St. Louis Cardinals better get used to Milwaukee Brewers

The St. Louis Cardinals had better get used to facing the Milwaukee Brewers as they are set to play ten times in 14 days.

The St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers have not played a single game all season. But they will…and when they do it will determine the futures of both teams.

The Brewers and Cards were supposed to have played a three-game series July 31, August 1, and 2 in Milwaukee. But those games were postponed when Covid-19 tore through the Cardinal clubhouse.

All three were re-scheduled as parts of late-season doubleheaders.

The teams were originally to play a three-game series Sept. 14-15-16 in Milwaukee. That is now a five-game series, with doubleheaders to be played Sept. 14 and 16.

They were also scheduled to conclude the season against one another with a four-game series in St. Louis Sept. 24-25-26-27. That is now a five-game series including a Sept. 25 doubleheader. The Brewers will be the home team for one of those Sept. 25 games.

Those games assume increasing importance given both teams standings in the NL Central. Entering play Thursday, the Cardinals were 18-17 and two and one-half games behind the Chicago Cubs in the nL Central. However they are actually two games ahead of the Cubs in the loss column.

The Brewers, meanwhile, are third, at 19-22. At the moment they are outside the NL playoff picture.

But all of the above is subject to change largely based on the two teams’ play against each other.

Those 10 head-to-head meetings represent more than half of the Brewers’ 19 remaining games, and nearly half of the 21 that will remain on the St. Louis schedule following the completion of their Thursday doubleheader with Detroit. St. Louis will play 10 of its final 18 games against the Brewers; Milwaukee will play 10 of its final 16 against St. Louis.

That means the 10-game series will fundamentally be an exercise in NL Central cannibalism. One of the two will emerge as a playoff team; the other is likely to be an abandoned carcass on the playoff roadside.

If the Cardinals can win six or seven of their games with the Brewers, they still have a chance to overtake the Chicago Cubs for first place in the division. Since the Brewers are four and one-half games out – and three behind Chicago in the loss column – they probably would have to do at least that well against St. Louis and have the Cubs slump.

Milwaukee does have one schedule ace in the hole in its division title hopes. They still have three games to play against the Cubs this weekend prior to opening their marathon set with the Cardinals. If they could sweep those three, their path to the division title would run directly through St. Louis.

Aside from the Cubs this weekend, the only games the Milwaukee Brewers must play against somebody other than the Cardinals are three Sept. 18-20 with Kansas City and three Sept. 21-23 with Cincinnati.

The St. Louis Cardinals have a bit more diverse closing schedule. They meet the Reds for three games this weekend, and follow their five-game Brewers series with five against the Pittsburgh Pirates and three versus the Royals.

They also have two as-yet unscheduled makeups with the Detroit Tigers that would likely be played as a doubleheader Sept. 28 in Detroit if necessary.