MILWAUKEE – So long, Cubs.
Or is it, “Until we meet again?”
Either way, the Brewers completed their regular-season series against their chief rival on Wednesday, getting a three-run home run from Christian Yelich in the first inning and three more runs on homers from red-hot Jackson Chourio and William Contreras in the second en route to an eight-run lead going into the ninth, then hanging on for an 8-6 win and a three-game sweep at American Family Field.
Mathematically, the National League Central is still a race. But by winning five of seven head-to-head matchups over the past 10 days, Milwaukee (91-56) effectively denied Chicago (81-66) a chance to make a late-season comeback by moving 10 games ahead in the standings with 15 to play.
Since the Brewers hold the tiebreaker, any combination of five Brewers wins or Cubs losses over those remaining games would clinch a fourth consecutive division crown for the Crew.
“I think when you see the schedule come out in the beginning of the year, you know those games are going to matter, and they're going to mean a lot,” Yelich said. “Even though we had a decent lead going into it, things can happen fast, and you have to make sure you play well.
“I'm proud of the guys for doing what had to be done and making sure we were ready to play. Especially after we got blown out in the first one, we kind of just flushed it and got back to business.”
But, as Yelich warned on Wednesday afternoon, “Nothing’s been accomplished yet.”
Indeed, the Brewers can’t clinch a postseason berth until Friday at the earliest, when they begin a three-game series against the Reds. Then the Brewers would focus on clinching the division over the Cubs.
“Definitely the last two years, we’ve been chasing them,” said Cubs outfielder Ian Happ. “They have the best record in baseball now. They had the best record in baseball last year. They’ve done their job. And so you have to give them credit for that all the way around as an organization.”
If the teams meet again in 2026, it would be in the postseason – a rematch of last year’s NL Division Series that went to a decisive fifth game.
How does Contreras rate the odds of that happening?
“I’m not sure. It doesn’t really matter to me,” said the Brewers catcher, whose two-run home run in the second inning was No. 100 of his career. “When it comes time for the playoffs, we’ll be ready for whoever it is. We have other goals in mind.”
A red-hot Chourio would help. He finished with three hits and two RBIs in the finale and logged his 17th stolen base, leaving him three bags shy of a third consecutive 20-20 season to begin his career. He collected eight hits and six RBIs in the series.
Keeping 24-year-old right-hander Logan Henderson on track would help, too. He delivered five more sharp innings (two hits, one unearned run) and is looking more and more like the Brewers’ No. 2 starter in the postseason behind Jacob Misiorowski. It was Henderson’s 21st career outing, all of which have been starts, and he has allowed three runs or fewer in all 21. That's the second-longest such streak to begin a career since the mound was moved to its current distance in 1893, behind only Zac Gallen’s first 23 starts for the D-backs in 2019-20.
JoJo Romero followed with two scoreless innings and saw the lead grow to 8-1 before the Brewers turned to rookie right-hander Brandon Sproat, recently recalled from Triple-A Nashville, to cover the rest of the game. He got through a scoreless eighth inning but ran into major problems in the ninth, when he walked four of the first five Cubs hitters to force in a run.
With an off-day Thursday – the Brewers’ first in a while, since Wednesday finished a stretch of 16 consecutive gamedays in a season that already had two stretches of 17 consecutive gamedays – manager Pat Murphy wasn’t messing around. He called upon his closer of the night, Abner Uribe, who allowed a couple of hits and saw the Cubs bring the tying run to the plate. Cubs manager Craig Counsell opted to pinch-hit for veteran catcher Carson Kelly with rookie BJ Murray Jr. to claim the platoon advantage, and Murray struck out to end the game.
“We kind of ended on a sour note today, but to play 16 straight and keep your focus, play through injury and that sort of thing, the guys have been great,” Murphy said.
The Brewers escaped.
On Thursday, they can rest.
On Friday, they will have their first chance to punch their ticket to the postseason.
“We’ve got a long way to go,” Henderson said. “There’s a lot bigger goals out there – team goals. That’s what we’re striving for.”