer to cap the eight-run rally.

As it turns out that epic, Opening Day comeback set the tone for a Cardinals team that is seemingly never out of games what with its penchant for rallying. Said Jordan Walker following the Cards’ comeback on Thursday in Sacramento to defeat the Athletics:

“It feels amazing (to come from behind and win) and I think today summed up our season because, man we’re never out of it,” said Walker, who hit his 12th homer of the season earlier on Thursday. “We’re always fighting and I just love seeing another (win) like that, for sure.”

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