When the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Chicago Cubs in the opener of a 5-game series, it bunched the top 4 NL wild-card contenders within 5 1/2 games.

Generally speaking, I start eyeing a topic for the Power Rankings intro around Friday. Last Sunday, though, I told myself one thing was off-limits: I'm not writing on the Brewers again. I had done so two straight weeks and three of the last four.

Should we mention that the Brewers also went 20-7 in September 2019 and were also peaking at the right time that year (although with three straight losses in Colorado to close the year, including two in extra innings)? The Red Sox had two months of 19-6 ...