If needed, Cards could play two on Sept. 28

With the Cardinals, Reds and Brewers all vying for second place in the National League Central, each game of the final week and a half of the regular season is going to have an impact on the playoff race. In the end, it might be so close that the Cardinals will need to play one or two more games to determine October matchups.

After the Cardinals’ two-week-long pause in their schedule because of a coronavirus outbreak, most of those games were rescheduled as part of doubleheaders or on mutual off-days. But right now, the Cardinals only have 58 games on the schedule. While the Tigers and Cardinals made up the St. Louis half of their originally scheduled home-and-home series with a doubleheader last week, the two Detroit games of the series have not been rescheduled. If those games have an impact on the playoff race, they will be made up at season’s end.

Sept. 28, the Monday immediately following the regular season, is an open date, providing some flexibility. If either or both of those games have any implications for qualifying or seeding for either the Tigers or Cardinals, then the games would be scheduled for that day at Comerica Park.

If both games are played, it would be the Cardinals' 12th doubleheader of the season. St. Louis is in a stretch of 23 games in 18 days, with its third doubleheader of the week coming on Friday against the Pirates.