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The Cardinals and the Cubs have one of baseball’s oldest and most storied rivalries. There are probably a Big Three in baseball rivalries with the Yankees/Red Sox and Giants/Dodgers being the other two. The Cardinals and Cubs are certainly the biggest rivalry in the Central divisions.
And they might well be on a crash course to a battle for the NL Central title.
The Cubs, of course, are hoping that isn’t the case, given the four-game lead. They’d rather run away and hide than have to deal with the Cardinals creeping up any closer. But the Cardinals just won’t go away.
Since May 11, the Cubs have gone 17-7, good for the best record in the National League in that timeframe. The Cardinals have gone 14-10 and continue to hang within striking range. They actually fell to five games back after a loss on April 28, but the Cardinals have gone 24-12 since. They just have only made up one game because the Cubs (23-13 in that time) have been so consistently good pretty much all season.
If you aren’t a fan of either team, you might be wondering what happened when the two teams played each other this season.
They haven’t yet.
The quirk of the schedule here is that the rivals don’t square off until June 23. Nearly half the season will have been over before they see one another on the same diamond. The Cubs will have played 79 games before the first meeting in St. Louis while the Cardinals will have played 78.
Of course, the flip side of that is the rivals will play each other 13 times in just over half a season to finish with the final three games coming in Wrigley between the two from Sept. 26-28.
Will they remain 1-2 in the NL Central? That would be fun. Will they be close? It hasn’t happened in a long time. The last time the Cubs and Cardinals finished 1-2 in the division was 2016 but the Cubs won it by 17 ½ games. In 2015, they were only three games apart, but the Pirates were in between. In 2009, they were first and second, but the Cardinals won by 7 ½ games.
To find a competitive Cubs vs. Cardinals divisional race, we have to go all the way back to, well, there isn’t one. That 2015 season was the closest they’ve ever been at the top and 2009 was the closest they’ve ever been at 1-2 in a division. If we went back to before there were divisions, how about 1945? The Cubs won the NL pennant over the second-place Cardinals by three games. That was the great Cubs-Cardinals race.
Aren’t we due another? Will this be the year? It’ll be fun finding out. Both teams look pretty strong right now.