The week that was for the Cubs was one that can be used as a foretell into the realities they may (will?) face if a deep or even respectable (anything but a repeat of last year) postseason run is in the cards they play solitaire with.
With the series they just completed against the Brewers being both faith and fortune. Exposing everything we knew, wanted to know, didn’t want to know and may have been better off never finding out.
Game 1: A yard-leaving explosion of sounds of nine inches of white, stitched leather leaving 2.61 inches of barreled wood. A Wrigley symphony, Concerto 9. Blue euphoria. 17-3. As one fan, drunk but coherent, said to someone an hour after the game who asked about the game, ‘‘If this was Ali-Frazier, they would have stopped it early.’’
Game 2: A crowd pop of Brewers fans made enough noise for ESPN’s Jeff Passan to think Wrigley North had, for a moment, turned into Family Field South. No sweep. No problem. Just as long as the Cubs send the Brewers a message in this series. The Brewers welcomed the Cubs to September, when baseball begins to matter more. 9-4, the score. Still the kings of the Central. Fact, not folklore.
Game 3: The ceremonial return of the guy who had his official coming-out party at the Cubs’ expense in the 2025 postseason. Specifically, Game 5. It’s as if Jacob Misiorowski’s whole 2026 season has been a carryover from that. Until this game. Until the third inning. Where after five runs the Cubs ghosted the plate like Joe Jonas did Taylor Swift, circa 2008. Only one hit against the Brewers’ pen. A Dolly Parton win for Milwaukee. Forever and always runs through Milwaukee’s veins. Sweat trickles from underneath everyone’s Cubs cap. Even Craig Counsell’s.
Game 4: ‘‘Why are Brewers so much better than the Cubs?’’ was the title of the first email I saw when I woke up Thursday. Their season’s version Ali-Frazier IV on Addison in wait. The buzz entering Wrigley far from defeated. Fans from Murphy’s to the Cubby Bear: We got this. Postseason-series energy. The pitchers’ duel Paul Skenes (Pirates) and Logan Webb (Giants) were supposed to have earlier in the week took place between the Wintrust and Budweiser scoreboards. W’s flew. Hubris resurfaced. Leaving Wrigley? Relief was what the North Siders soaked their minds-at-ease in, 16-ounce cups at a time.
The Day After: The difference between artful and artificial is slowly disappearing. But to Cubs fans, not fast enough. The results they were looking for coming into the Brewers series left them still searching. They know their team is legit. A series like this at this time of year showed it. But against the Brewers, are they a legit threat? As in, one game better in a series? As in, one game better the next two times they face each other again?
The Aftermath: ‘‘Playoff-caliber’’ is a term that has been tossed around in relation to the Cubs for the last two seasons. At this point, it’s no longer a compliment. The latest episode — not the last, as the play, rinse, repeat part of the season against the Brewers comes to its three-game finale in the coming week — has the chance to repurpose some of what wasn’t gained in this zero-sum standoff between the two. Even as the coming week in Milwaukee may not have the same meaning, there is room for the Cubs going into the postseason replacing that ‘‘caliber’’ with ‘‘contender.’’ Flipping what has become a
indictment back to a compliment.
Recaps aside, set aside that the Brewers retained a eight-game lead on the Cubs after the fact. Against the Brewers, if this altruism we choose to suffer with is to stay at 1,000%, here is what the Cubs are up against: a team that has won at least 86 games in the last nine full seasons, a team that entered play Friday with 73 wins when it scores at least four runs, a team that entered play Friday 75-3 when it goes to the ninth inning with a lead.
The Brewers’ ‘‘stats don’t lie’’ weakness? They only win 31% of their games when being outhit by their opponents. The problem with that for the North Siders in blue is that while they are tied for third in the league in hits and sixth in batting average, the Brewers are third in average and second in hits. Damn.
If anything, the Cubs were able to prove they have the ability to disprove the ‘‘Nobody beats the Miz’’ theme that the Brewers have been hanging over every team’s consciousness during the season. But the Brewers’ other pitchers? Way, way, way underrated.
The Cubs’ electability right now remains socialistically conservative. The noise has been there and continues to get louder surrounding them. Finally, it seems as if the promise of the Cubs is catching up. The proverbial (universal?) goal of the season was 90 wins. That means nothing now. If, say, they win 17 of their final 20 games but lose the upcoming series against the Brewers, all else becomes superficial.
Which, when you do the math, makes the end of this regular season very simple in games left to play: Now it’s down to three.