Divisional Showdown Puts Brewers in Driver's Seat, Cubs in Shotgun

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Image courtesy of © Benny Sieu-Imagn Images

When it comes to the ongoing war both on and off the field with the Milwaukee Brewers, the Cubs could collectively sit in a rose bush and have less of a thorn in their side than Pat Murphy's club has proven to be. Racing toward the post-trade-deadline home stretch, both squads have their sights set on a division crown and securing an all-important bye during the first round come October. Depending on what day you checked the standings, the Crew and Cubbies traded places boasting baseball's best record ahead of this three-game tilt. But, with the dust settling from this series of heavyweights, nothing is quite settled. Far from it in fact. 

The Chicago Cubs have pitching hindrances that were not shored up at the deadline, but at the outset of the series, one thing was clear: Craig Counsell had to line up his three best pitchers, and he did. Rolling out Matthew Boyd, Colin Rea, and Shota Imanaga, the hurlers taking the mound for Chicago's North Side team at American Family Field were to lock their squad in a tit-for-tat chess match with Milwaukee's best. 

If you watched every pitch of this series, which some of us had the distinct misfortune of doing, you realized that the squad's best laid plans don't always come to fruition, ending the series just one game back of their rivals from across state lines.

Holding a lead in each of the first two games of this tilt, the Cubs' widely known shortcomings, namely sporadic starting pitching and a short bullpen, kept the North Siders from having any real chance of defeating the Brewers. Game one starter Matthew Boyd did not look the part of an All-Star Cy Young candidate and struggled with control early. The Brewers' scrappy crew of hitters like Sal Frelick, Isaac Collins, and new villain Andrew Vaughn jumped all over the Cubbies' veteran early. The game started with both pitchers and both teams understanding the enormity of the moment, shaking off nerves and struggling to find their respective grooves. The Cubs more or less got to Milwaukee's pitching phenom Jacob Misiorowski, but could not string together enough clutch hits to deliver the knock out blow to the young ace. 

Suffering losses in both games in which more resolve, and yes, more weapons, could have led to far more positive outcomes for the North Siders, the Cubs got a rude wake-up call to what it takes to be successful in playoff-type situations. No one in the Brewers' batting order wields the dangerous pop of most of the Cubs' boppers, but what Milwaukee does is play nearly mistake-free baseball. Their opportunistic offense and fundamentally-tight defense puts them in game situations that prevent the bottom from falling out. If the Cubs are to have even a puncher's chance of fighting back to take this division, they're going to have to operate on a similar plane. 

Did the Cubs blow this series? Yes, they absolutely did. The club's offense could not muster a hit when it mattered, going a ghastly 4-21 with runners in scoring position in the first two contests. That's losing baseball, and that's a poor recipe for postseason affluence, where the cream of the crop eventually rises to the top. If Chicago wants to keep the Cream City from being the ones who rise, they had better get some things figured out, and fast. 

Alas, the Cubs that we know and love made a largely heartwarming reappearance to close out the series. The explosive offense, powered by some of the club's usual suspects in Michael Busch, Pete Crow-Armstrong, and Kyle Tucker, pelted one clutch hit after another in front of a Wrigley-leaning crowd. Each smooth swing of the bat that drove in another run for Craig Counsell's club felt like pain relief and proof that the squad may yet round back into form to make a serious run at the NL Central crown. The Cubs' triumph in the eleventh hour in Milwaukee issued a two-game swing in their pursuit of the division's superior team, making the climb seem slightly less daunting.

What comes next for these two clubs relies heavily on the typical baseball factors: health, depth, and luck. Not much was decided in this most recent battle. Milwaukee won the war of attrition, but both sides are now left to retreat back to their corners, watching the stakes soar to new heights.

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