Cubs and Brewers meet in Milwaukee with playoff implications

The Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers are embroiled in a series with series playoff implications, a situation unfamiliar to both teams in recent years. With a 7-2 win on Wednesday night, the Cubs are on the verge of a four game sweep in the series and have stretched their lead in the NL Central to four games over the Brewers and the St. Louis Cardinals.

The 3 straight Cubs victories are something of a reversal in form, as the team hasn’t been particularly strong away from Wrigley Field this season. The victory on Wednesday night raised the Northsiders’ record to 25-30 away from home. The Brewers’ loss, conversely, represented the first time all season that they’ve dropped 4 in a row at Miller Park. Chicago’s cause has been helped by a large contingent of their fans who’ve made the 92 mile trip to watch their team play. The trip has become so commonplace to Cubs partisans that the Brewers’ park is often referred to as “Wrigley Field North”.

While Chicago has received solid pitching during the series—particularly from Ryan Dempster on Wednesday night—they’ve dominated with their bats. Facing the top of the Brewers’ rotation (C.C. Sabathia, Ryan Sheets and Manny Parra) the Cubs have banged out 40 hits and scored 20 runs in three games. Compounding the Brewers woes has been their lack of timely hitting, with the team on runs of 0 for 15 and 3 for 60 with runners in scoring position.

The Cubs have an excellent shot at pulling off the sweep as they send Rich Harden and his 1.04 ERA against Dave Bush (5-8, 4.51 ERA) in the final game of the set. If Harden can do his part to keep the Brewers’ bats quiet the recent onslaught of the Chicago offense should take care of the rest.