It is the Cubs and Cardinals. And that should be enough.
But the three-game series that starts Tuesday night in St. Louis’ Busch Stadium takes on an importance of monumental proportions.
That’s because, even though the season is far from halfway over, time is running short.
One of these two old rivals wants to have controlling interest in the National League Central Division come the morning of July 21, less than a month away. It’s also the day after the last game between the Cubs and the Cardinals this season.
Whichever team is behind in the standings on July 21 will have to rely on other teams to help it climb past the other.
That’s not the way it should be. But as Cubs manager Dusty Baker likes to say, it is what it is.
So, despite what either team says publicly, the truth is these games–plus the three from July 9-11 at Wrigley Field and the final two in St. Louis July19-20–take on a September-like significance.
The Cubs are two games behind right now, so these games are even more magnified for them, even though they are philosophical about it.
“You’d rather [win it] yourself, but whatever happens, we’ve still got a lot of time,” Baker said.
“Hopefully it will be a good series with them, but it’s not life and death,” general manager Jim Hendry said. “It’s still June.”
Yeah, but having to rely on someone else to beat the Cardinals after July 20?
“There’s a heck of a lot of games left,” said Hendry, “and if you have a couple of good runs, like we did last September even after we were done with the Cardinals, that’s what won the division for us.”
Maybe, and then again, maybe not.
Here are the facts:
The Cubs and Cardinals played a five-game series starting Sept. 1, which began with the Cubs in third place and the Cardinals in a first-place tie with Houston. The Cubs won four of the five games and leapfrogged the Cardinals, ending up a half-game behind Houston.
Four more victories later, the Cubs were in a tie for first place with Houston and St. Louis was three games out, never to regain either of the top two spots.
It was an emotional late-season series that gave the Cubs the confidence they needed and left St. Louis without any head-to-head games with which to catch up.
“I wish we were playing them in the middle of September,” Hendry said. “The attention will be high and it will be important. We’d like to go in and close the gap. It’s just hard to believe we’ll be done with them right after the All-Star break, and in our mind we’re probably just going to be getting back to complete health by then.
“I guess it evens out and you play the same teams the same amount of times.”
“It’s June,” scoffed Greg Maddux, who starts the first game of the series for the Cubs on Tuesday.
Maddux (6-5) has a way of putting things in perspective.
“It’s three more games out of 162,” he said. “Let’s say we sweep them or they sweep us. That’s three games, and over the next 30 games one of us goes 10-20 and the other goes 20-10. You want to get ready to play every day, you want to win every day.
“You come to play every day, and if we’re good enough, it’ll show.”
“I always get a kick out of people saying the St. Louis series is more important than the Milwaukee series,” said Todd Walker, who is new to this Cubs-St. Louis thing but did experience Boston and the Yankees as a member of the Red Sox last year. “In reality they all count the same. The only difference is you’re in control of your own destiny.
“The bottom line is you have to play hard every day to make the playoffs.”
Outfielder Tom Goodwin has been through playoff drives with the Dodgers and their hated rivals, the Giants. He also took the company line when talking about this series.
“You can’t try to make them more important than what they are,” he said. “Any time you play in your division, you have a chance to make up games on the team you’re playing.
“That makes it important, but at the same time we understand there’s going to be a lot of season left after we’re done playing them. You’ve got to go play the games, and if you need help down the line, then you need help down the line. It’s definitely too early to think about that right now. It’s only June.”
Derrek Lee agrees. “I wouldn’t say there’s added importance,” said the Cubs’ first baseman, whose Marlins won the NL wild card in September last year. “You’ve got to rack up as many wins as possible. Come September and October, those wins add up and you’re there.
“To me, every game is big, and obviously when you play within your division, you can make up ground that much quicker.”
Some Cubs were still unaware that the strange schedule didn’t include a September date with the Cardinals.
Others, like Maddux, didn’t seem to care.
“The last thing you want to do is get so far up for a series that after it’s over you’ve got a letdown,” he said. “That’s why you can ask about it being a big series, but it’s June and it’s three of 162. You’ve got to have the mental approach that you get up for every day.”
That’s probably true, but these next three should be anything but just “another” day.
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Cubs-Cardinals head-to-head matchup
CUBS 6 .296 5.2 16 52
WINS BATTING AVG. RUNS/GM. HOME RUNS STRIKEOUTS
CARDS 5 .214 3.9 16 90
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