Race Tightens Up in National League Central

Earlier this month, it looked like the St. Louis Cardinals were getting to near shoo-in status as the National League Central champion. Between August 9th and September 8th, the Cardinals had gone 24-7, and had a 4 1/2 game lead on the 8th, with just three weeks left in the regular season. The Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers had been running hot and cold, and a lot of the talk was how they would be battling it out for the second Wild Card in the N.L.

Against this backdrop, the Brewers played a three game series in St. Louis over the September 13th-15th weekend. Milwaukee was clobbered 10-0 in the opener, then came back with a 5-2 victory on the 14th. In the series finale, the Cardinals held a 4-3 lead going into the ninth inning. St. Louis pitchers walked the bases loaded, but also retired two Brewers. Then Ryan Braun stepped to the plate:

Braun’s blast gave Milwaukee a 7-4 lead. The Cardinals made it interesting in the bottom of the ninth with a two run homer off Josh Hader, but the Brewers’ closer struck out the next two hitters to preserve a 7-6 win.

Milwaukee improved to 80-69, three games behind the Cardinals (83-66) and a game behind the Cubs (81-68), who swept a three game series over the Pittsburgh Pirates. The bad news in terms of the schedule for Milwaukee is that the Brewers have completed their season series with both the Cubs and the Cardinals. The good news is that their remaining 13 games are all against teams with sub .500 records (San Diego, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Colorado) while St. Louis has seven with the Cubs, and three each with Washington and Arizona. All three of those teams are in either their division or Wild Card races. Besides those seven with St. Louis, Chicago has three each with Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.

In terms of the N.L. Wildcards, the Washington Nationals were a game and a half ahead of Chicago for the top Wild Card, while Milwaukee was a game behind the Cubs for that second slot after games of September 15th. The Mets, Phillies, and Diamondbacks also were still in the running for Wild Cards.