Brewers: Should Crew Start To Be Concerned About The Cardinals?

The St. Louis Cardinals are as hot as can be as we get close to beginning the MLB Playoffs. Should the Brewers be concerned with how hot they’re getting?

Lots of times in the history of baseball, the best team doesn’t win the World Series, but the team that was hottest at the end won. Right now the Cardinals are hot and they’ve locked up the Wild Card far earlier than anyone expected it to be locked up.

The 17 game winning streak the Cardinals are on is reminiscent of the hot stretch the Brewers had at the end of 2018 to steal away the division crown and vault themselves all the way to Game 7 of the NLCS. If these two teams meet in October, it would be in the NLCS.

Sure, the Cardinals can’t chase down the Brewers anymore and are locked into the Wild Card and the Brewers are locked into the division title, but this could come up again later in October.

The Brewers should want to get hot heading into the postseason to get some momentum going, and the Cardinals are making themselves to be a growing threat.

Milwaukee’s inability to beat the Cardinals in their five most recent attempts is frustrating. No matter how hot the Cardinals are, the Brewers should be able to take one of those games. If it came down to a postseason series right now, the Cardinals have the upper hand.

These two teams would only meet in the playoffs in the NLCS. The Cardinals have to make it through (most likely) the Dodgers in the Wild Card and then the Giants in the NLDS. Anything can happen in the one game Wild Card and the Giants just lost slugger Brandon Belt for a month, which makes them more beatable.

There’s a non-zero chance the Brewers face the Cardinals in the NLCS this year, and based on their recent play against them, there might be some cause for concern. They were swept at home when they were trying to win those four games, and lost again on Tuesday night. However on Tuesday, Brandon Woodruff was pulled after four innings for rest and Craig Counsell used Hoby Milner, Daniel Norris, and Jandel Gustave out of the bullpen, three guys unlikely to make the postseason roster.

Milwaukee is just focused on staying healthy right now, and that’s fine, but they’re also going to want to get hot. Entering the postseason on a losing stretch is not ideal. After the Cardinals, Milwaukee will take on the Dodgers and that will not be an easy task either.

They certainly cannot allow themselves to get swept again by the Cardinals and lose their final seven games against St. Louis.

The Brewers will be a dangerous team in October because of this pitching staff, but the Cardinals are a dangerous team as well right now, and there’s a history between these two organizations that doesn’t favor the Brewers.

Right now, the Brewers are focused on staying healthy, but at some point they may have to deal with the Cardinals again, and they’re going to need to be ready at that time.