Image courtesy Milwaukee Brewers Twitter
This weekend’s series between the Brewers and Braves wasn’t exactly the marquee matchup it looked like it might be when the schedule came out, but in a way, it was a preview of the Brewers’ stretch run.
The Brewers have done a nice job taking care of business during an extended soft spot in their schedule: Since May 29 they’ve played 56 games against teams with an average win percentage of .453, a pace that would net around 73 wins in a 162-game MLB season. That stretch featured their entire season series with the Diamondbacks and Rockies, plus 10 games against the Pirates. It also featured just six games against teams currently in position to make the postseason (three each against the Mets and White Sox). The Brewers went 38-18 over that span, the best record in all of baseball.
What goes up must come down, however, and the Brewers’ remaining schedule is no exception: They have 56 games remaining against opponents with an average win percentage of .502, nearly 50 points better than the teams they’ve roughed up recently. They have 13 games remaining against the likely NL playoff teams but, perhaps more notably, they also have 19 contests against teams lurking on the perimeter of the playoff picture. Here are some highlights from what’s left on the calendar:
Giants
No one expected San Francisco to be the NL West team that everyone was talking about in August, but they’ve earned it. They entered the season projected to finish well below .500 and FanGraphs gave them a 5.7% chance to reach the postseason on Opening Day, but they’ve posted baseball’s best record through their first 105 games and have a significant lead over their division’s two projected juggernauts, the Dodgers and Padres.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
They also added former MVP Kris Bryant at the trade deadline.
The Giants are a near-lock to make the postseason at this point, but they still have a lot of work to do to hold off the Dodgers and Padres and avoid having to play in the Wild Card game. A fair amount of that work will come against the Brewers: The two teams meet three times at American Family Field this weekend and four more times in San Francisco at the end of the month.
Cardinals
The Cardinals have had a significantly disappointing season and find themselves at 53-52 entering play Monday, 9 ½ games back in the NL Central and 6 ½ back of the final Wild Card spot. Their schedule gives them two big advantages, however: First, they have a lot of games remaining against bad teams. Starting on Friday the Cardinals have a 21-game stretch where they face the Royals six times, the Pirates 10 times and the Tigers twice.
The Cardinals are coming up on a significant opportunity to get hot at the right time, and if they find themselves back in the playoff picture they’re well-positioned to make an impact. They have 13 games left against the Brewers, so they’ll get plenty of opportunities to slow down the NL Central frontrunner.
Dodgers
The Brewers wrap up the season with a three-game set in Los Angeles on October 1-3, and there’s a chance that will be the series that all of baseball is watching that weekend. The Dodgers, who came into the season projected to be one of the best teams in MLB history, instead may find themselves still chasing the Giants in the NL West. Even if the Brewers have wrapped up the NL Central, meanwhile, they also still could have playoff positioning on the line.
All of this makes the Brewers’ recent hot streak all the more important. As we noted in June, their success against the soft part of their schedule gives them a cushion that could prove valuable as the difficulty level ratchets up for the stretch run. They did what they needed to do to put themselves in good position for the season’s final two months, but they still have work to do against tough opponents if they’re going to put their rivals away.
