MILWAUKEE -- It’s risky mining for conclusions on Opening Day, as a sample size of one game doesn’t generate much confidence in forecasting how the next 161 could unfold. But the way in which Thursday’s Opening Day bout between the Brewers and Cardinals finished sure seemed predictive of one thing:

The National League Central is set up to be dripping with drama all year.

It took Milwaukee’s Lorenzo Cain robbing Jose Martinez of a potential game-tying homer off the often-unhittable Josh Hader with two outs in the ninth to secure a 5-4 win for the home team at Miller Park on Thursday afternoon. It was reminiscent of the catch Keon Broxton made to seal a victory against St. Louis two years ago, and it served as a reminder that the Brewers return as formidable competition in arguably baseball’s deepest division.

“You’re walking out of there and you’re like, ‘Man, we were one pitch away, one swing away, one robbed home run away,'” said Paul Goldschmidt, who went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts in his Cards debut. “I don’t think I’ve ever been a part of a game that ends with a robbed home run that could have tied the game.”

For Goldschmidt, it was a rude welcome to a new division, one that is baseball’s exception in that it does not include a club somewhere within a rebuilding plan. PECOTA projections have all five teams finishing within seven games of one another, and each with a win total in the 80s.

But while the Cardinals have built a club capable of contending, Milwaukee remains in their way of a return to October. For all the questions swirling about their pitching depth, the Brewers still have Hader -- who closed the win with two scoreless innings -- and they still have a lineup full of muscle.

All five of Milwaukee’s runs scored on the trio of homers served up during Miles Mikolas' first career Opening Day start. Among them was a go-ahead homer by reigning NL MVP Award winner Christian Yelich and a back-breaker by opposing starter Jhoulys Chacin.

“Some days you go out there, you make 10-15 mistakes and they don’t all come to get you,” said Mikolas, who didn’t lose a road game all last season. “Some days you make three or four, they all seem to end up on the scoreboard.”

The Cards countered with three homers of their own –- two from Kolten Wong, another by Harrison Bader -- and seemingly had another until Cain pulled it back.

“It came down to a robbed home run right there at the end,” Mikolas said. “I think that’s probably going to be a theme this year in this division with so much talent, so many good teams. And we’re right there.”

The Cardinals will have plenty of opportunities to prove that they are, as they will face the Brewers nine more times over the team’s next 23 games. It’s a quirk in the schedule that some thought could favor the Cards, since the Brewers are currently without key late-inning relievers Jeremy Jeffress and Corey Knebel. But keeping the Brewers’ slugging offense in the park will be key.

St. Louis will see some of its other NL Central competition, as well, as 17 of its first 27 games are intradivision ones.

To be in solid position at the end of the stretch, the Cardinals will want to replicate some of what they did well on Thursday. The bullpen twirled three scoreless innings without leaning on contributions from Alex Reyes, Andrew Miller or Jordan Hicks. The defense was clean. And Wong and Bader generated plenty of production from the bottom part of the lineup.

Yet, the sum of it all? Inches short.

“He made a [heck] of a play,” Wong said of Cain. “I expect that from the whole Central. It’s going to be like that the whole year. We’re excited, man. That’s what you play every single day for is to have these nail-biters and to push yourself to the limit.”