On Tuesday night in St. Louis, the Cardinals took their second straight come-from-behind 8-5 win over the Washington Nationals. Tuesday’s incarnation, capped by a three-run walk-off homer by Brandon Moss in the bottom of the ninth, improved the Cardinals’ record to 86-46 — a full five games better than the next best team in the Majors.

Fans of baseball’s 29 other teams love hating the Cardinals for a variety of reasons. A lot of it, certainly, comes as backlash to the long-perpetuated cliche that Cardinals fans are “the best fans in baseball,” a wholly arbitrary distinction. All teams have good fans and bad fans, smart fans and dumb fans, nice fans and mean fans. Perhaps the Cardinals’ base boasts a bigger sense of entitlement than most, but that’s kind of understandable considering their team is always so good.

That’s the other thing that frustrates people about the Cardinals — maybe even the main thing: They’re always so damn good. When they play in the postseason next month, it will be the 12th time they have done so since 2000. That stretch has seen four World Series berths and two championships. Their excellence always comes along with a lot of poo-pooed bluster about “The Cardinal Way,” but the problem with dismissing “The Cardinal Way” out of hand is that whatever they’re doing seems to work incredibly well.

Take a look at the team they’ve beat the last two nights: The Washington Nationals entered the season as prohibitive favorites to win the NL East, but have disappointed to date. The club, you’ve probably heard, has lost several key players to injuries this season, with Anthony Rendon, Denard Span and Jason Werth all missing long stretches. And though the Nats’ pitching staff has stayed about as healthy as a team could reasonably hope, given the rate at which pitchers get hurt, the much-heralded group has underperformed for much of the season. Their starters’ collective 3.87 ERA puts them in the middle of the pack in the National League.

The Cardinals, meanwhile, have suffered through injuries that look like they should be at least as costly, but none has stopped them from running away with the best division in baseball. Ace starter Adam Wainwright went down with a torn Achilles after only four starts, yet St. Louis’ rotation still boasts by far the Majors’ best ERA at 2.82.

Opening Day regulars Matt Holliday, Matt Adams and Jon Jay have all missed most of the season with injuries. Outfielder Randal Grichuk, who emerged as a Rookie of the Year candidate and arguably the Cardinals’ best hitter while filling in for the likes of Holliday and Jay, is now himself on the disabled list. But St. Louis can somehow just keep finding productive replacements, whether they’re trade acquisitions like Moss or promoted rookies like Steven Piscotty.

They’re just really, really, really good at being a baseball team. Yeah, it can get obnoxious. And yes, they allegedly hacked the Houston Astros’ software. But maybe it’s time we stop fretting about all the things that make the Cardinals infuriating and just recognize that they’re awesome at this and deserve their success. Total dominance should be appreciated, especially when it appears to come from shrewd decision-making and excellent player development more than it does from the financial wherewithal to spend megabucks and build a team through free agency.