After the Brewers swept the Cardinals in St. Louis last night in dramatic fashion, I think we can officially count them out of the NL Central race.  Why?  Let’s look at some stats — this is baseball afterall:

The Brewers (59-43) are 16 games over .500 for the first time since the end of 1992 season when they finished 92-70.

The Brewers have won their last seven road games and have a major league-best 14-5 road mark since June 11.

The Brewers have hit 31 home runs in their 20-game homer streak.

Milwaukee, which has won the last six games against the Cardinals, swept a series in St. Louis for first time since September 1999.

St. Louis will play 17 of its next 24 games on the road.

The Brewers are hot, the Cardinals are not and the club from St. Louis has the unenviable task of playing the next month on the road.  That’s going to be awfully hard for that team to overcome and they’re starting in a whole now at 4 games back.

Next we have the Cubs (well, first we have the Astros but by “next” I’m referring to teams that actually have a shot at the NL Central title).  They’ve actually managed a couple of wins as of late to fend off the surging Brewers.  Next week is the first Brewers-Cubs series at Miller Park.  (Don’t get me started on the whole Wrigley North thing either.  That’s a whole post in and of itself again. ) Let’s see…on the season the Brewers lead the head-to-head competition 4-2 and all of those games were played in the Toilet Bowl.  Hmm, me thinks in 10 days, there will be a different team atop the NL Central.