How can five games in Chicago change a bizarre season for the St. Louis Cardinals?
On Sept. 19, 2019, the St. Louis Cardinals arrived in Chicago prepared to announce their presence with authority.
The ensuing four-game sweep was the first of the Cubs by the Cardinals at Wrigley Field since 1921, and while the Milwaukee Brewers continued to hang around in the National League Central, the weekend slammed the door on the Cubs’ chances of winning the division.
If four was fun, the Cardinals will now take their shot at five.
On Friday night, the long-time rivals will undertake their second five-game series in Chicago in the last two weeks, and the third such series between the clubs since Mike Shildt was named Cardinals manager in July 2018.
Despite having played nine fewer games than the northsiders, the Cardinals enter the weekend just 3.5 games back in the divisional standings, though they have eight fewer wins than the Cubs. And even though last year’s series was a statement, the St. Louis leadership is viewing this year’s as just another date on the bizarre calendar.
“Is it a reasonable expectation to sweep every series? No, but we do expect to play well and win every game we play,” Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said Wednesday.
“This is a group that has confidence. It does help with the confidence, I suppose, but it’s a group that knows it can play and really it’s really about how we play, not who we play.”
That confidence is likely to be bolstered by the moves made by Shildt and the coaching staff to re-align the pitching rotation for the weekend.
Thursday’s off day — one of just two the Cardinals will enjoy between Aug. 15 and Sept. 27 — allowed the team to move Dakota Hudson, Kwang Hyun Kim, and Johan Oviedo up one day each on the schedule while still maintaining their regular rest.
Hudson will start the second game of Saturday’s double header rather than requiring the team to turn to a bullpen start or perhaps a return engagement from a struggling Daniel Ponce de Leon. Kim and Oviedo will start on Sunday and Monday, respectively.
The looming availability of Carlos Martínez for Tuesday’s twin bill at home against Minnesota allowed for flexibility, but the choice to seize upon it revealed urgency.
“I think the confidence is growing daily,” Cardinals President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak said. “But it’s still something you have to remind yourself, that there’s a lot of challenges that still lay ahead for this club.
“Seven doubleheaders remain in this month, and so making sure we have enough people to eat those innings is going to be probably the biggest part of this Rubik’s Cube that we have to solve.”
Three of those doubleheaders are scheduled for the next week, with the Detroit Tigers set to arrive in St. Louis for a one-day visit next Thursday. By the time those games arrive, the season series with the Cubs will be completed, taking place entirely in the two five-game sets at Wrigley.
It’s the first time in the history of the two franchises, since the Cardinals joined the National League as the St. Louis Browns in 1892, that the teams will not play each other in St. Louis during the regular season.
“When the schedule first came out it was unbalanced to begin with,” Mozeliak said, referring to the originally scheduled seven games in Chicago and three in St. Louis. “Everything that this club has been through, the fact that we’re just playing games is really I think all we can be thankful for or grateful for.
“The environment’s very unique and so, it’s really very simple, you’re just playing a game of baseball. Whether you’re doing it in an opposing city or you’re doing it at Busch, you lack some of the comforts at home, but it’s still the game. Whereas in a normal year when you have your fan base, it’s a different feeling, a different energy.”
That energy was palpable in the 2019 September Chicago series between the clubs. Matt Carpenter’s 10th inning, game-winning home run in the first game of the series led to an explosion of exuberance from then-Cardinal and now-Cub José Martínez as he rallied the so-called “Bench Mafia.”
From Carpenter’s injection of energy came an extraction, as the Saturday game of that set featured home runs on back-to-back pitches leading off the ninth inning against Cubs closer Craig Kimbrel by Yadier Molina and Paul DeJong.
The air left Wrigley that day in the way it does from a balloon, but one that’s exploded by a pin prick rather than gently deflated.
The Cardinals enter play this weekend with an 89.4% chance of making the playoffs, per Baseball Reference, owing in large part to MLB’s expanded postseason format. Ten games remain against the Brewers who will, undoubtedly, play a role in pushing that number in either direction.
Labor Day weekend against the Cubs, though, maintains its cache. The Cardinals see its essential importance, even as they downplay their anxieties. Another chance at history could allow them to salvage baseball’s most bizarre campaign.
This story was originally published September 4, 2020 at 11:42 AM.
