Chicago Cubs: What’s left for the cream of the crop in the NL Central?

With two weeks left in the season and the National League Central still up for grabs, let’s check out what’s left for the potential postseason teams from the Cubs’ division.

While the Brewers and Cardinals have both had fine seasons so far, the Cubs currently hold a 3 1/2 game lead over the Brewers (5 1/2 over the Cards) in the National League Central heading into Sept. 19.

With only 11 more regular season Cubs games to play, let’s take a look at who the teams play down the stretch, how the schedule shakes out, and how the teams are faring at the moment.

We just recently saw the Brewers for a three game set at Wrigley last week.  They are, in Denny Green’s famous words, “who we thought they were.”  The Brew Crew is a team loaded with offensive firepower, a high-octane bullpen, and good starting pitching.

The one thing they seem to lack is a truly stellar defensive infield, as they’ve put together a hodgepodge group of hitters and offensive players (in much the same mold as a Daniel Murphy type for the Cubs) while sacrificing some infield defense.  That being said, they’ve got a really good outfield that seems to make up for that. Lorenzo Cain and Christian Yelich, especially, are both putting themselves in the MVP debate, having excellent offensive and defensive seasons.

Chicago Cubs: Milwaukee a team with nothing to lose, everything to prove

We know the Brewers have been hot lately, making a strong push for the Central crown. They are 6-4 in their last 10 games, and 10-6 in the month of September.  Two of those losses came this past weekend against the Pirates, so they were really steamrolling heading into the weekend. They got back on track Monday night against the Reds, spanking a last place Cincinnati squad, 8-0. That momentum, however, vanished quickly with a Tuesday loss.

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The Brewers (12-6 against the Reds so far this season) finish up their series at home against the Reds with one more game tonight.

Left-hander Gio Gonzalez heads to the mound opposite Matt Harvey in the finale, so hopefully the Dark Knight can pitch as well as he has against Chicago this season.

Milwaukee then head to Pittsburgh (5-11 against the Pirates so far this season) to face the Bucs for a three-game set over the weekend where they’re scheduled to face Ivan Nova, Trevor Williams and Joe Musgrove.

The Brew Crew will counter with Zach Davies, Jhoulys Chacin and lefty Wade Miley. It would be really nice if the Buccos could take two of three again in Pittsburgh, although there are tough pitching matchups the whole weekend.

The Brewers then finish up their last road trip of the year with three games at Busch Stadium in St. Louis (8-8 so far this season against the Cards) before they head home for their last three games of the year at Miller Park against the Tigers.

They’re scheduled to face left-hander Austin Gomber, Jack Flaherty and John Gant in St. Louis and then Jordan Zimmerman and lefty Daniel Norris for the Tigers.  The Tigers haven’t named a scheduled starter for the last game of the year. Here’s hoping that the Cardinals’ young arms and the Tigers experienced arms can slow down the Brewers’ offense and give them some losses to make the last week of the season a little more comfortable for the Cubs.

Also of note, the Brew Crew have two more off-days, one after the Reds series and one after the St. Louis series. They could also be adjusting and positioning their rotation in that last series to get ready for a wild card showdown, which could be an advantage over the Cards who are still in the thick of a heated race for the second Wild Card spot.

Chicago Cubs: Don’t ever sleep on St. Louis – ever

Speaking of those Redbirds, the Cubs currently hold a 5 1/2 game lead over the Cardinals, a very comfortable lead at this point in the season, but stranger things have happened.

It’s also possible the Cards stay relevant if they can hang on and wiggle their way into the Wild Card game (they’re currently a 1 1/2 game ahead of Colorado for the second berth). St. Louis has cooled, also going 6-4in their last 10 games, and 8-9 overall in the month.  Despite that, if the season ended today, they would play the Brewers in the Wild Card game at Miller Park and still have a mathematical, albeit small, chance to win the division.

The Cardinals finish their season with another game in Atlanta, (2-3 against the Braves so far this season) where they’ve already taken the first two games of the series. They will send left-hander  Jack Flaherty to the mound Wednesday against Touki Toussaint, then enjoy an off-day before they head home to St. Louis to face San Francisco.

The Giants are currently scheduled to go with left-hander Madison Bumgarner, right-hander Dereck Rodriguez and southpaw Andrew Suarez, so hopefully the Giants can do us a solid and win two or three in that series. The Redbirds will turn to John Gant, Adam Wainwright and Miles Mikolas. MadBum and Rodridguez are both really good and we can only hope that Bum helps us more than he did this past week against the Brewers.

After the Giants’ series, the Cards finish their last homestand of the year with that three-game set against the Brewers, where they’re scheduled to face Chase Anderson, left-hander Gio Gonzalez, and Zach Davies.  This particular series could end up helping to decide the division and the Wild Card spots, as the Cards and Brewers will be hurting each other, which only helps the Cubs.

If things haven’t been decided by the last series, it’ll be a great finish to the season at Wrigley, as the Cardinals (after an off-day) come to Chicago for the last series of the season.  I’m not going to postulate on the Cubs potential starters, because I’m hoping they will be setting up their rotation by that point.