26

Sunday in the NL pennant race:  Cubs lose to Miami, Brewers lose to the Reds, Arizona up late, Padres up early.

 

Pete Crow-Armstrong hit his 40th home run of the season, becoming the first Cub to hit 40 since Derrek Lee in 2005 and the first left-handed Cub to hit 40 since Billy Williams in 1970. He is seven steals away from becoming MLB's seventh member of the 40/40 club, along with Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Alfonso Soriano, Ronald Acuña Jr., and Shohei Ohtani.

 

Cubs Magic Numbers:

Division:  26
1st Wild Card & Home Field:  18
Wild Card:  13

The first two numbers can't move until Monday; the third number would go down by one with a Padres loss on Sunday. See this post for CMN calculation details. 

 

Here's how the Cubs' remaining nine home games and nine road games shape up: 

 

3 at 88-56 Milwaukee

3 vs. 71-73 Pittsburgh
3 vs. 85-58 Atlanta
3 at 69-74 Cincinnati

3 vs. 72-72 Miami

3 at 79-65 Boston

The Cubs currently sit seven games back of Milwaukee in the NL Central, 1/2 game ahead of Philadelphia in the race for the top NL Wild Card berth and its benefit of home field for all NLWCS games, and 5.5 games ahead of Arizona for the final NL Wild Card berth.
 
144 games down, 18 to go.
 
Go Cubs go! 

  

MLB Hall of Famer Billy Williams