Cubs aren’t streaky. They have 2 5 game winning streaks and 1 3 game losing streak as season highs. Their highs and lows don’t exactly jump out and while you’re correct that it’s not officially a free fall, if they win 2 or less over their next 6 you can consider applying that term. If the wild card race ever gets tight they’ll have a 4 game set with the Reds and a 3 game set with the Mets to put them away at the end of the season. If they can’t then I’d prefer that they back in but I won’t be devastated because of that 1 time the diamond backs made the World Series with 84 wins.
If the cubs finish with 90 wins the Reds won’t catch them. That’s not what I mean by backing in exactly. If they continue to rot in a linear, progressive free fall like an old man in a nursing home then they’re relying on the destiny of other teams and I won’t shed a tear if the Reds or Mets pass them with 86-88 wins.
7 of their final 10 games are against both the Mets and Reds too. They’ll need a cushy lead anyways if they can’t put both teams away.
Better that they’re peaking now than September. We’ve seen this with the 2006 Twins, 2017 Indians, 01/02 Athletics and countless other teams. Of course this doesn’t bode well for the 5 game set this week.
Speaking for myself, my hatred of Milwaukee has an edge over rationality. I can’t believe some people were 50/50 on this on Friday though. If the Cubs have to back in to the playoffs they don’t deserve to be seeded anyways.
At the end of July the Cubs were number 1 in runs/game at 5.28/game. Cubs are now 5th in runs/game, scoring an average of 5/game on the dot. This has coincided with the soft portion of their schedule too while facing right handed scrubs they mashed early on.