Brewers win a series against the Cubs but gain no ground in playoff race

126 games down, 36 games to go.

If the National League Wild Card race was a tennis match you could say that the Milwaukee Brewers held serve against both the San Diego Padres and Philadelphia Phillies this weekend. Each team took two of three games from their weak opposition.

That means the Brew Crew still find themselves 1.5 games back of the Padres and four games back from the Phillies. As a reminder, the Brewers do not hold the tiebreaker with either team, meaning they have to pass them completely to secure a playoff spot. The days of the “Game 163” winner take all showdown are gone.

The takeaways from this three-game series against the pesky Chicago Cubs are mostly positive. Milwaukee missed an opportunity to sweep due to an extra inning loss on Friday, but nailed down wins on both Saturday and Sunday to win the series.

Adam and Andrew look back at some of those positive performances, lament what could have been, and flip the calendar ahead to what comes next.

Master Brewer Leaderboard (through 126 games)

(The Master Brewer Leaderboard is a season-long leaderboard tracking and ranking exceptional performances from Brewers players in the form of Master Brew Points 🍺, which at the end of the season will tally up to crown our Crewsing for a Brewsing Player of the Year.)

Christian Yelich 🍺

Yeli showcased some throwback power against the Cubs. Yelich homered in both Saturday and Sunday’s wins to give The Crew and the home crowd a much needed jolt of energy. For the series, he went 8-for-14 with one walk, the aforementioned long balls, five runs scored, and five RBI. It looked a lot like 2018 this weekend.

Kolten Wong 🍺

Kolten Wong provided a stellar offensive series. His 5-for-10 effort included a double, a homer, three runs, and three RBI. Wong has struggled against left-handed pitching all season, but his homer came off of Cubs lefty Sean Newcomb. A sign of things to come perhaps?

Rowdy Tellez 🍺

Plain and simply, Rowdy Tellez makes the cut this series because he walked five times. That’s very hard to do in a three game series! We like guys that get on base. Tellez went 2-for-9 against the Cubs with his five walks, a homer, one run scored, and one RBI.

Brandon Woodruff 🍺

After a tough Friday night loss the Brewers needed Brandon Woodruff to be sharp, and sharp he was. Big Woo was outstanding on Saturday night. He tossed six scoreless innings with only four hits allowed, no walks, and 10 strikeouts.

Freddy Peralta 🍺

Freddy Peralta’s start on Friday night was the subject of much debate. Not because of his performance, Fastball Freddy was dominant, but debate raged on about whether or not he was removed too soon by Craig Counsell. Peralta had thrown six no hit innings when removed and the Cubs immediately scored two runs to take a 2-1 lead in the top of the 7th inning against Matt Bush. Strategy conversation aside, Freddys six innings pitched with no hits, no runs, one walk, and five strikeouts made for his best start since returning from the IL.

Leaderboard through 126 games

Rowdy Tellez: 🍺 x20

Christian Yelich: 🍺 x16

Corbin Burnes: 🍺 x14

Willy Adames: 🍺 x13

Andrew McCutchen: 🍺 x11

Brandon Woodruff, Hunter Renfroe, Jace Peterson: 🍺 x9

Eric Lauer, Devin Williams, Luis Urias:🍺 x8

Tyrone Taylor, Kolten Wong, Josh Hader: 🍺 x7

Keston Hiura: 🍺 x6

Freddy Peralta, Aaron Ashby, Hoby Milner: 🍺 x5

Brad Boxberger, Trevor Gott, Jonathan Davis, Victor Caratini, Jason Alexander: 🍺 x3

Peter Strzelecki, Matt Bush, Omar Narvaez, Adrian Houser: 🍺 x2

Taylor Rogers, Jandel Gustave, Brent Suter, Luke Barker: 🍺