As the calendar turns to July, it means the dog days of summer are truly upon us.
A seemingly endless string of days of hot and dry weather OK, maybe not.
But July is the start of the second half of the year. And for all intents and purposes, the second half of the baseball season.
It's been an up and down first half of the season for both the St. Louis Cardinals and the Kansas City Royals. But all is not lost.
For the Cardinals, it seems like they've been looking up at the Chicago Cubs since the start of spring training. And some of our friends in the desert believe the National League Central race is all but over, pulling down any possible bets off the board.
I wouldn't read too much into that, they're just limiting any liability. Las Vegas is in the business to make money and with the Cubs being such a prohibitive favorite at this point, it would be worth a few bucks at long odds to take a shot at somebody rallying to beat them. So instead of having to make some potential big payouts, the bet is off the board.
If the Cardinals can make up just one game a week the remainder of the season, they can catch the Cubs. Now it's a matter of figuring out how to do that.
The biggest problem for the Cardinals? Figuring out how to win at home.
After Saturday's win against the Brewers, the Cardinals are 17-23 in games at Busch Stadium. For a team that normally dominates the competition under the Arch, that's a headscratcher. You flip that, catching the Cubs isn't quite as daunting.
The second problem? They can't figure out how to beat American League teams, home or away.
The Cardinals are a not so tidy 5-10 against the A.L. this season, the second-worst among N.L. clubs - the Reds are 4-11. But this one has almost corrected itself. St. Louis has just two interleague games left on the slate - a pair of mid-August games at Houston.
Two big ifs - if the Cardinals have solved their closer problem with Seung Hwan Oh and if they can clean up their fielding (they have 64 errors) - St. Louis is still in it.
The ifs are there across the state as well, where the Royals have been frustratingly consistent. They've seemingly been matching winning and losing streaks since the start of the season. And it's put them about where you'd think, just a handful of games above .500.
Starting pitching and injuries have been the biggest factors this season.
When the starting pitching has been good, the Royals have been good. When it hasn't, yikes!
A season-ending injury to Mike Moustakas, along with extended time off for Alex Gordon and short stints for Salvador Perez and Lorenzo Cain haven't ended the hopes of returning to the postseason for a third straight season.
But can you count on players like Chesler Cuthbert and Whit Merrifield to continue to provide production? You're counting on a lot from players who weren't on your roster at the start of the season.
The Royals have three starters - Edinson Volquez, Ian Kennedy and Danny Duffy - they can count on. Yordano Ventura is a wild card anytime he's on the mound and the fifth spot has been a disaster. Kris Medlen? Chien-Ming Wang? Mike Minor? The Royals are six games behind the Indians and somebody has got to step up to claim that spot and eat some innings once a week to keep the bullpen from getting worn out.
Consistency - the good kind - is the goal for the Royals.