MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers completed a challenging August with Wednesday’s 6-1 win over the Pirates and turned the calendar to Craigtember. 

They have a history of playing their best baseball in September under manager Craig Counsell, and it will take another late surge to qualify for a fifth consecutive postseason. After six players logged an RBI apiece and Freddy Peralta and three relievers combined to cap the team’s 12-15 August with a relatively drama-free victory at American Family Field, the Brewers sat 5 1/2 games back of the red-hot Cardinals in the National League Central standings and 2 1/2 games back of the NL’s Wild Card field, pending the rest of Wednesday’s action.

“If we don't execute, we're going to go home early, and we don't want that,” shortstop Willy Adames said after driving in the Brewers’ first run with his 100th career double. 

Said Peralta: “Challenges are really good for us as a team. We always play better when we’re in that kind of spot, so we just have to keep doing it.”

Peralta lived it early in his big league career. Starting with his 2018 rookie season, when Christian Yelich’s arrival signaled the Brewers’ emergence from a rapid rebuild, Milwaukee is 67-42 in regular season games after Aug. 31, tied with Houston for the third-best winning percentage in baseball (.615). Only the Dodgers (.724) and Rays (.626) were better in the final month-plus of those regular seasons.

Most of those Brewers wins, however, were banked in 2018-19, when they went a combined 39-14 over the final month-plus. The most impressive of those surges was probably 2019, when the Brewers were four games out of the Wild Card picture on the morning of Sept. 1 but went 20-7 the rest of the way despite losing Yelich to a season-ending knee injury.

Since then, the Brewers’ Septembers have been average. They were 13-13 in September during the shortened 2020 season and made the playoffs despite a sub-.500 record. Then they went 14-15 from Sept. 1 to the end of last season while resting regulars over the final two weeks because they had a huge division lead. 

This year, they’ll need to be much better than that. 

“Last year, we went into the playoffs in a bad spot. I feel like we weren't going in the right direction,” Adames said. “We were feeling too comfortable. This year, we know we have to execute, and I think it's going to put us in a better spot for the postseason.”

First, they must get to the postseason. The Brewers’ poor month of August dented their hopes in a significant way. On July 31 they stood four games ahead of the Cardinals and the rest of the NL Central, and Fangraphs’ simulations had the Brewers at 80.3 percent to win the division and 89.6 percent to make the playoffs. Heading into Wednesday, those odds had fallen to 8.7 percent to win the division and 44.2 percent to make the playoffs.

But the Brewers ended August on a high, winning consecutive series against the Cubs and Pirates. And the rest of the schedule is favorable in some ways; after this seven-game road trip to play sub-.500 Arizona and Colorado, 20 of Milwaukee’s final 26 games are home games.

“We’re coming together,” said reliever Brent Suter, the longest-tenured Brewer. “We’re pulling for each other big time. We know what we’re playing for. That September push, ‘Craigtember’ as we like to call it, is starting. Hopefully, we can continue that bond and be there for each other.”

That effort extends beyond the field. On the last road trip, Suter said, players made a point to spend more time together when they’re not at the stadium. On this next trip, a group plans to gather for the Brewers’ annual fantasy football draft. And in the home clubhouse, a new pop-a-shot game has been a popular addition; Keston Hiura and Suter were tied atop the leaderboard as of Wednesday evening.  

“It sounds weird,” Suter said of the impetus behind those activities, “but [the aim is] less digital time and more human interaction with the guys. It’s been fun.”

Said Hiura: “You've seen what this team has done in previous Septembers. When you're chasing something, it definitely lights a fire under your butt and convinces you and persuades you to do a little bit extra.”

Do the Brewers’ September successes three and four years ago mean anything in 2022?

Counsell hopes so. 

“It’s a position that we’ve been in before,” Counsell said. “We know there’s some urgency to how we play, and I think that’s a good feeling. There’s a lot of new guys here, but certainly we’ve got a lot of guys who have been through this before, and you know that when you walk into this month, it’s got to be a good month. …

“We’re chasing. We realize that. That goes into your thinking, for sure. We know we have to play well and play consistently and run off wins.”