Here we sit at game 65 on the season and by game 67, the Chicago Cubs can essentially end the 2016 Pittsburgh Pirates. Yes it’s early, no we haven’t hit the All-Star break, and yes we are four months from October. All of that, and the Cubs are on the verge of ending the Pirates before the 70th game of the season.
The Pirates now sit a game under .500 at 33-34 and have been falling off of late, going 2-8 in their last 10 games. With the Cubs win Friday, they have extended their lead over Pittsburgh to 13 games, and that could be a 15 game deficit by the end of Sunday.
With so much season left, how could a mid June series with just under 100 games remaining end a season? Cause history shows us it’s virtually impossible to come back.
Since the beginning of the Wild Card era (1995) there had been four teams to come back from more than a five game deficit at the All-Star break, the 2015 Texas Rangers (6-games), 2003 Minnesota Twins (7.5-games), 2012 Oakland A’s (9-games), and the 2006 Twins (11-games). While there still is about three weeks until the break, it would take a rather colossal fall from the Cubs and incredible run from the Pirates, who have been horrible lately, to gain enough ground to make catching the Cubs feasible. Then that doesn’t even consider the fact that the Cardinals have another three-game lead on the Pirates as well.
Speaking of the St. Louis Cardinals, they have an incredibly tough series against the Rangers, who are considered by some to be the second best team in baseball, then kick off a three-game set against the Cubs in Chicago. With the Cubs having a 10.5 game cushion on the Cardinals, it is extremely possible that the Cubs have at least a 15-game lead on both the Cardinals and Pirates by the end of next week. This would essentially end each of their divisional dreams before the midway point of the season.
We might hear Matt Carpenter promise the Cardinals are catching the Cubs by the All-Star break, or Gerrit Cole say the Cubs aren’t the best team in baseball. Well each of your seasons are nearing an end and we haven’t hit July yet, so if they are the best or if you think you’re catching them… there’s always next year.
