Doing that, however, will be more difficult this season, especially in an NL race stacked with big spenders like the Mets, Dodgers, Phillies, Padres and Braves.
Under the new rules, the Cardinals will now play 52 games against their NL Central rivals -- down from 76. They will play six of the non-NL Central teams six times and the other four seven times. The Mets and Dodgers are among the clubs St. Louis will draw seven times.
The biggest change for the Cardinals, of course, is that they will play 46 Interleague games. The Cards and Royals will still play their I-70 rivalry over four games, and the remaining games will be divided over seven three-game home series (versus the Blue Jays, Angels, Tigers, Astros, Yankees, Twins and A’s) and seven three-game road series (against the Mariners, Red Sox, Guardians, Rangers, White Sox, Rays and Orioles).
This, of course, benefits fans who are excited to watch stars like Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge, who haven’t often come to town.
According to FanGraphs, the Cards’ chances of winning the NL Central fell from 53.6 percent to 51.9 percent upon the release of MLB’s more balanced schedule. Similarly, their chances of making the postseason dropped from 72.1 percent to 68.8 percent.
Clearly, things will get more difficult for a squad that will no longer be able to coast into the postseason on the backs of its rebuilding NL Central brethren.
