Scoreboard Watching: Cardinals Get Blown Out, Brewers Come Back, Wild Card Update

Ah, it’s that time of year again (or thereabouts, anyway). The Chicago Cubs are in the thick of a playoff race, and that necessarily means the results of other teams’ games will have a direct impact on the Cubs’ future.

So we should start paying attention to them.

For example, last night, the Brewers came back in the 7th inning to beat the Giants 4-3 in San Francisco, despite a great performance from Jeff Samardzija. As soon as he left the game, the Brewers came back.

With the win, the Brewers stayed 2.5 games back of the Cubs, who obviously also won last night.

The Cardinals, on the other hand, dropped a laugher to the Padres in St. Louis, and fell 4.5 games behind the Cubs. They’ve now lost three in a row, and those brief moments when they were so excited to be tied with the Cubs for first place feel like they were ages ago.

Meanwhile, in the Wild Card race, the Diamondbacks beat the Mets 7-4, but the Rockies lost to the Royals 3-2. That moved Arizona a half-game ahead of the Rockies for the top Wild Card spot, though they are tied in the loss column at 57.

And here’s the thing about that: the Cubs also have 57 losses. They’re behind the Rockies by a half-game, but if the Wild Card were to become a necessary vehicle for the Cubs to make the playoffs, they’re right in that race.

The Brewers are 3.0 games behind the Rockies for that second Wild Card spot, by the way.