Yelich, Cain, Hader lead Brewers to title

CHICAGO — Christian Yelich’s easy smile and champagne-soaked T-shirt said it all.

A division title is much more fun than a Triple Crown.

Yelich collected three more hits as the Brewers won their first NL Central title since 2011, beating the Cubs 3-1 on Monday in a tiebreaker game. The silkysmooth slugger stalled in his bid for the league’s first Triple Crown in decades, but he starred once again as the Brew Crew captured the biggest prize of the day.

“I know how hard it is to get to this point and I’m proud to be a part of this group,” Yelich said as Milwaukee’s boozy party swirled around him, filling every inch of the visitors’ clubhouse at Wrigley Field.

Lorenzo Cain hit a goahead single in the eighth inning to help the Brewers to their eighth straight win and home-field advantage throughout the NL playoffs. The Brewers will host the wild-card winner starting Thursday in the best-of-five Division Series.

The Cubs stay at Wrigley for Tuesday night’s wildcard game. The Cubs will play the Rockies, who later fell to the Dodgers 5-2 in the West tiebreaker.

“It’s no fun. Of course we’d prefer the other route,” manager Joe Maddon said.

Yelich singled home the Brewers’ first run and won the NL batting title with a .326 average. He had 110 RBIs, one behind the Cubs’ Javier Baez, and had 36 homers, two behind the Rockies’ Nolan Arenado. The tiebreakers were Game 163 of the regular season and counted in the totals.

Joe Medwick in 1937 was the last NL player to win the Triple Crown.

Orlando Arcia, batting in the eighth slot, had a careerhigh four hits, and Josh Hader closed out another dominant relief performance for the Brewers.

Anthony Rizzo homered for the Cubs, whose got their two other hits from Daniel Murphy and Baez.