In the National League, with the exception of the NL East where the Atlanta Braves and the New York Mets are battling it out for the division crown, the divisions have leaders in the St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers that sit comfortably at the top of the heap. In fact the Dodgers are so far ahead that they are experimenting on who the closer might be for the postseason. An observation that MLBbro.com noticed when David Price was seen late in games a couple of times.
But the wild card situation is a very different story. The NL East would have three participants (division winner and two wild card teams) in the playoffs if the playoffs started at this point and the San Diego Padres would round out the top six teams despite the fact they are nearly 20 games behind the Dodgers in the West. With that scenario in mind, the Milwaukee Brewers find themselves on the outside looking in chasing the final wild card spot.
But if the Brew Crew can nab the sixth seed in the NL playoffs, they would most likely match up against the top seeded Dodgers, a team they have held their own against all season long. Before losing the last two head to head matchups last week, Milwaukee was leading the season series including taking three of the last four games spread out over two series.
That four game stretch was not lost on MLBbro, Andrew McCutchen who knows what level it takes to compete with a title contender like the Dodgers via star telegram.com.
“We played good ball. All four games, we were in those games, competed. I think we did a good job against a really good team. Pretty much one of the better teams, if not the best team right now, in baseball. We showed that we were able to compete with them. To take a split against them is something good, because they probably haven’t been doing that a whole lot.”
Our MLBbro is not at the level that landed him five All-Star appearances, but he is still making huge impacts on a team that needs the professionalism he brings to the clubhouse that stats do not show. Nothing illustrated this fact more than the two series against the best team in the majors in ten days.
In the first series, McCutchen struggled to start the series, but kept his focus enough to hit two homers with three RBI to get the split in the first series. In the Brewers Final Pitch on Bally Sports, the panel gushed on how well our MLBbro is hitting against left handed pitching as of late. Something the Brewers will be needing from the DH spot going forward.
But McCutchen’s power streak did not stop in the Dodgers series. A three game matchup with the Chicago Cubs was sandwiched in between the 10 day period of facing Los Angeles. Despite dropping two of three games against the Cubs, Andrew collected yet another multi-homer game sparking a home run barrage from his teammates as of late.
MLBbro.com shined the light on McCutchen’s leadership abilities earlier this season. But his ability to bring things such as the Infinity Gauntlet Thanos glove to celebrate home runs is just one of the examples of how McCutchen keeps his teammates loose. He even gave credit to MLBbro Lorenzo Cain on an episode of Brewers Unfiltered podcast back in July.
“It’s not supposed to be for a celebration, it just became that. It really started with (Lorenzo Cain) and Keston (Hiura). It was the two of them. Any time (Cain) would be hitting, he’d lineout or hit a ball hard, everyone always has the same ‘Hey man, way to swing it. Hey way to swing it.’ And as a baseball player in general – no one wants to hear that after you lined out. After you did everything correct and someone’s standing there and catches the ball. You don’t want to hear ‘Way to swing it.’”
“Basically, I was like, ‘You know what would be funny? If we got some like huge hand or something every time we would line out. We’d be like “Hey way to swing it’ “We’re all laughing about it, but you need that in those moments because you’re so mad, especially if you’re struggling.”
Every contending team needs players in their dugouts who will keep things loose, especially in the middle of a playoff chase when the pressure is high. Look for MLBbro, Andrew McCutchen to use his MVP experience to help his team have fun for the rest of the season.
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