NL Central

[OldSchoolSnapper]

11 hours ago, willie key said:

 Not getting a bye to the decision series would disappoint me at this point 

That's probably very unlikely to happen too. The Dodgers and Padres still play each other 6 times and probably have a race to the end. The Brewers falling behind BOTH division leaders at this point would require a faceplant. 

I think the Brewers could play the final 42 under .500 and still end up #1. An 8 game lead is a big lead. It's not out of the question just yet, but it basically is if they leave the 5 game set next week in the same spot. 

[Jimbo]

16 hours ago, BCF said:

Disagree

Cubs have a cupcake schedule the rest of the way and Brewers still have Jays and Phillies back to back on the road 

6-0!

[gregmag]

This is about as fun as it gets. The lead is small enough that the games absolutely matter and will create an intense atmosphere. The lead is big enough that we don’t have to freak out with every setback — at least not yet.

[Brewcrew82]

17 hours ago, BCF said:

Disagree

Cubs have a cupcake schedule the rest of the way and Brewers still have Jays and Phillies back to back on the road 

Earliest you can say the division is over is realistically next week. If they win 3/5 and exit Wrigley with a 9 game lead for instance with zero H2H remaining, I’m probably willing to declare it over. That would probably take what is currently slightly less than 10 percent chance of the Cubs winning the division to low single digits. 
 

Though, the “cupcake” schedule notion with the Cubs doesn’t move me much. They’ve had an “easier” schedule for a while now and are basically .500. 

[Playing Catch]

10 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

Though, the “cupcake” schedule notion with the Cubs doesn’t move me much. They’ve had an “easier” schedule for a while now and are basically .500. 

Considering the Brewers winning percentage versus teams above .500 is better than their overall winning percentage, I'm not worried about SoS at all.

[Brian]

LOL, PCA batting gets beaned on an 0 & 2 count and acts pissed off.  He's lucky he got beaned or he would have struck out.  I absolutely hate PCA and his showboat cockyness. 

[HarryDoyle]

How many games out of first place are the Cubs?

 

 

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Looking at schedules. We have the tough 6 coming here, but before that we have 4 against the DBacks, and after we go Pirates, Rangers, Cardinals, Angels, Cardinals. It's baseball, of course. But if you can roll up an 11-4 or 10-5 stretch there, you're going to be in good shape before a tough last week.

Seems like a sneaky big week in the race here. Cubs have 6 against the Giants and Rockies. We have 7 against the DBacks and Blue Jays. If we can outdo them by 1.5 or 2.5 and head in to September up 6-7, you'd have to think we'd be tough to catch.

[wiguy94]

7 minutes ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

Looking at schedules. We have the tough 6 coming here, but before that we have 4 against the DBacks, and after we go Pirates, Rangers, Cardinals, Angels, Cardinals. It's baseball, of course. But if you can roll up an 11-4 or 10-5 stretch there, you're going to be in good shape before a tough last week.

Seems like a sneaky big week in the race here. Cubs have 6 against the Giants and Rockies. We have 7 against the DBacks and Blue Jays. If we can outdo them by 1.5 or 2.5 and head in to September up 6-7, you'd have to think we'd be tough to catch.

I think you have to just hope the Brewers can stand pat these next 10 games. You have the final 8 of the 19 in 18 stretch and then the Phillies. If Brewers can stand pat only losing/gaining 0.5 games then you'd feel pretty great considering the Cubs play the Giants, Rockies, and Braves. 

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

10 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

I think you have to just hope the Brewers can stand pat these next 10 games. You have the final 8 of the 19 in 18 stretch and then the Phillies. If Brewers can stand pat only losing/gaining 0.5 games then you'd feel pretty great considering the Cubs play the Giants, Rockies, and Braves. 

I think the Cubs might underwhelm this stretch. Coors is a wild card, the Giants are decent, and the Braves are actually playing up to their talent level.

[Marc Newfield of Dreams]

Lost four games off the lead in the last seven. 

Trying to be optimistic, but it really seems like they're burning out after an amazing stretch. The amount of close games and high leverage innings the pen has had to absorb have taken a real toll.

I hope they can hang on, but I'm not sure I see it.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

7 minutes ago, Marc Newfield of Dreams said:

Lost four games off the lead in the last seven. 

Trying to be optimistic, but it really seems like they're burning out after an amazing stretch. The amount of close games and high leverage innings the pen has had to absorb have taken a real toll.

I hope they can hang on, but I'm not sure I see it.

I do think either the offense is going to have to give us an 8-run outburst or two OR we're going to have to get 7 or 8 from a starter in the next few games in order to log a W and rest the bullpen. We've been short on that all this last week. 

Good news is, Woody, Priester, and Q may well be candidates for the latter, so nice to have them all going, often against pitchers who have struggled this year. 

[LouisEly]

16 hours ago, Marc Newfield of Dreams said:

Lost four games off the lead in the last seven. 

You can also say they've lost zero games over the last 16.

[Fear The Chorizo]

17 hours ago, Marc Newfield of Dreams said:

Lost four games off the lead in the last seven. 

Trying to be optimistic, but it really seems like they're burning out after an amazing stretch. The amount of close games and high leverage innings the pen has had to absorb have taken a real toll.

I hope they can hang on, but I'm not sure I see it.

over the course of a 162 game season, all teams are going to go through stretches where they go 4-6 and teams chasing them go 7-3 or 8-2.  Not all teams are going to do that after playing the equivalent of better than 0.700 winning percentage baseball for 3 solid months of the schedule.  The Brewers weren't going to maintain a 110+ win pace, that's just baseball.

 

They are far from burning out after a tough week that saw them lose a couple of very winnable games that would otherwise have their division lead closer to 10 games than 5.  This stretch of consecutive days with games is absolutely brutal, though.  Hoping they can beat on the Dbacks to start the week to close out August on the high note it's been! 

[kestrel79]

It's going to come down to the wire guys. The Cubs were playing poorly, now they are getting hot again and have an easy schedule. We have a tough schedule coming up and no off days, we were bound to lose some games here.

The key is to lose now, and then get hot again for the playoffs. That's all we have to do is be hot in the playoffs to get to the WS and win it all one of these years. I don't care what seed we are, we just have to get in and be the hot team and we will win. 

[HarryDoyle]

Willy's little brother gets suspended six games.
 

Cardinals' Contreras gets 6-game suspension, fine for tirade - ESPN

[Zad Fnark]

I'm thankful we got the good Contreras.

[formerlybis]

12 hours ago, Zad Fnark said:

I'm thankful we got the good Contreras.

Not gonna lie - seeing the storminess of the Cards' Contreras puts the idea in my head that our Contreras has that in him, too. I'm all in favor of players showing passion - they're human. When it goes too negative too often, though, it can go south reputation-wise (see Pham, Tommy).

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

12 hours ago, HarryDoyle said:

Willy's little brother gets suspended six games.
 

Cardinals' Contreras gets 6-game suspension, fine for tirade - ESPN

Big brother. Willson is 33 ... and obviously should know better. He's always been kind of a dick though.

[shanedog19]

These games against the DBacks are critical. If we can get these next two games and hope the Cubs lose one of the next two, I would feel good about the division. It still feels like the division is within reach for the Cubs with us having the Blue Jays, Phillies and Padres left on the schedule.

[Brian]

1 hour ago, shanedog19 said:

These games against the DBacks are critical. If we can get these next two games and hope the Cubs lose one of the next two, I would feel good about the division. It still feels like the division is within reach for the Cubs with us having the Blue Jays, Phillies and Padres left on the schedule.

Brewers are 17 wins from 100 with 29 to go which is very, very doable.  Cubs would have to go on an absolute win rampage to get to 100 wins this season with so few games left.  

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

59 games left (our 29 + their 30). Magic number is 24. If we assume every game is a coin flip, we need to come out on the right side in about 41 percent of them. 

Obviously, every game is not a coin flip. But that's a good place to be.

I think these next 8-10 days tell us a lot. We stick around 6 or 7 up, even the most anxious among us (myself included) would have to feel confident.

[wiguy94]

4 minutes ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

59 games left (our 29 + their 30). Magic number is 24. If we assume every game is a coin flip, we need to come out on the right side in about 41 percent of them. 

Obviously, every game is not a coin flip. But that's a good place to be.

I think these next 8-10 days tell us a lot. We stick around 6 or 7 up, even the most anxious among us (myself included) would have to feel confident.

Getting beyond the Blue Jays and Phillies series and the 19 in 18 stretch with a 5 game lead in the division would feel like a really great spot to be. 

[brewcrewdue80]

On 8/14/2025 at 3:57 PM, tomoohka said:

Couldn't help but to turn this game on. 

Former Brewer Drew Pomeranz on the mound. May his control be even worse than it was here. 

I don't approve of that brewer logo. Really bad records with it.  More Ueck and less puke.

[HarryDoyle]

6 hours ago, Ron Robinsons Beard said:

Big brother. Willson is 33 ... and obviously should know better. He's always been kind of a dick though.

Emotionally, he's a little brother.