For the first time in five years and just the second time ever, Major League Baseball will be played in London this weekend. Two of the sport’s oldest rivals, the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals, are heading across the pond for a two-game set at London Stadium beginning on Saturday afternoon. First pitch is set for 1:10 p.m. ET (or 6:10 p.m. London time) and the game will be broadcast in the States exclusively on FOX.
It’s the first Major League game played in Europe since 2019, when the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees played in the league’s inaugural London Series. These two teams were originally set to make the trip a year later, but the COVID-19 pandemic obviously threw the 2020 season into chaos and scuttled those plans. The new CBA ratified last spring renewed the London Series for 2023, 2024 — which the league just announced will feature the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets — and 2026.
It’s likely not the matchup MLB was hoping for when they made the choice; the Cubs enter play on Saturday at 36-38. 3.5 games back in the weak NL Central, while the Cardinals’ disastrous start has them with the league’s fifth-worst record at 31-44. Still: It’s Cubs-Cardinals. This is a rivalry that needs no added stakes, especially at such a unique and historic venue. Here are three things you need to know ahead of what should be some very fun baseball.
No more wiffleball dimensions at London Stadium
If you remember the first London Series, it’s likely for one thing: lots and lots of home runs. London Stadium was built for the 2012 Summer Olympics, not a baseball game, and the initial attempt to retrofit it led to a far smaller playing field than anything back in the States. The result was chaos: New York swept Boston by scores of 17-13 and 12-8, with a combined .387/.453/.661 slash line and 10 homers for the weekend. It was baseball’s equivalent of the Arena Football League.
Things will be different this time around. The fences at London Stadium will be pushed back a bit — not in an effort to curb offense, but due to seat restructuring. London Stadium is home of the reigning Europa Conference League champions West Ham United and seats 62,500 for soccer games. Capacity for the London Series will be a touch higher thanks to some new adjustments. Per the AP:
Similar to the 2019 London Series, it will be 330 feet down both lines, with a 16-foot wall in center field that slopes down to eight feet. The 392-foot distance to center field is still one of the shortest in baseball, but hey, any little bit helps.
Paul Goldschmidt, world traveler
When he takes the field Saturday, Cardinals first baseman and reigning NL MVP Paul Goldschmidt will officially become the most well-traveled player in baseball history: The London Series will mark the fifth different country in which he’s played a regular-season game. Obviously Goldschmidt checked the U.S. and Canada off his list without much trouble, but here are the other three:
- March 22-23, 2014: Goldschmidt’s Arizona Diamondbacks met the Los Angeles Dodgers in Sydney, Australia
- April 13-14, 2019: Now with the Cardinals, St. Louis traveled south of the border for a series with the Cincinnati Reds in Monterrey, Mexico
- June 24-25, 2023: Cardinals vs. Cubs in London
Barring something unexpected, only one player on either roster was present for the previous London Series: Cubs outfielder Mike Tauchman, who was with the Yankees in 2019. Tauchman has done a surprisingly solid job manning center field amid Cody Bellinger’s knee injury.
Two teams headed in opposite directions
The Cubs and Cardinals are next to each other in the NL Central standings, but the vibes around these two teams right now are starkly different. Chicago went through a miserable May swoon, but they’ve turned it around of late, having won eight of 10 entering play on Saturday largely thanks to strong pitching for Marcus Stroman, Drew Smyly and the now-healthy Justin Steele and a resurgent offense.
The Cardinals, meanwhile, can’t seem to get out of neutral this year. St. Louis entered the season with legitimate World Series hopes, but the pitching has been a disaster while the offense has struggled for consistency amid a slew of injuries. The Redbirds have won each of their last two series, but it’s been one step forward, one step back up to this point. We’ll see if those trends hold up when Steele (7-2, 2.71 ERA) and veteran righty Adam Wainwright (3-1, 5.56) take the mound for the series opener.
