Losing records don’t stop Brewers, Astros
Postseason field set with quirks, intrigue
Christian Yelich and Milwaukee got off to a ragged start this year. They never got above .500. And they dropped their last game to finish with a losing record.
And they’re in the playoffs.
“Weird. I guess that’s the only way to describe it. It’s fitting for 2020,” Yelich said Sunday.
A pandemic-altered, 60-game regular season that many believed never would get completed and saw games postponed because of virus outbreaks, racial injustice protests and a hurricane went into the final day without a single playoff matchup set.
Then, in a flurry and fury, the entire, expanded 16-team postseason field was full.
Not a bad way to start, either: Gerrit Cole vs. Shane Bieber in a mega-watt duel as the New York Yankees face Cleveland in the bestof-three wild-card round Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the National League gets going. That’s when the Brewers (29-31) open against
Los Angeles ace Walker Buehler at Dodger Stadium.
In a win-and-you’re-in game, St. Louis clinched by beating Milwaukee 5-2. But the Brewers also made it when San Francisco lost 5-4 to San Diego for the last wild-card spot.
Yelich, the former MVP who hit .205 this year after winning the past two NL batting titles, and the Brewers happily posed for a team picture in their playoff-clinch T-shirts on the Busch Stadium field.
The Astros and first-year manager Dusty Baker also are in at 29-31. Houston got its spot by finishing second in the American League West, drawing an automatic berth.
The lone other team in major league history to reach the playoffs with a losing record was the
1981 Kansas City Royals — at 50-53 overall, they made it by winning the second half in a strike-split season.
The other AL pairings: Top-seeded Tampa Bay-no. 8 Toronto, No. 2 Oakland-no. 7 Chicago White Sox and No. 3 Minnesota-no. 6 Houston, with all openers Tuesday.
In the NL, it’s No. 1 Dodgers-no. 8 Brewers, No. 2 Atlanta-no. 7 Cincinnati, No. 3 Chicago Cubs-no. 6
Miami and No. 4 San Diego-no. 5 St. Louis on Wednesday.
The Cardinals claimed their spot despite missing 2½ weeks into August after a virus outbreak hit the club. St. Louis played 58 games — it was prepared for a doubleheader Monday in Detroit if needed to settle the playoff picture.
All matchups are best-of-three, with every game hosted by the top seed in ballparks without fans. With no days off, pitching strategies will be paramount, particularly how managers use their bullpens. Following the wild-card rounds, the remaining clubs will move to neutral site bubbles in Texas and Southern California to crown a champion.
The biggest losers Sunday were Philadelphia and the Giants. Either team would’ve gotten in with a victory.