Pete Kozma, the St. Louis Cardinals' NLDS savior, was not always very popular with sabermetrically inclined Cardinals fans, and by not always I mean until probably 20 hours ago. We could appreciate a good hot streak as much as the next set of guys, but the near-certainty of his return to earth means that he's a little difficult to watch. After he won the NLDS for the Cardinals, of course, that's a moot point—he's made for life. But he won our hearts forever when he—and I'm paraphrasing here—basically suggested that his success in the major leagues might be due to BAbip.

O BAbip—O explainer of randomness, obfuscater of true talent. He didn't actually say the non-word, but he suggested, in a wonderfully deadpan postgame interview, that the difference between his minor- and major-league performance might just be a few balls falling in that didn't before. (Which was, to him, perfectly fine.)

Kozma almost definitely isn't a major league starting shortstop, and he might not even be a backup. But Friday night he made sure he'd be a Cardinals Hero for the rest of his life—for Busch Stadium faithful and us spreadsheet-watchers alike.