The St. Louis Cardinals are on a terrific run; they've won 12 of their last 14 games and currently stand just 1-1/2 games behind the Atlanta Braves for the NL wild card. The Braves are idle today; if the Cardinals win they'd pull to within one game.

There's only one problem involving their Thursday afternoon game with the Mets, and it can perhaps best be described this way:

That's right. It's raining in St. Louis, and all the green you see to the southwest of St. Louis is heading in that direction. It's going to be raining there for many, many hours.

Neither the Mets nor the Cardinals have another off day. Thus, if today's game is postponed, it would have to be made up the day after the season ends, a week from today, Thursday, Sept. 29, if it still has meaning for the postseason. That's all well and good -- but what if that happens, and after that game is made up, the Cardinals are then tied with the Braves? Or the Giants? Or the Braves AND Giants?

That would cause a scheduling mess that MLB would certainly love to avoid. It could push back the start of the NL division series by a day or more, especially if the Giants are involved, because that would almost certainly require cross country travel.

In a season that's had so many postponements and rain delays, this somehow seems appropriate. They'll wait a very long time before they call today's game. They may have to.