formerlybis

I guess we should root for the Cubs against the Braves? Magic number on ATL is 8 with 12 to play. Maybe win at least one, Cubs...

Rather than start a new thread, I'll put this here. I doubt I'm alone in this, but it looks to me like the pitching staff is showing signs of fatigue. You'd think every team is battling this, though (except maybe the Dodgers who have some fresher arms). I don't expect it - it's way too much to hope for - but it would just be awesome if Woodruff could come in and contribute.

Just checked the AL playoff picture for the first time in a while. The Guardians and White Sox are in volatile spots - only a half game separates them for the Central crown, and the winner could get the 2-seed and the first round bye (Astros are currently the 3-seed, also a half game behind Chicago). The loser between those two would be the 6 seed, but possibly out altogether because the pursuers for that spot are only 2 or 3 back right now. It’s possible that the AL East gets 4 teams in, with all having better records than the 2-seed.

There are only 6 teams with whom the Brewers haven't clinched a better record - it's a foregone conclusion, but once one more team is eliminated, the Brewers will officially be in the postseason. Arizona sits at a magic number of 2, and SD is at 4. It could happen as soon as tonight if the Brewers win and either of those teams loses (if both teams are at 2 or less, the Brewers will clinch due to those teams' 3 head-to-head games where one of them has to lose at least twice - confused? don't worry about it, they're no threat to catch us anyway - just a matter of when, not if)

Is Stallings a multi-inning guy? I can't remember.

Now that I actually look at the standings, the Cubs magic # to eliminate Pitt is only 9, With this few games left, it's not impossible, but would take huge streaks in both directions beyond just the 3-game series this weekend

I hadn’t been paying attention to the Buckos - now I’m considering who between them and the Cubs is a harder matchup for us. I still think it’s the Cubs, but more for the nearness of the fanbase. Pirates have been tough for us.

I was looking at the probable pitchers on the brewers mlb site, and they have Harrison listed for the next game, which I mistakenly thought was tomorrow. They have TBD for the other two games of the Reds series

Reading between the lines, I'm thinking they'd like to save Sproat to be the long man in Harrison's start tomorrow. May not be doable unless Henderson can go 7, though.

I'm seeing two 5-game streaks (5/6-12 & 6/21-26), but it really has been workmanlike. They also had a season high 6-game losing streak in April to go from 8-2 to 8-8,

A loss only takes one off the total from the magic number against us (I suspect you are counting it as two - that only happens in head-to-head games, like with Cubs lately). If SD loses 2 of the 3 with AZ, they go down to 4, In that scenario, AZ would also be at 4. ***ETA: I re-read your quote, and we're saying the same thing. Sorry

Magic #s; Dodgers: 16 Braves: 15 Phillies: 11 Cubs: 9 Padres: 6 D-backs: 5 Pirates: 1 i believe everyone else is past the point of being able to catch the Brewers - MKE has the tiebreaker against both the Marlins and Cards, so yesterday’s win took them both out. 18 games left. Looking good for the bye if they just keep stacking series wins

That's a good point, and ideally Brewers win every tiebreaker, but let's talk through this. First, I think we can discount the Phillies - we've got just about as big a lead on them as the Cubs - magic #15. They could still get the tiebreaker on us, but it won't matter. They are, however, in a position to possibly win the division, but that would also mean ATL losing a lot and therefore lessening the possibility the Braves could overtake us. The Phils have 7 against ATL in the next 10 (and Sale vs Sanchez tonight) games, and have series against us and the Cubs coming, too. I would not bet on them. Now let's look at ATL. Currently, Braves are 28-14 in their division (10 division games of their 22 left) and Brewers are 24-13 (15 NLC games in final 21). In order for the tiebreaker to matter, ATL has to make up 3.5 games. I can't do the actual math, but chances are that if ATL and MKE are tied at the end of the year, that means that some combo of ATL winning their division games and MKE losing theirs has happened, and therefore, it's likely ATL gets the tiebreaker. What I take from this is not worry about the tiebreaker with ATL and just get the magic number to zero without it. Currently stands at 19. Maybe that was only interesting to me...

Not that they're a threat, but any win in these upcoming 6 games against Cincy both earns the Brewers the season series win and pushes our magic number to zero against them. Kudos to Henderson for re-setting the bullpen - we still have 6 games before getting to the off day. Drohan tends to get his pitch count up early, so getting almost everybody a rest day last night was good.

I think it was related to Bauers' misadventures in RF more than anything.