ckoplien@todaystmj4.com

You know how the Brewers haven't been playing that well over the past few weeks?

They are 2-6 in their last 8 games.

They are 5-9 in their last 14 games.

And in their 23 games since Thursday, May 21st...

when they were a season high 11 games over .500...

at 26-15...

they are 9-14.

I point all of this bad news as a prelude to the good news:  their overall record currently stands at 35-29...which is 3rd best in the National League!

Obviously it doesn't really matter what your record is in mid-June...and they are certainly trending in the wrong direction lately.

But...

the fact that they are in first place, with the 3rd best record in the league, after starting as slowly as they did, and after slumping recently, underscores 2 things...

1...just how good they were from April 22nd to May 21st...when they went 22-6.

2...just how long a baseball season is.  To finish in 1st place, you don't have to be the best team all season long.  No team is hot all season long.  All teams have hot streaks and cold streaks.  The key to finishing in 1st place is to have more hot ones than cold ones.  It's that simple.

Right now I would argue the Brewers have had 2 cold streaks (the one at start of the season and the current one) and 1 hot one (in the middle).  And they're still in 1st place.  (Again, see item #1 above how incredible hot that hot streak was.)

They'll get out of the current cold streak eventually (maybe they are already out of it after scoring 14 last night!).  Then they'll get hot, then probably cold again, etc.

At the end of the season, we can then count up the number of hot and cold streaks...and my bet is that if the hot ones outnumber the cold ones, you'll see the word "Milwaukee" at the top of the standings.