The Brewers sit in first place with a two game lead over the Cardinals as they open this weekend's series in St Louis. They're 4-5 against them this year, actually a pretty good record considering their overall abysmal results against them since they lost the NLCS to St Louis in 2011 (2012: 6-9, 2013: 5-14). The Pirates sit just another half game behind the Cardinals, but if recent history holds true, Milwaukee's true danger lies south.
If the Brewers want to win the NL Central and make the playoffs while avoiding the Wild Card play-in (crap-shoot) game, they need to improve their results against their most bitter of rivals. The Cardinals made a couple of trades, including the bold move that brought them John Lackey, to strengthen their team before the trade deadline. One has to assume they'll play quality baseball to close the season; their track-record suggests they will. To make it to October the Brewers not only need to be better than they have been over the previous couple of months, they'll need to beat the Cardinals-- preferably often and repeatedly.
