Brewers pulling ahead of St. Louis Cardinals in NL Central

The St. Louis Cardinals are falling in the NL Central and are now eight games behind the Milwaukee Brewers.

This latest stretch has not been kind to the St. Louis Cardinals. Their pitching besides Adam Wainwright stinks. Their Nolan Arenado-led offense that was supposed to take the league by storm has been an inconsistent mess incapable of getting out of its own way.

The result has been the Cardinals falling to 38-40 and in fourth place of the National League Central. To make matters worse, the Milwaukee Brewers have started to pull away and now lead them by eight games.

There are many differences between the two teams, perhaps none more so than their pitching. The Brewers have three legitimate aces in Corbin Burnes, Freddy Peralta and Brandon Woodruff. St. Louis, meanwhile, has Jack Flaherty, who is on the injured list with a significant oblique injury, an aging Adam Wainwright who will retire in 2021 or 2022, and Kwang Hyun Kim who has struggled with back injuries.

Each team is not perfect. But while the Cardinals have done nothing to address their pitching, the Brewers identified a need at shortstop and went out and acquired Willy Adames in mid-May. The move changed their season and they have been the best team in baseball since.

Since June, the Cardinals have the second-worst batting average in baseball (.212), trailing only the Chicago Cubs (.185), who have lost five straight and are starting to come back to reality after a red hot start.

The NL Central will likely come down to the Brewers and Cardinals. But even if they go out and acquire a starting pitcher or two, does that improve them enough to contend with the Brewers? I don’t know. The Brewers are that good and the Cardinals, quite frankly, are too inconsistent to truly count on at this stage of the season.