In this 2020 MLB season sim, the Cubs and the Brewers make it a 4-team race in the Central.
Don’t look now, but the NL Central has become what it was supposed to be at season’s start…a legitimate four-team race.
The Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs made it that this week. In the 2020 simulation of games scheduled for June 7-10, the third-place Brewers won a three-game series from the San Diego Padres to stay within two games of the division-leading Cincinnati Reds.
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The Cubs, meanwhile, won their series against the Philadelphia Phillies, and they remain just three and one-half games back. Six games under .500 and seven and one-half off the division pace near the end of May, the Cubs have won 10 of their last 14 games.
The Cubs made a run at sweeping the Phillies out of their own ballpark, but that bid collapsed in a nightmarish six-run seventh inning Monday against Jon Lester and reliever Rowan Wick, 4-2. Lester left with two outs in the inning. Having surrendered three runs on his team 4-0 lead. Wick came in but allowed a pinch-hit three-run home run by J.T. Realmuto to turn the tide in a 6-4 Phillies victory.
The visitors bounced back to win 9-5 Tuesday thanks to two Jason Heyward home runs netting four runs. They won 6-5 Wednesday with a two-run rally in the top of the ninth off Phils closer Hector Neris, Josh Phegley – subbing for the often-injured Willson Contreras — popping a home run with David Bote on base.
In other NL outcomes, the Washington Nationals took two games from the East-leading Atlanta Braves, the New York Mets beat St. Louis two of three, and the NL Central-leading Reds beat the LA Dodgers twice.
The Pittsburgh Pirates took two of three from the San Francisco Giants, and the Colorado Rockies beat the Arizona Diamondbacks twice. In the inter-league play, the Miami Marlins picked up a pair of victories against the Angels in Anaheim.