The Chicago Cubs did it, folks. They came from behind and won a baseball game. Twice, actually! Yes, both of those comebacks were one-run comebacks against the Pittsburgh Pirates... but they're both comebacks regardless and might give the Cubs a little boost heading into a five-game marathon set against the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers.
Comeback wins feel more important than wire-to-wire wins and the Cubs hadn't risen from a deficit since July 3rd against the Guardians. That's almost unheard of.
Have the Milwaukee Brewers run out of black magic?
Every Milwaukee Brewers game for the past two months, meanwhile, has been the opposite of the Cubs experience. No matter what inning, no matter the score, you just assume the Brewers are going to grind out enough runs to squeak out a victory in (no longer so) stunning fashion.
But on Sunday, the Brewers, at long last, got Brewer'd. Down 1-0 in the top of the ninth, the Brew Crew pulled off their usual dark magic thanks to a two-run William Contreras home run but then were force-fed some of their own medicine as the Reds scraped across a run in the bottom of the ninth and then walked it off in the 10th with an Austin Hays single.
Two Cubs comeback wins... a Brewers blown lead... has the vibe shifted?
Cubs have a schedule advantage over Brewers
Making up eight games in just over a month on a team that wins games in the most outrageous ways possible sounds like a mountain too tall to climb... and it is! I don't think the Cubs are going to win the NL Central, but they do have one real advantage in the home stretch — a considerably easier schedule than the Brewers. The rest of the way, the Cubs have the third-easiest schedule in MLB while the Brewers have the sixth-hardest.
If the Cubbies are going to give themselves a chance in the final few games of the season, they need to win (at least) four against the Brewers this week then take care of business against the bottom-tier teams in baseball. Like, sweep the Pirates, Rockies, Nationals and Braves just to make that mountain seem scalable.