History Proves Chicago Cubs Can Still Win the NL Central
The Cubs have 43 games left to erase a 5.0 game deficit in the NL Central, and recent history shows that a comeback is far from impossible.
Video Transcript
As we approach the middle of August, the Chicago Cubs are very comfortably sitting in a playoff position.
They should be good to get a wild card, but the question is, can the Cubs win the division?
Can they run down the Milwaukee Brewers and win the NL Central?
Because it could be the difference in making a playoff run or going home early.
You're talking about hosting the division series versus a wild card series, where anything can happen.
And despite knocking on the door of 20 games over .500, the Cubs, find themselves five games behind Milwaukee because the Brewers have the best record in Major League Baseball.
Forty-three games remain on the schedule, and it might feel like the Cubs are simply running out of time to catch the Brewers.
Like, the NL Central might already be out of reach.
But if we look at recent Cubs history, that is anything but the case.
This thing is still very much up for grabs.
Let's go back, August 28th, 2018.
The Cubs at seventy-eight and fifty-three had a six-game lead over the Milwaukee Brewers.
The St. Louis Cardinals were in second place.
The Brewers were in third.
Seventy-three and sixty was their record at the time, and the Cubs took care of their own business.
They closed the season with a seventeen and fourteen record.
Not too bad.
Should've been good enough to win the division.
But Milwaukee, twenty-two and seven the rest of the way, finishing ninety-five and sixty-seven, tying the Cubs, beating the Cubs in Game 163, taking the division, and ultimately going to games seven of the NLCS that year.
That was a six-game lead with 30 games remaining.
So the Cubs currently trailing Milwaukee by just five games with over 40 games remaining shows us that they still have plenty of time, especially with how they've been playing recently.
Since June 11th, the Cubs are thirty-five and sixteen for a .686 win percentage.
That projects them twenty-nine and fourteen, thirty and thirteen the rest of the way.
Let's be generous.
Give them the 30th win.
The Cubs are looking at ninety-nine and sixty-three if they maintain that .686 win percentage the rest of the way.
So even if the Brewers go twenty-four and nineteen, play solid baseball over their final forty-three, that gives Milwaukee a final record, ninety-eight and sixty-four.
That makes the Cubs NL Central champions.
Let's also not forget the tiebreaker.
The Cubs have seven more games with, with the Milwaukee Brewers the rest of the way.
If they can go five and two in those games, they will not only gain three games in the standings, but also then have the tiebreaker over Milwaukee should they have the same record at the end of the season.
There is no more Game 163.
It is head-to-head record.
Cubs are two and four against the Brewers, but with seven to play, that's plenty of opportunity to make up ground and get that tiebreaker.
Yes, they have their work cut out for them, but it's far too early to write off the NL Central right now, especially with winnable games coming up on the schedule and plenty of head-to-head with the Brewers on deck.
If that 2018 Cubs team can lose the lead, this 2026 Cubs team is perfectly capable of taking it back.
