55 games in 45 days. That’s what the Cardinals would be up to now if they were to play their full 60-game schedule, because more games have been postponed. And I suspect it’s actually going to be even fewer days than that.
Thursday’s doubleheader against the Tigers, which was itself a makeup for earlier postponements, has now also been “postponed”:
This postponement was expected as Cardinals want to control the COVID-19 outbreak. That's the focus right now. Plus, they've gotten two days on the field in the past 11 — a doubleheader to begin play would likely just add to the injury-risk scenarios in front of the team.
— Anne Rogers (@anne__rogers) August 10, 2020
The Cardinals are otherwise scheduled to resume play against the White Sox on Friday, but I’d imagine the only way that happens is if they have no new positives this week *AND* are able to get onto the field to work out together by no later than Wednesday. I don’t know that that’s realistic. This might be a situation where Friday’s game is pushed to Sunday as part of a doubleheader to give them one more day.
Adding to that theory? The game on Saturday got pushed back, perhaps to allow one more day of testing results before they take the field:
The start time for Saturday's game between the White Sox and Cardinals has been changed to 6:10 p.m. CT (originally was 1:10).
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) August 10, 2020
So, again, my guess is the Cardinals don’t return until Saturday at the earliest.
… but what about the rest of the season? At that point, you’d be talking about 55 games in 44(!) days. You’d have to give the Cardinals a 35-man roster for that to be even remotely doable and safe. I just don’t see it.
So, like I said yesterday: I suspect we’re going to see the Cubs series and the Pirates series just flat out cancelled. So the Cardinals will play, at most, a total of 54 games this year, and the Pirates/Cubs will play 57. The division, Wild Cards, and playoff positioning will just have to be determined by winning percentage. I don’t see another way around this, realistically.