It’s hard to believe that the calendar will turn to September this week. Just a couple of short months ago, the Cardinals were only a handful of games over .500 and in the middle of a four team race for the top spot in the NL Central. Now they’re 21 games over .500 and have a nine game lead in the division. Two months ago, many around town were wondering how this team was going to distinguish itself and find a way to eke out a playoff appearance. Now it’s no longer a question of if, but when, the Cards will clinch the division title…two more weeks? Three? My, what a summer it’s been.
At the beginning of the season, September (and the first four days of October) looked like it would be a monster. The Cards would have to play three series against the Milwaukee Brewers and one against the Chicago Cubs in the final 34 days of the season—12 of 30 games. At the time, these teams were destined to be Cards’ chief nemeses in the Central. Now they’ve fallen off so badly that St. Louis is really only looking for a series win each time, not necessarily the sweeps and long winning streaks some feared may be necessary to make it to the postseason.
Ideally, the Cards will clinch the division against one of these rivals, and preferably at home in front of the Busch Stadium faithful. But looking at the remaining games on the schedule, they can’t do it this week when Milwaukee is in town, and hopefully things will be wrapped up long before the Brewers come back for the regular season finale Oct. 2-4. That leaves the series with the Chicago Cubs September 18-20. And clinching the division title at home, against the Cubs, and possibly in front of a national TV audience, would be about the sweetest end to a
The fact of the matter is this scenario is not at all far-fetched. The Cardinals will play 16 games before the series with Chicago at Busch, and the Cubs will play 18. For the Cards to have a chance to clinch by Sunday night the Magic Number will have to be six or less before Friday night’s game. As of this morning, the Magic Number is 25. So, leading up to the series with the Cubs, St. Louis needs to go 10-6 and Chicago 8-10.
Those numbers may be presumptive, but they’re far from outlandish. To achieve their 10-6 mark, the Cardinals need to win two of three in each of the six series they play between now and then. The Cubs need to lose two of three in each of their series and split the four game series they play at home against Milwaukee before they head here. Calling these events probable would be overly ambitious, but are they possible? You betcha.
Saturday’s game vs. the Cubs will be on FOX, and Sunday’s game is now the ESPN Sunday Night Baseball feature. All eyes of the baseball world will once again be on St. Louis this season. The Cards have some work to do, and they need some help from the teams playing the Cubs, but just the thought of this as a possibility creates another level of excitement about this season.