Thanks to Joey Votto, et al, the Cubs are now one more win or one more Brewer loss from finishing in first place in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1908. Assuming the Cubs claim the division title—if they don't, this blog will be shut down immediately—the next item we can focus our attention on is finishing with the best record in the National League and claiming home-field advantage in the NLDS and, God willing, the NLCS.

Here is how the NL teams stack up right now in the race for the best record:

Cubs 92-60*
Mets 86-67*
Phillies 86-68*
Brewers 84-70
Astros 81-72
Marlins 81-72
Dodgers 80-74*

(*Would reach post-season if season ended today)

The Cubs' Magic Number versus the Mets stands at 4, it's 3 versus the Phillies, and as all of Cubdom knows right now, the number is 1 versus the Brewers.

Depending on what happens in the next 48 hours and considering how well the Cubs have played at Wrigley Field this year, the team's 4-game series at Shea Stadium, which commences Monday, could be a much more meaningful one than a team already holding its post-season ticket would normally face in the season's final days.

Rich Harden walks the first two Milwaukee hitters, though he is then able to limit the Brewers to one first-inning run. Unfortunately, he has to throw 38 pitches to retire the side.

Stage 1: Mild Irritation


In the Cubs' half of the second inning, Jim Edmonds smacks a game-tying home run off Milwaukee's David Bush. In the fourth inning, another solo shot, this one by Aramis Ramirez, puts the Cubs ahead, 2-1.

Stage 2: Optimism


A Mark DeRosa error, Jeff Samardzija's lack of control, and some opportunely placed Brewers hits allow the visitors to score four runs in their half of the sixth inning to go in front, 5-2. In the bottom of the inning, Alfonso Soriano is on first when Derrek Lee hits into an inning-ending double play.

Stage 3: Depression


Still trailing 5-2 and having accumulated only three hits—two of them the solo homers by Edmonds and Ramirez—the Cubs get a potentially game-changing break in their half of the seventh inning: Milwaukee manager Dale Sveum hands the ball to Eric Gagne (6.25 ERA). But Gagne retires Ramirez, Edmonds, and Mark DeRosa on four pitches.

Stage 4: Anger


Despite running the bases like nervous Little Leaguers, the Brewers pad their lead to 6-2 in the top of the ninth. In the bottom of the inning, Salomon Torres retires the first two hitters.

Stage 5: Resignation


Double, single, single, homer. Tied game.

Stage 6: Delirium


After Marmol keeps the Brewers off the board in the top of the 10th, Wood is brilliant in the top of the 11th, the Cubs threaten but don't score in the bottom of the 11th, and Wood wriggles out of a seemingly desperate situation in the top of the 12th, Derrek Lee bats in the bottom of the 12th and scores pinch-runner Jason Marquis with a solid, two-out, game-winning single to center field.

The magic number is two.

Stage 7: Peace

Joe Sheehan offered a nice epitaph for now former Brewer manager Ned Yost over at Baseball Prospectus on Monday; that's "nice" as in well written, not nice as in sentimental or flattering.

After excoriating Yost for his in-game strategies, particularly his deployment of the Brewer bullpen during this past weekend's pivotal Brewers/Phillies series in Philadelphia, Sheehan addresses the widely perceived injustice of the Cubs/Astros games being moved to Milwaukee.

Writes Sheehan:

As someone who recognizes that the home-field advantage in MLB isn't very large, it's not a big deal to me. Most of the home-field advantage stems from the tactical advantage of batting last, and the Astros still had that. Far too much was made of the crowd makeup and the travel difference; these things are terribly minor concerns in the outcome of baseball games. No one was crossing time zones or playing in front of 55,000 hostiles.

There was no plan in place to harm the Astros, and the solution is the best one available under the circumstances. Had Drayton McLane and the Astros players elected to play the series beginning Friday, perhaps Tampa's Tropicana Field would have been an option. (With the wet weather across the country, a covered field would be something of a priority.) McLane held out the absurd hope that Houston would be a suitable location for baseball come Sunday, and when that was revealed to be ridiculous, he lost the right to complain about the solution handed down. The Astros players are a bit more sympathetic, as staying in Houston with their families during the storm was one reason they didn't want to play elsewhere, but again, that's the choice they made, and by making it, they lost Tampa as an option. I completely agree with how MLB handled it, and the only thing I might disagree with was that they were too accommodating. If Astros fans, the media, management, or the players themselves end up using this arrangement as an excuse, ignore them; the location of [Sunday] night's game was a nonfactor in its outcome.

If the Astros fail to pass the Phillies and Brewers to land the Wild Card slot—following Monday's loss to the Cubs, Houston trails the two frontrunners by 2 1/2 games—we will certainly hear a lot, for a very long time, about how the relocation of these games was the undoing of Cecil Cooper's team.

Personally, I think this club, which clawed back from an 11-game deficit to the Brewers just 19 days ago, has accomplished a lot. But it's still a team that's missing the big bat of Carlos Lee and one that grants an awful lot of at-bats to guys like Darin Erstad, Mark Loretta, and Brad Ausmus.

In other words, maybe the move to Milwaukee was unfair and squashed the Astros' momentum, and will ultimately cost Houston its shot at the post-season.

Or maybe this has been an overachieving team for many weeks; a team whose fairy tale was just due to end.

The Cubs scored early then not at all as they suffered another 9th inning defeat Tuesday night, while the Brewers waited until the 11th to be overcome yet again by the Reds. The Cubs have now dropped 8 of their last 9 games, but have only lost a game off their NL Central lead (still at 4 1/2 games), owing to Milwaukee's current 2-7 homestand.

All of that being the case, tonight we present Ronny Cox in the role of the Chicago Cubs and the Banjo Kid from "Deliverance" as the Milwaukee Brewers in a musical interpretation of what has become the freakishly compelling National League Central race.

While the Cubs were stumbling in Cincinnati this past weekend, the Dodgers were sweeping the Diamondbacks right out of the NL West lead. With their 5-3 victory on Sunday, L.A. had won eight straight and established a game-and-a-half lead in the division over Arizona, who had assumed first place all the way back on April 6th and remained there until this latest visit to Dodger Stadium.

If the Dodgers can hold onto their lead, the Cubs win the NL Central, and the Brewers claim the Wild Card, the Cubs would host Joe Torre's club in the NLDS. In 7 games this year, the Cubs went 5-2 against L.A., sweeping a tense, low-scoring three-game series at Wrigley in late May (by scores of 3-1, 3-1, and 2-1), and splitting a four-game series at Dodger Stadium in early June. All of this, of course, happened during the Dodgers' pre-Manny Ramirez days.

Bob Howry claimed two of the Cubs' five wins, with Ryan Dempster, Sean Gallagher, and Jason Marquis earning the others. Gallagher and Carlos Zambrano accepted the two Chicago defeats. Hiroki Kuroda and Derek Lowe registered the only Dodgers wins in the series. Coincidentally, the Dodgers' highly regarded rookie lefthander, Clayton Kershaw, who started Sunday's game against Arizona, never had his turn in the rotation come up when the Dodgers and Cubs played this season.

If telescoping ahead to a post-season series that may never happen seems like a way to avoid confronting Sunday's loss or thinking too intently about a future without a healthy Zambrano and/or Rich Harden in the Cubs rotation, well, that's pretty much what it is. The Cubs, however, are hopeful that Harden will be have benefited from his recent rest when he starts Thursday's game at St. Louis and that Zambrano will be able to make his next scheduled start on Saturday, in the middle game of the Cubs/Astros series in Houston.

(In the time it took me to finish this post, the Dodgers and Diamondbacks both lost games on the West Coast, to the Padres and Giants, respectively, so L.A. will remain atop the West. For their part, the Brewers' dreadful bullpen, i.e., Salomon Torres, allowed the Reds to pull out yet another 9th inning win, dropping the Milwaukees 4 1/2 games behind the Cubs. If I didn't hate the Reds so much, I might actually be feeling some fondness for them right now.)

In the aftermath of the Brewers' acquisition of C.C. Sabathia, Jayson Stark devotes his "That's Debatable" column at ESPN.com to alternately arguing why the Cubs, Brewers, or Cardinals might be the best team in the NL Central.

In his argument on behalf of the Cubs, Starks writes:

The Cubs were the best team in the National League before this deal. And it won't be easy for [Sabathia], who only goes out there every fifth day, to change that. The Cubs are a deeper, more efficient and more consistent offensive team than Milwaukee, for one thing. They've scored nearly 70 more runs (475-406). They've outhit the Brewers by nearly 30 points (.283-.255) and have a much better on-base percentage (.359-.324). And the Cubs still have the better bullpen (3.65 ERA to Milwaukee's 4.07).

Starks concludes that the Cubs, who "undoubtedly have a trade or two in them themselves," should capture the NL Central, regardless of Milwaukee's new, 290-pound bundle of joy.

The Cubs' 7-4 win over the Pirates Friday afternoon was their seventh without a loss this season and tenth consecutive win against the Bucs dating back to '07.

A cynic could argue that the Cubs' 27-17 record would be a much less impressive 20-17 without all of those wins against the NL Central's proverbial punching bag. Of course, the Pirates, who stand at 20-22, would be 20-15 minus their encounters with the division-leading Cubs.

Consider too that the first two games between the clubs this season were 12- and 15-inning games which could well have been won by the Pirates, and Pittsburgh's relatively surprising start begins to look borderline impressive.

And if the Pirates are borderline impressive and the Cubs have beaten them seven times in a row, well, I think you're justified in telling that cynic to go to hell.