The Milwaukee Brewers are looking to win the National League Central after taking a back seat to the St. Louis Cardinals a season ago. In 2022 the Red Birds took the division crown away from the Brew Crew and Milwaukee additionally missed the post-season. This year the script has flipped.
To begin 2023 there was a lot of turmoil in St. Louis. The pitching staff struggled, prized free agent signing Willson Contreras took a lot of the blame, and the team sold several pieces at the trade deadline. On the other hand Milwaukee has steadily been winning series, their new additions have all positively contributed, and a nine game winning streak helped give this team confidence.
Related: NL Central Standings And Playoff Odds For All Three Contending Teams
At the time of this publication the Brewers have an 82-64 record whereas St. Louis is 65-81. Mathematically they can no longer win the NL Central division.
The St. Louis Cardinals have been eliminated from NL Central division contention and the Milwaukee Brewers magic number is down to 12.
To calculate the magic number, you use this formula: games in a season plus one, minus wins, minus losses by the second-place team. If you take 163 (games in a season plus one) minus wins (Brewers 82) and subtract 69 (Cubs losses) the number equates to 12.
Currently the Brewers have 16 game remaining in the regular season with three to go yet against the Chicago Cubs. Any combination of 12 more Brewers wins and Cubs losses will help Milwaukee get to their magic number.
Should they finish with the same record the tie-breaker is head-to-head results in which the season series is currently tied at five wins a piece. This means the last series of the year could have some big stakes to it.
It should be fun to see Milwaukee and Chicago battle things out over the next few weeks, but regardless of what happens it is nice to know that St. Louis will be watching the post season from home this year.
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