Swept Away: Cubs Are in a Class of Their Own

Long after the last beer and brat was gone, a resounding smell remained in the Miller Park air Thursday night.

The smell of defeat.

After an embarrassing four-game home sweep by the rival Cubs, the Brewers found out that they are going to need a little more than CC Sabathia to overtake the men in blue.

The Cubs entered Miller Park hanging on to a slim one game lead over the hot Brewers, had just lost their closer, and had a losing record after the All-Star break. Chicago fans were starting to get THAT feeling.

However, the Cubs rose to the occasion and illustrated why they were still the best in the NL’s best division.

The Cubs outscored Milwaukee 31-11 in the series and hit .322, while the Brewers could only produce a combined batting average of .226.  But more important a factor was the Cubs' pitching.

In the series opener, the Cubs sent out a reliable Ted Lilly against baseball’s hottest pitcher in CC Sabathia. Since coming to Milwaukee, Sabathia has been the best pitcher in the Majors, winning his first four starts including three complete games. Yet on Monday, Lilly matched Sabathia pitch for pitch.

On Tuesday, Milwaukee sent out their other ace and he got roughed up as well. While Cubs ace Carlos Zambrano continued to make his case for a Cy Young. Ryan Dempster continued his magical season by pitching well and got another elusive road win.

Finally on Thursday, Cubs announcer Bob Brenly was quoted as saying Rich Harden “didn’t have his best stuff today.” But the newly acquired Cub found a way to dominate and get his first win with his new team.

Besides from the superb starting pitching, the Cubs bullpen looked impressive as well, despite not having Wood. Though never truly tested besides game one, the bullpen continued to pick up the slack. Chad Gaudin is appearing almost as valuable as Harden has been. Furthermore, Carlos Marmol looks like his old self and didn’t allow himself to get flustered during Monday night’s game. Jeff Samardzija looks like he is here to stay as well and can provide valuable innings down the stretch.

The Brewers bullpen on the other hand….well, they looked like the Brewers bullpen. Closer Salomon Torres blew the game wide open on Monday and set-up man Eric Gagne looks like a man that has completely lost control.  The Brewers are going to need to find some type of solution if they are going to make a deep run into October.

With all this said, was the division decided after these four games? No. However, it is hard to argue that for these two teams, there was a bigger series than this one so far The Cubs showed up and the Brewers didn’t.

As I stated earlier, this was almost like a mid-season playoff series. Both teams sent out their four best pitchers with a division lead on the line. The Cubs won this series and had the better pitching staff. But what is even more impressive is that they did this on the road. It is no secret the Cubs have struggled on the road this season but for those four days, it truly did appear that Miller Park was Wrigley North.

With six games remaining between these two teams, months of baseball remaining, and a very good Cardinals team that looks like its sticking around for the long haul, this series didn’t decide anything. For now and until someone does catch up with them, though, it appears the Cubs will remain as the current kings of the Central and the NL.