Corey Noles, staff writer for The Daily Statesman and Editor of The North Stoddard Countian, is the author of a regular baseball/St. Louis Cardinals column and also uses his blog to sound off on various happenings in sports. He also operates a weekly baseball mailbag column.

Cardinals will finish season with very favorable schedule

Posted Sunday, September 8, 2013, at 9:47 PM

The last two months have been rough on the St. Louis Cardinals.

Of the 29 games played by the Cardinals in August, 20 were against teams that would be in the playoffs if the season ended today. They managed to stay afloat through the stretch going 11-9 against those teams.

The games that hurt them were the ones against their closest division rivals, which make the weekend's sweep against the Pittsburgh Pirates all the more important.

In August, the Cardinals split with the Pirates going 3-3 against them on the month. While that's not a bad record against a division rival, the Cardinals failed to take a dominant hold of the division when given the opportunity.

This weekend they took that opportunity and the odds are in their favor from here on out.

Of the 18 remaining games, all are against sub-.500 level teams and 12 of them will take place at Busch Stadium. They have winning records against all of them.

There are six remaining games against the Milwaukee Brewers. The Cardinals own the season series against them 10-3. That's a solid opportunity to pad their win total and hang on to their lead.

Another four games remain against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. The Cardinals only managed eight runs over three games there earlier this season, but it was enough to take two of three in the Mile High City.

They will end the season with three against the Washington Nationals and three more against the Chicago Cubs. They're 3-0 against the Nationals this season and are 9-7 against the Cubs.

A three-game series this week against the Seattle Mariners will mark the only time they have faced this season.

The Cardinals schedule, however, doesn't tell the entire story.

The Pirates final 20 games will include six against the Cincinnati Reds and three against the Texas Rangers.

They have yet to play the Rangers, but do have a losing record against the Reds this season.

A six-game series against the Cubs, while it might sound nice to them on the surface, in reality might not be so easy. The Cubs are 7-5 against the Pirates in 2013 and to take back the division, the Pirates will need those games.

Sure, they're winning the season series, but they'll need to dominate the Cubs and the San Diego Padres to climb back atop the division.

The Reds' schedule, on the other hand, is a bit more favorable. Outside of the six games against Pittsburgh, they finish the season against the Cubs, Brewers, Houston Astros and New York Mets.

In the end, for the Reds to overtake the Pirates wouldn't take any stretch of the imagination. The Cardinals and Reds are clearly in better position to gain a hold on the division and Wild Card spots.

The Cardinals are coming out of these last two series' strong and find themselves in a much better position than they were just a few days ago.

As of now, the Cardinals don't have to climb--they just have to hold on tight.

Corey Noles is a Cardinals Writer and Columnist for The Daily Statesman. Contact him at cnoles@dailystatesman.com or on Twitter @coreynoles.

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The Reds just took 3 of 4 from St. Louis and 3 of 3 from the Dodgers. They seem to play good teams well.

-- Posted by Dustin Ward on Sun, Sep 8, 2013, at 11:16 PM
My thought going into that 13 game stretch was that the Cards just needed to win more than they lost and they did just that going 7-6. They have a division lead and a cake schedule. It doesn't matter if they win the division by one game or ten, just win the division with the opportunity presented. Keep things in perspective of the big picture.

-- Posted by sideline starter on Sun, Sep 8, 2013, at 11:46 PM
All that matters at this point is winning more games than we lose. I think if the Cardinals 12-6 in these next 18 than we should be in very good shape for a division win and avoid the one game playoff.

-- Posted by Bunk on Sun, Sep 8, 2013, at 11:57 PM
The Cardinals make the playoffs, which is a pretty big accomplishment for a team with so many injuries and a few bad signings, but the pitching rotation is simply not good enough to go very far this season. The Cardinals should win a one-game playoff against the Reds or Pirates if they can put a veteran like Wainwright on the mound. But you have to have a rotation like Boston, Detroit or Los Angeles to win it all in 2013.

-- Posted by Dustin Ward on Mon, Sep 9, 2013, at 12:02 AM
If hot at the right time don't count out the Rays or Yankees.

-- Posted by Dustin Ward on Mon, Sep 9, 2013, at 12:03 AM
Dustin, don't count out the Cards young pitchers. Joe Kelly and now Wacha along with Waino have shown that they arent afraid of playoff atmosphere baseball. I like our rotation just fine with the exception of Lynn, and he won't get a sniff come playoff time.

-- Posted by Dexter Native on Mon, Sep 9, 2013, at 8:41 AM
Yeah Dusty I see a strong 4 man rotation for the Cardinals while I only see 3 postseason pitchers for God's gift to baseball fan's teams the Reds. I find it funny that you made all these bold proclaimations at the beginning of the year about how the Reds were going to OBVIOUSLY run through the Cardinals and win the central, but now you have tossed them out as WS contenders and hitched on to the billion dollar dream that is the dodgers or even funnier an AL team

-- Posted by Bunk on Mon, Sep 9, 2013, at 10:04 AM
Reds don't have enough pitching to win in the playoffs.

-- Posted by Dustin Ward on Mon, Sep 9, 2013, at 1:00 PM
The Reds lack a true ace and need to win the division bad.

-- Posted by Dustin Ward on Mon, Sep 9, 2013, at 1:01 PM
Mat Latos?

-- Posted by 7plus1 on Tue, Sep 10, 2013, at 9:21 AM

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