Welcome to week 24 of our 2026 NL Central Power Rankings \u2014 let\u2019s rank some teams!<\/p>\n
1. Milwaukee Brewers (88-56); 3-4 this week; 100.0% chance to make postseason (FanGraphs)<\/p>\n
For the first time in a long time, the rest of the NL Central gained ground on the Brewers this week, as Milwaukee was the only sub-.500 team in the division. It wasn\u2019t a terrible week for the Crew, though, as they split four games with the Cubs in Chicago before dropping two of three to the Reds in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n
Seven players had a homer each this week, with Jackson Chourio leading the squad with nine hits, including two doubles and a homer. William Contreras added seven hits, including four doubles and a homer, while Cooper Pratt led the team with nine RBIs as part of a seven-hit week, including a homer and a bases-clearing triple.<\/p>\n
Logan Henderson had the team\u2019s only quality start, though he took the loss, allowing two runs over seven innings and striking out seven. For the bullpen, Trevor Megill and Abner Uribe continue to impress, as the duo combined for 4 1\/3 scoreless innings with nine strikeouts. Chad Patrick added 3 1\/3 scoreless innings across a pair of appearances, striking out one.<\/p>\n
Milwaukee will face the same opponents this week, though this time they\u2019ll do so at home, hosting the Cubs and Reds for back-to-back three-game sets with an off day on Thursday in between.<\/p>\n
2. Chicago Cubs (81-63); 4-3 this week; 99.7% chance to make postseason<\/p>\n
The Cubs, as mentioned above, split a four-game set with the Brewers before winning two of three against the Marlins in Miami over the weekend.<\/p>\n
Alex Bregman continues to crush after a slow start to the season, as he led Chicago with nine hits, including four homers and a double, driving in eight. Nico Hoerner added nine hits, including a homer, and Michael Conforto and Pete Crow-Armstrong each slugged a pair of homers, giving PCA 40 for the season as he\u2019s well on his way to winning NL MVP.<\/p>\n
Kevin Gausman and Shota Imanaga led the rotation, as Gausman went seven innings and allowed one run, striking out nine, while Imanaga went six innings, allowing one run and striking out four. Aaron Civale was a bright spot for the bullpen, working a three-inning save with no runs allowed and three strikeouts.<\/p>\n
Chicago now heads to Milwaukee to face the Brewers for three games before returning home to host the Pirates for three games over the weekend.<\/p>\n
3. St. Louis Cardinals (72-72); 4-2 this week; 2.1% chance to make postseason<\/p>\n
St. Louis took two of three from both the Dodgers and Rockies to begin their West Coast trip this week.<\/p>\n
Thomas Saggese had a huge week offensively for the Redbirds, picking up 10 hits, including three homers and three doubles, driving in eight. Joshua B\u00e1ez and Iv\u00e1n Herrera both slugged a pair of homers, with B\u00e1ez picking up nine hits and Herrera adding 11 hits.<\/p>\n
Quinn Mathews and Andre Pallante both turned in solid starts for St. Louis, as each went five innings with one run allowed. Mathews struck out four and Pallante struck out one. Ryan Fernandez, Gordon Graceffo, and Cooper Hjerpe led the bullpen, totaling 9 2\/3 scoreless innings with 15 strikeouts.<\/p>\n
The Cards will wrap up the road trip with three games against the Giants in San Francisco. After an off day on Thursday, they\u2019ll host the White Sox for three games over the weekend.<\/p>\n
4. Pittsburgh Pirates (71-73); 4-2 this week; 1.6% chance to make postseason<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh hosted a pair of West Coast teams in the Giants and Angels this week, taking two of three from both.<\/p>\n
Henry Davis, Brandon Lowe, and Bryan Reynolds all homered to lead the offense, as Reynolds and Lowe also tied for the team lead with eight hits. Nick Gonzales and Oneil Cruz added six hits each, as Cruz also led the squad with six RBIs and three steals.<\/p>\n
Jared Jones led the rotation with six scoreless frames, allowing three hits and a walk while striking out nine for the victory. Mason Montgomery led what was a strong bullpen this week, as he totaled four scoreless frames over four appearances, picking up three saves. Carmen Mlodzinski, Brandon Eisert, Wilber Dotel, Lake Bachar, and Gregory Soto also had scoreless weeks, totaling 11 1\/3 innings with nine strikeouts.<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh now heads to Chicago for the next week, as they\u2019ll take on the White Sox and Cubs for three games apiece through the weekend.<\/p>\n
5. Cincinnati Reds (69-74); 4-2 this week; 0.0% chance to make postseason<\/p>\n
The Reds continued what has become a nice stretch, as they\u2019ve now won each of their last three series against a trio of playoff teams in the Cubs, Padres, and Brewers.<\/p>\n
Elly De La Cruz and Matt McLain each slugged two homers this week, and De La Cruz led the offense with 10 hits, driving in six. Five other players added a homer apiece, including H\u00e9ctor Rodr\u00edguez, who had a nine-hit week. Dane Myers and Sal Stewart didn\u2019t homer, but they both put together solid weeks with eight hits and seven hits, respectively.<\/p>\n
Andrew Abbott worked four innings in a rain-delay shortened outing, allowing two runs (one earned) and striking out five, while Nick Lodolo worked six quality frames, allowing two runs and striking out five. Emilio Pag\u00e1n went 3-for-3 in save opportunities, and Tejay Antone, Brock Burke, and Julian Garcia combined for 10 2\/3 scoreless bullpen innings, striking out 19, including 10 by Antone over just four frames.<\/p>\n
Cincinnati will look to keep it up with a tough schedule ahead. This week, they\u2019ll visit the Dodgers in Los Angeles before a visit to Milwaukee for three games after an off day on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to week 24 of our 2026 NL Central Power Rankings \u2014 let\u2019s rank some teams! 1. Milwaukee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":883241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,348673,355035,591,85],"class_list":["post-883240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-milwaukee-brewers-analysis","tag-milwaukee-brewers-discussions","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=883240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}