It’s only early August, and the Chicago Cubs still have over 50 games left in the regular season. However, there’s something unusual about their remaining schedule.
They have no games left against the St. Louis Cardinals or the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Cubs wrapped up their season series against the Cardinals last weekend, taking three of four at Wrigley Field to finish the year 6-7 against St. Louis. Their last series against the Brewers was two weeks ago in late July, when Chicago dropped two of three at home to Milwaukee.
That means there will be no September baseball against either opponent, which doesn’t seem right for division rivals. The MLB schedule-makers really dropped the ball here, much to Cubs fans’ disappointment.
Regarding divisional games, Chicago has only three series left against NL Central teams. The Cubs have six games against the Pittsburgh Pirates in late August and early September, plus they close out the season at home with three games against the Cincinnati Reds.
With all due respect to the Pirates and Reds, they aren’t the Brewers and the Cardinals. Chicago vs. St. Louis is one of the oldest rivalries in professional sports, and Milwaukee has recently become a serious rival as well.
Now, Cubs fans won’t get to see either team until October at the earliest (if Chicago makes the playoffs) or 2025 at the latest. That’s simply unacceptable for franchises that are so intertwined and have so much history together.
September may not end up mattering much for the Cubs depending on how the rest of August goes, but it still would have been fun to see the Brewers and Cardinals one more time regardless. Instead, Chicago fans can look forward to underwhelming series against the Colorado Rockies, Washington Nationals and Oakland A’s.
On the bright side, at least that means the Cubs will have some easy games in September.