I guess we can’t expect the Brewers to be competitive right after or right before long flights.
Hopefully this isn’t going to be a repeat of the post deadline collapse of 2022. The Pirates started that one too.
With all of these division titles the Brewers are going to be evaluated based on their potential to go deep in the playoffs. And there they have not been underestimated.
All of the analysts I have seen so far have rated the Brewers as one of the biggest losers at the deadline. First for not going all in on Skubal and then for not doing better than May as a Plan B SP (and probably overpaying for him).
The Cubs pitching has been really solid for the last several weeks and now they have added 2 veteran SP and 2 relievers.
I guess it remains to be seen who has the better pitching going forward when you factor in the load management that the Brewers are going to need with their younger pitchers.
The Yankees failed to acquire a needed catcher.
Maybe the Brewers can send them Sanchez in exchange for one of their challenges every game. Sanchez would just waste them anyway.
Of course the odds are that the Brewers won’t blow a 6.5 game lead in 51 games. But, anyone who has followed baseball for a long time can rattle off numerous examples of teams losing leads as big or bigger in less time.
Teams change over the course of the season. Players get injured and others come back from injuries. Teams incorporate players from the minor leagues and drop others. And teams make moves at the trade deadline to address weaknesses. Pitchers who were effective for the first few months of the season wear down from heavy usage
From May 8 to June 8 the Brewers gained 11 games on the Cubs. The odds were against that happening too. It’s naive or arrogant to think the Cubs couldn’t turn the tables. Just ask fans of the 2025 Detroit Tigers how their 9 game division lead at the end of July turned out.
So, you’re saying the Cubs have no chance to win Tuesday?
Regardless, they don’t have to win every single game for the next two weeks to gain ground, and picking up just a few games would make the race look a lot different.
As dead as the Brewers looked at the beginning and end of this road trip, even with a day off in the middle, I’m not looking forward to what they’ll look like when they return to the west coast next week for the last 7 of 17 days in a row. Those games are against significantly better than the Giants and Angels.
But first the Brewers must face 4 games against a Pirates team that can score a lot of runs and has owned the Brewers so far this year.
If the Cubs go on a winning streak this race could get real close real fast