It might seem that way if you saw the Milwaukee Brewers first baseman shove his teammate, pitcher Manny Parra, in the dugout on August 4. Since the incident, the Brewers have yet to lose and are currently riding the wave of an eight-game winning streak. There’s all the proof you need that A) shoving a teammate is beneficial and B) Fielder was trying to motivate his team and succeeded.

Let’s be realistic: the Brewers may have won eight games, but those eight wins have come against three teams with a combined record of 143-219 (.395): the Cincinnati Reds (two of three), the Washington Nationals (four-game sweep), and the San Diego Padres (took the first two of the three-game series). In the National League, the Reds, Nationals, and Padres rank 12th, 16th, and 14th respectively in average runs scored per game, and 14th, 11th, and 10th respectively in average runs allowed per game.

So, their eight-game winning streak is due entirely to playing poor teams, not Prince Fielder’s Shove of Inspiration. Their schedule doesn’t get much more difficult as the month wanes, either: after playing the series finale with the Padres today, the Brew Crew starts a three-game set in Los Angeles against the Dodgers, which will be a handful, but then they finish out the month with three games against the Houston Astros and six games against the Pittsburgh Pirates. September is tougher, but they still get four games against the Padres, three against the Reds, and three against the Pirates.

While you shouldn’t expect the Brewers to overtake the Cubs in the NL Central, they should be overwhelming favorites to win the NL Wild Card. They’re four games ahead of the division rival St. Louis Cardinals, 5.5 ahead of the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies, and seven games ahead of the Florida Marlins. The NL East teams, presumably, will beat up on themselves and the division title may require as few as 87 wins; the Brewers are on pace for 94 and have an easy remaining schedule. The Cardinals shouldn’t be sending chills up anyone’s spine with their overall weak pitching and their recent inability to finish games.

With a week of decent run scoring, the Brewers could easily skip from seventh in the National League in average runs scored per game (4.71) to fourth (Pittsburgh, 4.77) or even third (New York, 4.88). As we’re well aware of, their starting pitching — at least the front part of it — is second to none, and the bullpen is sufficient.

The saying goes, “Pitching wins in the playoffs,” and it’s true. Most managers correctly shorten their starting rotation to three pitchers, so teams will be facing C.C. Sabathia and Ben Sheets twice in a series if it goes all five or seven games. Two other potential playoff teams have a fearsome starting rotation for the playoffs: the Cubs with Carlos Zambrano and Rich Harden, and the Diamondbacks with Brandon Webb and Dan Haren.

The Cubs are the only team that is strong all the way around, and since the Brewers are guaranteed that they won’t match up in the NLDS, it’s almost guaranteed that the NLCS will run through the NL Central with the Cubs and Brewers. The Phillies (starting pitching), Mets (bullpen), Marlins (starting pitching), Diamondbacks (offense), and Dodgers (offense) all have obvious flaws and, presumably, only the Diamondbacks would be tough to dispose of in the opening round because of Webb/Haren.

Go ahead and print those NLCS tickets, Milwaukee. You have the Schedule gods and non-divisional mediocrity to thank for that, not your vegetarian first baseman.