Cubs Playoff Race No Longer Looks To Be Through NL Central

There isn't a team in all of baseball that is performing even close to the level of the Brewers recently. Milwaukee has gone on a pair of double digit win streaks (one is current) and they are continuing to pull away from a struggling Cubs offense.

It feels like a different lifetime when Chicago was pulling away from the Brewers in the NL Central and now they are fighting to keep the top wild card spot from the Padres. They now have a brutal stretch to finish the month as they are going into Toronto to face the Blue Jays who are arguably the best team in baseball at home.

Shortly after the Cubs will have a 5-game stretch against the red-hot brewers as they fight to keep their heads above water.

Chicago in the Last Month

In the last 30 days it is not just the defense that has been struggling, but the offense as well. The Cubs are tied for the second-least amount of RBIs in the league trailing only the Saint Louis Cardinals. Their total offensive production (OPS) is in the bottom third of baseball as of late which seems impossible with some of the bats they have on their team like Pete Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Tucker.

Tucker has been in a very public slump that's been getting scrutinized in the media, but with how consistent he has been throughout his career he is bound to snap out of it soon. One can't expect offense to last for 162 games and there is always going to be periods of struggle.

When Justin Steele went down with a season ending injury (UCL) the pitching rotation took a major hit. Jameson Taillon has been on IL with a strained calf since the beginning of July and in his most recent rehab start he allowed seven runs in just over three innings, so there's no certainty to how long it will be until he is back in the lineup.

The 4.06 ERA that the pitching staff has allowed in the last month is actually 11th best. In all, the staff is being held together with glue as they try to weather the storm of their bats.

Luckily they have a rookie, Cade Horton, who has stepped up in a monster way to help compliment Matthew Boyd in the rotation.