Brewers: Chance To Cover Ground This Weekend

One of the worst teams in baseball will fly in to MKE late tonight to take on the Brewers at Miller Park in a four-game series. Starting tomorrow night, the Brewers have the opportunity to make up some ground on the Cubs.

I would put money on the Cards winning this series 2 games to 3 in Chicago. Perhaps even a sweep. The Cards are coming off a series road win against a rejuvenated Dodger club. They have Chris Carpenter back from the DL and he appears to be throwing well again. Carpenter and other Cardinals on the DL will be coming off it soon; they are the reasons why LaRussa didn't make any moves on the market. Adam Wainwright is still a week or so away from joining the club again; Rick Ankiel should be back in the line up for the weekend to provide another powerful bat against the Cubbie Aces. However, he is batting a pitiful .222 against the northsiders. Particularly bad against Zambrano (0-6) and Ted Lilly (3-12) on the season. No fear though Cardinal lovers, Albert Pujols is rake'n off their pitchers with a .318 average and 15 homers.

With the Brewers only having to face the Cardinals two more games this season, we need them to beat the Cubs. They face Chicago 9 more games (3 series) before the playoffs and can put a series dent in the 5 game lead the Cubs have on Milwaukee. Thus far on the season the Cards are split with the Cubs 3-3.

After the weekend series against the third place Cards, the Cubs will play 12 of their next 15 games against sub .500 teams. Keep in mind though, they also face the Mets, Brewers, and Cardinals during their last 13 games (7 on the road).

Milwaukee needs to capitalize on the weak schedule that lies ahead the remainder of August.
DC, SD, LA, Houston (menace), Pitt (6 games), and St. Louis. Now is the time to go on a hot streak. Staring tomorrow night, the Brewers need to go on a winning streak or drop only a couple of games the rest of the month in order to catch up to the Cubs.

Prince Fielder brings his 10 game hitting streak back to Miller Park and should continue his hot streak. He's batting .333 against the Nationals this season.