St. Louis Cardinals: Breaking down the highlights of the 2021 schedule

The MLB released the 2021 schedule for the St. Louis Cardinals this week out of the blue. What are some of the biggest series to look forward to?

Not only was the schedule for the St. Louis Cardinals‘ 2020 season revealed this week, but MLB also decided to reveal the 2021 schedule, about four months earlier than they usually do.

Why they would do this, I’m not sure. I would assume it has something to do with the sport trying to distract fans by getting them to look at the future rather than the current mess of a league they are operating as. But what do I know…

Either way, we have interesting future news to look at with the Cardinals and the 2021 season will hopefully be a full one as close to normal as we can get. Already, the league has decided to try and minimize travel by only including interleague games between the same geographical division. That means no AL West or East opponents for the Cardinals, only AL Central.

Let’s take a look at some points of interest in the upcoming year’s schedule.

Opening Day

For the Cardinals, they will open the 2021 schedule on April 1 in the same place they were supposed to on 2020, Great American Ballpark. After opening with three against the Reds, the team travels to Miami before hosting the Brewers on April 8 for the home opener.

2020 will be a big tell in how the rivalry between the Cardinals and the Reds will look in the coming years as the Reds are a team on the rise. That opening series could mean more in 2021 than we realize right now. The same could be said about the Brewers but in the opposite way. In my eyes, the Brew Crew could be poised to become bottom dwellers with the Pirates in the NL Central.

A long wait for the Cubs

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In 2019, the Cardinals didn’t play their first series against the Cubs until the beginning of May. In 2021, the team will have to wait even longer to face their NL Central rivals.

The Cubbies come to town on May 21st for the first time all season. Before they come to town, the Cardinals will play two series against the Reds, Brewers, Pirates, and Phillies. I am not sure why this is, but it does lead to the Cardinals playing the Cubs in two of the final three series of the season.

A big finish

As I just mentioned, the Cardinals play two of their final three series against the Chicago Cubs (hopefully long out of the playoff race by then). The other part of that finish is that of the final 13 games, six are against the Cubs and seven are against the Brewers.

There’s no way to really know what that is going to be like right now, but if those are the top three teams in the NL Central, that’ll be a ton of fun. When the Cardinals are playing the Cubs, the Brewers are playing the Mets and the Dodgers. When the Cards are playing the Brewers, the Cubs play the Twins and the Pirates.

The Cubs definitely have the easier schedule over that time, but that will definitely make the end of the 2021 season fun.

I wasn’t able to find a good explanation of why the schedule was released so early, but it is fun to look over and dream of the matchups we will see and the storylines that could develop. I wish the team would play the Cubs sooner in the year, but a good finish will be more interesting than not.