The Brewers and Cardinals are set to square off for a two-game set in Milwaukee starting tonight, the results of which will hopefully be something like a split after two 22-inning games.
Neither of those teams played yesterday, though, which means the Cubs’ win helped bump up their divisional lead to 2.5 games over the Brewers (three in the loss column), and 5.0 games over the Cardinals.
The Pirates need to go nuts on the Cubs during these seven games the two teams will play over the next week and a half if they hope to get back into the Central race, and last night’s game was an inauspicious start for them. The Pirates are now 8.0 games behind the Cubs.
Elsewhere in the NL, the Marlins are one of the hottest teams in baseball, and they’ve managed to close the gap with the Nationals in the NL East to … 13.0 games.
The Dodgers’ lead in the NL West is 19.0 games over the Diamondbacks (who have a better record than the Cubs, mind you) and 21.0 games over the Rockies (who also have a better record than the Cubs).
The Cubs are only 21.5 games behind the Dodgers for the best record in the NL.