When Jed Hoyer hired Craig Counsell as the Chicago Cubs manager after the 2023 season, he brought up Counsell’s 2017 Milwaukee Brewers team that hung in the division race with the Cubs until the final week.

“That team had no right to be there,” Hoyer said. “They made us play to the last week of the season, and from a talent standpoint, that just wasn’t close. That was probably the time we were like, ‘What are they doing?’”

Counsell is now on the other side of the rivalry, but the Cubs are looking up at the first-place Brewers and once again asking the same old question:

“What are they doing?”

Neither rain nor floods nor a paltry payroll can stop the Brewers, who entered Monday with a nine-game winning streak and six-game lead over the Cubs in the National League Central. With a week

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