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.

The Milwaukee Brewers set a single-season franchise record with their 14th straight victory Saturday. And, in keeping with recent form, it wasn’t easy.

One of their most impressive wins during that franchise-record 14-game win streak came on Friday night. The Brewers faced an 8-1 deficit after two innings against the Reds and clawed their way back on the strength of two homers and five RBI from Christian Yelich — doing so while using his customized Bob Uecker bat for player’s weekend.

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.

By Grant Brisbee, Chad Jennings and Levi Weaver Every week,​ we​ ask a selected group of our baseball​ writers​ — local and national — to rank the teams from first to worst. Here are the collective results.

On the other hand, via Clay Davenport's third-order wins and losses, which project a team's winning percentage based on underlying statistics adjusted for quality of opponents, the Brewers are neck-and-neck with the Cubs,

Cincinnati Reds’ Trade Deadline Addition Ke'Bryan Hayes Draws Big Compliment from Milwaukee Brewers Manager Pat Murphy

SportsLine's model simulated Milwaukee Brewers vs. Chicago Cubs 10,000 times and revealed its MLB picks for Monday afternoon's Game 1 matchup at Wrigley Field in Chicago