ST. LOUIS — Thrilled with the results, the St. Louis Cardinals thanked Mike Shildt.

The Cardinals took off the interim tag from Shildt’s title and promoted him to full-time manager through 2020, a reward for steering the team back into postseason contention after replacing the fired Mike Matheny.

“Why now? We could have waited but we feel like the time is right,” President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak said Tuesday at Busch Stadium. “As we stated from Day One, we would use this time to really see how he handled the job. We just felt like we could not do better. Mike has shown he can do the job. .”

“It made sense to do it now. Everything is going well, and more importantly momentum is building behind our players. Having Mike Shildt as manager is a tremendous story,” he said.

The Cardinals have gone 26-12 since July 15 — the most wins in the majors during that span. A 19-5 mark in August has put them into the top spot in the NL wild-card standings.