Chicago Cubs: St. Louis Cardinals are the real threat in National League Central

Cardinals, Brewers end season against one another

If you’re Mike Matheny, you’ve got to like what you see on the calendar.

Their next six are against the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates. The Bucs gave Chicago fits this week, but they’re a beatable team. Cincinnati, meanwhile, is a team, quite frankly, you have to beat.

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After the aforementioned three-game stint with the Cubs, they get six more against the Bucs and Reds. To wrap things up in the regular season, St. Louis and Milwaukee  have a three-game set at Busch Stadium.

If you look at the Brewers’ schedule, it looks eerily similar to the Cardinals. What it comes down to is simple: the Central will be decided by who steps up against division rivals this month.

St. Louis is pretty banged up. They lost Trevor Rosenthal for the season. Meanwhile, of late, Matt Carpenter, Kolten Wong, Tommy Pham, Jedd Gyorko and Adam Wainwright have battled various ailments.

After years of Cardinal dominance, it’s engrained in me to not sleep on St. Louis. They have too much experience and, although I think Matheny is on the hot seat and the next few weeks will decide his future, the front office is one of the best in baseball.

Brewers struggling at the dish

Milwaukee, while incredibly talented, is young and raw. We saw what a young, raw team on a hot streak is capable of in 2015 with Chicago. It just comes down to the offense. The Brewers entered Thursday with the worst average in the National League since the All-Star Break.

When you don’t score, you don’t win games. The Cubs themselves seem intent on proving that point this season far more often than we’d like. But with the Cardinals back in the hunt, Milwaukee is looking over their shoulders.