PHOENIX • The Cardinals will play a fourth consecutive 8:40 p.m. (St. Louis time) start Thursday against the Diamondbacks, and manager Mike Matheny had a single word to describe the late start on a getaway game: “Ridiculous.”

The late start on the final day of a seven-game road trip means the Cardinals will not return until dawn Friday and then, around 12 hours later, must be ready for a home game and 7:15 p.m. start.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” Matheny affirmed. “This isn’t right. This is a shame. It’s going to be a long night. Most of us will watch the sun come up on the way home on the drive back from the airport.”

It has been the custom for the final game of a series — especially a getaway game for the opponent — to be played earlier, although a handful of teams around baseball increasingly seek the prime-time starts for all games. The Yankees, for example, have as few as two afternoon getaway starts.

The start time for the Cardinals-Diamondbacks did not run afoul of an MLB policy forcing early starts for teams traveling three time zones. The Cardinals’ trip home falls one time zone shy.

One of the team’s union reps intended to look into the reasoning for the late start, and in current negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement, a point of focus for the players’ union is the schedule and travel demands created by later games.

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