By David K.
Brewer fans were one Cubs win away from having to send thank you cards and fruit baskets to 1060 W. Addison Street, Chicago, Illinois 60613. By the Cubs splitting their four-game series with the Mets and the Brewers carrying their own weight by getting back-to-back walk-off home runs from Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun and sweeping the lifeless Pirates, the final series of the year has the utmost importance… for both teams.
Milwaukee and New York now sit tied atop the Wild Card standings with three games to play. While the Metropolitans will host the Marlins, the Crew welcomes Chicago to Miller Park with their playoff lives on the line. It’s quite the predicament for the Cubs, who ultimately have nothing to really play for with their post-season destiny and number one seed already determined by winning their second straight NL Central title, and could make or break the hearts of the Brewers faithful.
So it comes down to this. If the Cubs drop a couple games this weekend and the Brewers manage to squeak into the playoffs, the Cubs would face the NL West champion Dodgers in the NLDS. If the Cubs play the role of spoiler and add to Milwaukee’s misery of October-less baseball, then whichever team doesn’t win the East and settles for the Wild Card (the Phillies enter the weekend one game up on the Mets) will visit Wrigley.
As a Cubs fan, I don’t want to see Milwaukee in the post-season. Having to face CC Sabathia and a possibly healthy Ben Sheets a combined four, maybe five times in a seven-game series is a bit intimidating. As a member of the media, I wouldn’t be sad if the Crew qualified for post-season play because I would get to cover playoff baseball with the potential of seeing a few games at the Friendly Confines. Tempting, isn’t it?Â
Lou Piniella also decided that Ryan Dempster will start game one of the NLDS. Boy, did I miss that one. I didn’t think Dempster would make it out of June in the rotation let alone end up being the Cubs most consistent and number one post-season starter. My bad.
As for the rest of the rotation, it will still depend on whether Sweet Lou wants to go with three or four men. Rich Harden and Carlos Zambrano will likely be the #2, #3 starters with Ted Lilly being the possible fourth guy. Piniella is expected to announce his official rotation and post-season roster as early as after Saturday’s game.
Either way, the usual ruckus Miller Park experiences during a normal Cubs-Brewers series will be taken to new heights for the next three days.
BTW, Here’s a chance to win tickets to the Cubs NLCS (of course, first they have to actually advance that far) by making your video explaining why you’re the biggest Cubs fan alive.Â
