If you're gonna get the Dodgers, you might as well get them early
It's not likely they'll catch the Brewers, but it's not impossible.
As the red hot Cubs (they've won 8 of 10, if you haven't been paying attention, and judging by Marquee's ratings, you haven't) begin the homestretch of the regular season, it's time to ponder a couple of questions.
Can they catch the Brewers to win the division?
If they don't, should we be hoping the Padres or Dodgers win the West because the Cubs will almost certainly play the other team in the first round of the playoffs?
The Cubs finished Sunday five games behind the Brewers with 31 games to play. They won the season series against Milwaukee so they don't need to pass the Brewers to win the division, but they do need to catch them.
The Cubs remaining opponents: three in San Francisco, three in Colorado, home/away with the Barves, three at home with the Rays, three in Pissburgh, four in Cincinnati, three at home with the Mets and they finish with three at home against the Cardinals have a combined winning percentage of .458 (475-562).
The Brewers remaining opponents: four at home against the D'bags, three at Toronto, three at home with the Phillies, three in Pissburgh, three at Texas, home/away with the Cardinals, three at home against the Angels, three at San Diego and three with the Reds, have a combined winning percentage of .515 (602-567).
So that's a much tougher stretch for the Brewers, and considering that the only difference in the two teams' schedules is that the Brewers got three more games with the Twins and the Cubs got three more games with the White Sox, it shows that the Cubs have played a tougher schedule so far than Milwaukee.
There are some things to watch for in the Cubs' schedule, though. First of all is that the six games with the Barves won't be as easy as Atlanta's winning percentage (.454) would lead you to believe. Atlanta is 12-8 in their last 20, and have Ronald Acuna back after he missed two big chunks of the season, and Chris Sale will return soon, just in time to probably face the Cubs twice. Also, Michael Harris was awful in the first half (.210/.234/.317) but has been ridiculous in the second (.360/.373/.676).
And, while the Rockies have been nearly historically ass this year (37-93, .285), they are a solid (for them anyway) 15-20 (.428) since the break, and have pulled themselves out of the dreaded 2024 White Sox/1962 Mets danger zone. Best yet, they won the season series over the Cardinals 4-2!
Then again, they did get swept in Pissburgh this weekend and scored once in three games. Once.
The Cubs swept Colorado at Wrigley back in late May when the Rockies were an unbelievably terrible 9-45, but all three were close games (3-1, 4-3, 2-1), and the Cubs scored just nine runs in the series.
Milwaukee plays some legitimately good teams (Phillies, Blue Jays, Padres) and the Cardinals have given them a hard time so far (Milwaukee leads the season series 4-3), but they have handled the Pirates pretty easily averaging seven runs per game in their seven wins in 10 tries.
