It's still very early in the month, but Tyler O'Neill has been scorching hot to start September so far for the St. Louis Cardinals. He has had 12 at bats this month and currently has a .417 batting average with one double, two home runs and five RBIs for St. Louis.

The rest of the season hasn't been as kind to O'Neill, however. This year, he's hitting .242 for the Cardinals with nine homers and 21 RBIs.

This season hasn't been very kind to the Cardinals in general, either. St. Louis is currently 60-78 and they are sitting in last place in the NL Central. The Cardinals had high aspirations heading into this season, but unfortunately they are not going to be met.

After the past few games from O'Neill and his high level of play, Cardinals fans were finally getting something to cheer for. Then, Cardinals manager Oli Marmol did not have O'Neill in the lineup for the Cardinals-Atlanta Braves game on Wednesday night, and fans were a little bit stumped because of his recent hot streak. However, Marmol then said that it was a scheduled off day for O'Neill, who is being kept on a strict workload schedule as of late to help him recover from some recent knee and back pain, according to a tweet from John Denton.

This seems like the right move by the Cardinals. St. Louis is out of the playoff race, and there is no point in putting O'Neill's health at risk to play in a meaningless game at the end of the season. Plus, he's playing very well right now, and if he can stay healthy and finish out the season strong, he'll have some momentum going into next season. With how this season has gone for the Cardinals, finding some positives down the stretch is the biggest key for the remainder of the year.