Can the Pirates catch the Brewers?

It's really a rhetorical question. The Brewers are 4.5 up on us with 12 to go (13 for them). Assuming they lose the game in hand they have on us, at the very least we'd have to go 8-4 against their 4-9 to make up the difference. With six games out west against the Padres and Dodgers, who MUST win these games to stay in the pennant race, us winning 8 of our last 12 seems kind of unlikely. The Brewers (who have had an strangely similar season the Buccos, they're 10 over at home and 25 under on the road) get St. Louis and San Fran at home for 7 games before going on the road to finish up in Chicago and St. Louis. They've been bad of late, but the only team they play with anything left to play for will be the Giants (St. Louis pretty much has the Central locked up) and they get them at home. I just don't see them losing 9 of those games, not with the Derrick Lee-less Cubs involved. The real question is whether or not our almost catching them in the standings renders the two teams as being on equal footing, as opposed to last year when it seemed like the Brewers were ready to take a big leap ahead. Dave Littlefield says he wants to spend the money to get better but no one will take it. Sounds like more of the same excuses to me.