Cardinals first series of second half against Braves may be washed away by rain

Rain, rain, go away, stop causing the St. Louis Cardinals to play needless doubleheaders this season.

Okay, not quite as catchy as the original, but man oh man, the Cardinals have had the worst luck with the weather this year. It certainly impacts performance on the field, but honestly, it is just more annoying than anything else.

In what feels like a weekly occurrence for the Cardinals this year, the Cardinals' first game post All-Star Break was set to be against the Braves in Atlanta, but the game was postponed due to rain and now there is a doubleheader scheduled for tomorrow. This marks the sixth game the Cardinals have had postponed this year already, and there is a serious shot that they have their seventh and eighth games of the season postponed on Saturday and Sunday.

If you look at the forecast for Saturday and Sunday, it is not looking good for the Cardinals' chances at starting their second half strong against the team currently ahead of them in the Wild Card standings. While the extra rest in theory will be helpful for a club that has really worked its arms in the first half and needs their veteran stars in Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado to produce, it likely does more harm with how it will impact their schedule the rest of the season.

The best-case scenario is that they are able to play their double header tomorrow and then finish the series on Sunday, but it feels likely they'll have to make up at least one of the games from this series later, if not as many as all three of them. It is already a difficult task to find a makeup date for one game for teams that are not set to face each other again this year, but finding time for two or three games is even more wild.

This series is also one that could have major ramifications in the National League. Not only are the Cardinals trying to hunt down the Braves for the first Wild Card and the Brewers for the division, but teams behind them like the Mets, Diamondbacks, Giants, Reds, Pirates, Cubs, and Padres all want to fight their way the top as well.

But hey, I guess it could be worse. Back in 1908, the Philadelphia Phillies endured 10 consecutive rainouts. I cannot imagine trying to reschedule all of those games! Well, I guess I can. We all probably want to forget the insanity that was the Cardinals' 2020 schedule after their COVID outbreak, resulting in a new schedule that featured 53 games in 44 days - have fun doing that math.

Let's hope for some better weather this weekend and fitting in these baseball games. It is already a less-than-ideal start to the second half, and if they cannot manage to play this series over the weekend, it could come back to bite the Cardinals in a major way later on in the season.