Brewers want more
With a playoff spot secured, the team focuses on a division title.
One more celebration this weekend.
That was the message before, during and after the Milwaukee Brewers’ raucous celebration Wednesday night in the visitors' clubhouse at Busch Stadium. A playoff berth had been secured – the team’s first in seven years – but no one suggested that was enough.
The Brewers have their eyes on the National League Central crown.
It won’t be easy to secure that playoff berth and avoid the winner-take-all crap shoot known as the wild-card game, but nothing has come easy this year for the Brewers, despite their 92 victories, including the tense 2-1 clincher over St. Louis. Manager Craig Counsell told his players before the celebration to enjoy the moment and appreciate what it took to get there but emphasized there was more work to be done.
“We want another celebration this weekend,” said Counsell, whose club has been guaranteed home-field
advantage in the wild-card game Tuesday night, at the very least.
“We have a big weekend ahead of us, a huge weekend ahead of us. We’ve got work to do still.”
After a very timely scheduled off-day Thursday to regroup and recoup, the Brewers will begin a season-ending threegame series against Detroit at Miller Park on Friday evening. It is unusual to end the season with interleague play, but somebody has to do it and the good news is that the Tigers are not good, with 94 losses and a 26-51 road record, one of the worst in the majors.
Entering Thursday night, the Brewers were a half-game behind the Chicago Cubs, who also had 92 victories but one less loss (66). The Cubs were able to push that lead to a full game after defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-0, at Wrigley Field. The clubs split a four-game series.
While the Brewers are playing the Tigers this weekend, the Cubs and St. Louis will square off in a three-game series at Wrigley. Those clubs love to beat each other, and the Brewers definitely will be rooting for the Cardinals to do some damage to Chicago’s hopes of a third consecutive division crown.
Should the Brewers and Cubs tie for first place in the division, there would be an extra regular-season game, No. 163, on Monday at Wrigley Field. Chicago would get the home field by winning the season series from the Brewers, 11-8. The winner would open an NL Division Series at home Thursday against a to-be-determined opponent and the loser would be host for the wild-card game.
St. Louis is hanging on by a thread in the wild-card race, one game behind the Los Angeles Dodgers, who fell behind Colorado in the NL West race. Winners of seven straight, the Rockies have a one-game lead over Los Angeles after defeating the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday.
Colorado closes its season at home against the Washington Nationals, a disappointing team in general but one with considerable talent. The Dodgers finish with three games in San Francisco, another team long out of the playoff race but an NL West rival that loves to beat Los Angeles.
So, this is where the National League stands entering the final weekend. Atlanta has won the East Division crown but awaits its opponent in the NLDS. The wild-card winner would match up against the division champ with the best record, which could be yet another Chicago-Milwaukee pairing.
“It’s great for baseball,” Counsell said of the numerous playoff possibilities. “It makes for a fun last weekend for a bunch of cities and baseball fans everywhere. I’m not surprised by it. I think it’s what you hope for. You hope for a baseball season to go down to the end. We’ve got one this year.
“It doesn’t happen every year. It’s a great thing about our sport. We play a ridiculous number of games but we can still find a way to make the last week of the season as interesting as any sport out there.”
As for what it meant for the team to get back to the postseason for the first time since 2011, Whitefish Bay native Counsell said, “I’m happy for fans of the Brewers, from the season-ticket holders to the people in the retirement home that get three hours a night watching Brewers games. And Bob Uecker, who gets a chance to call a playoff game again. That’s the thrill for me, things like that.”
The Brewers have generated a tremendous amount of momentum entering the final weekend, including the three-game sweep in St. Louis, a first for Milwaukee since the end of the 2009 season. They have won 10 of 11 series, going 22-10 over that stretch.
The Brewers spun their wheels throughout August, going 13-13 while struggling in the pitching department. But they have picked up the pace considerably in September, building a 16-7 record with the three games remaining against Detroit.
Asked what got the team steaming forward, Ryan Braun said, “I think every team inevitably deals with adversity. You’re going to deal with failure both individually and as a team, and as a team that was the toughest stretch (in July and August). We recognized ahead of time how challenging it was going to be.
“I think we’ve done a good job of being able to turn the page, to move on, to focus on the task at hand, the next day’s game, recognizing that you can’t ever go back and change those losses. We just move forward and continue to play good, and ultimately it’s our depth. There are a lot of guys who have contributed to our success.”
So, the Brewers used the off-day Thursday to bask in the glow of a remarkable surge into the playoffs, a charge in which there were many contributors, as Braun suggested.
Standing off to the side of the wild celebration Wednesday night in that visitors' clubhouse at Busch Stadium, general manager David Stearns, who guided the team from a roster strip-down to the postseason in three years, was beaming.
“I’m just so proud of everybody in this room,” Stearns said. “I’m proud of what we’ve collectively built as an organization. It’s a great moment for the organization and for the guys in this room.
“It shows the character of this team. We had to earn every single win. We’ve done it all year. I don’t think we’d want it any other way. And here we are.”