This article is coming a bit early in the season, with 48 games remaining for both the Cubs and Brewers, as they both vie for the NL Central title.

But with both clubs having nine games to play before their important five-game series at Wrigley Field beginning Aug. 18, the last time the Cubs and Brewers will meet in the 2025 regular season, I thought it would be useful to have a look at what’s left for the two clubs.

Further, this was inspired by some discussion Thursday about a comment I made regarding my feeling that the current Brewers run isn’t “sustainable.” I’ll get to that in a moment, but first, it should be noted that the Cubs will almost certainly still be in second place in the NL Central when that series begins on the 18th. Unless the Cubs go on some sort of spectacular run over the next nine games and the Brewers utterly collapse — and neither event is likely — the Cubs aren’t going to make up a four-game deficit in a nine-game stretch.

That said, here are the remaining schedules for both teams, listed in chronological order, with home games in boldface.

at Cardinals (3), at Blue Jays (3), Pirates (3), Brewers (5), at Angels (3), at Giants (3), at Rockies (3), Braves (3), Nationals (3), at Braves (3), Rays (3), at Pirates (3), at Reds (4), Mets (3), Cardinals (3)

A couple of notes: The Cubs haven’t yet played the Braves this year, then have the entire season series in a 10-day span. The Braves are currently in free fall, having lost 25 of their last 36, largely due to injuries. It’s a lost season for them, likely their worst since they lost 93 in 2016. Also, note that the Cubs have a weird little stretch in September where they have a one-series road trip to Atlanta, then a one-series homestand against the Rays.

Brewers (25 home, 23 road)

Mets (3), Pirates (3), at Reds (3), at Cubs (5), Giants (3), Diamondbacks (4), at Blue Jays (3), Phillies (3), at Pirates (3), at Rangers (3), Cardinals (3), Angels (3), at Cardinals (3), at Padres (3), Reds (3)

Thirteen of the Brewers’ next 18 games are at home, but after that D-backs series, they will play 15 road games and 12 home games to end the season. Like the Cubs, they have an odd little stretch of a one-series road trip (Toronto), then a one-series homestand (Phillies).

Entering Friday’s game, Tankathon says the Brewers have the sixth-toughesst remaining strength of schedule, and the Cubs the third-easiest. Of course, that sometimes doesn’t mean a thing. The Brewers recently lost two of three to the .500ish Marlins at home, and last month the Cubs lost two of three to the .500ish Royals at home.

Now, some comments about why I think the Brewers’ current run is not sustainable.

Milwaukee’s low point of this season came after a 7-0 loss to the Twins May 17. Since then, they are 49-19, by far the best record in MLB over that span. That’s a .721 winning percentage. FWIW, the Cubs are 39-29 over that span, a .574 winning percentage that would equate to a 93-win season. That’s really good!

A .721 percentage, however, is equal to a 117-win season. No MLB team has ever won 117 games in a season. Just two teams in the expansion era have come to within even three games of that — the 1998 Yankees, who went 114-48, and the 2001 Mariners, who were 116-46. Those two plus the 2022 Dodgers (111-51) are the only clubs with 110+ wins in the expansion era. None of those teams’ winning percentages were as high as .721. The best was the 2001 Mariners at .716. (For this exercise, I used the expansion era because baseball a century or more ago, when the Cubs went 116-36, a .763 winning percentage, was so different from today I don’t think it merits a reasonable comparison.)

If the Brewers continue to win at a .721 pace for the rest of the season, that would be a 35-13 record over their 48 remaining games and a 105-win season. Could they do that? Well, sure, anything is possible. But that would also mean they would have a .721 winning percentage for a 116-game span, or 84-32.

How many teams have won 84 games (or more) in any 116-game span in a single season in the expansion era?

There are four such teams — the Yankees and Mariners teams mentioned above, plus the 1961 Yankees (who won 109 games overall) and the 2017 Dodgers (who won 104). The 1998 Yankees had two stretches of 90-26; the 2017 Dodgers, a stretch of 85-31; and the 2001 Mariners and 1961 Yankees, stretches of 84-32.

So, yes, it’s been done — but only four times in 60-plus years. I want to make particular note of that Dodgers team. On Aug. 25 they defeated the Brewers, coincidentally enough, by a 3-1 score. That gave them a 91-36 record and a 21-game lead in the NL West. They then lost 16 of their next 17 games — and it would have been 17 consecutive defeats if not for a 1-0 win over the Padres after they’d lost five straight. After that 1-0 win they lost 11 straight and their lead dropped to just nine games. Those Dodgers finished the season on a 12-6 run and won their division by 11 games, then defeated the Cubs in the NLCS and lost the World Series to… well, you know what happened that year with the Astros.

Anyway, again, my point is: I continue to maintain that a .721 run over a span as long as the Brewers have now done that — 68 games — is not sustainable much longer. Are the Cubs going to have to play really, really good baseball to catch them? Absolutely, yes. Could the Brewers start losing, as they did in their 21-25 start to this year? Also yes.

It should be a fun and exciting ending to the 2025 Cubs (and Brewers) season. As always, we await developments.