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09/18 17:10 CDT Brewers outperform preseason expectations again to win third NL
Central title in four years
Brewers outperform preseason expectations again to win third NL Central title
in four years
By STEVE MEGARGEE
AP Sports Writer
MILWAUKEE (AP) --- These aren't the same Milwaukee Brewers who have made
regular playoff appearances the last several years.
Milwaukee became the first major league team to clinch a division championship
Wednesday when it sealed its third NL Central title in the last four years. The
Chicago Cubs' 5-3 home loss to the Oakland Athletics enabled the Brewers to
wrap up the division crown.
The Brewers' clubhouse emptied of players with one out to go in the ninth
inning in Chicago, a couple of hours before Milwaukee's scheduled first pitch
against Philadelphia. A muffled cheer could be heard after the final out when
the Brewers won their first consecutive division title in 42 years.
Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy said he watched the final outs of the Cubs' game
with 90-year-old longtime Brewers broadcaster Bob Uecker.
"We were doing our show and I watched it with him," Murphy said. "What's better
than that? Awesome."
This marks the Brewers' sixth postseason berth in the last seven years, a
remarkable accomplishment for a team that made the playoffs just twice in a
35-year stretch from 1983-2017. But this run to the playoffs has been a little
different from the rest.
"Nobody wants it to be easy, let's just be honest," first baseman Rhys Hoskins
said. "Everybody that's in that room cherishes challenges. The first challenge
(is) down. We obviously have a few more ahead of us. We're excited about that."
Although the Brewers have grown accustomed to outperforming preseason
expectations, the odds seemed stacked against them even more than usual this
year.
Craig Counsell, the winningest manager in Brewers history, left for the rival
Cubs. Corbin Burnes, the 2021 NL Cy Young Award winner, was traded to the
Baltimore Orioles.
Two-time All-Star right-hander Brandon Woodruff didn't pitch all year as he
recovered from shoulder surgery and two-time NL reliever of the year Devin
Williams missed the first half of the season with stress fractures in his back.
All-Star outfielder Christian Yelich and pitchers Wade Miley and Robert Gasser
suffered season-ending injuries.
None of it mattered.
"You can do all that to us, but it's still about people, and you have no idea
what their best is," Murphy said. "These guys don't know what their best is and
didn't know what their best was and still don't. But they know one thing:
Pulling together, competing, being doubted is something that can vault you
forward into a championship."
The Brewers took over first place for good at the end of April and never looked
back. Now they've won back-to-back division titles for the first time since
1981-82. That 1982 season marked Milwaukee's lone World Series appearance,
which ended with a seven-game loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.
"We were all kind of written off, right?" Yelich said. "So that makes this one
kind of special because we found a way. We faced a lot of adversity. We
believed in each other. We came together as a group and got it done."
The Brewers benefited from the leadership of Murphy, who had been Counsell's
bench coach since 2016. Rather than following Counsell to Chicago, Murphy
stayed in Milwaukee and got his first full-time opportunity as a major league
manager two weeks before his 65th birthday. Murphy's only previous MLB
managerial experience had come as an interim manager with San Diego in 2015.
Murphy has kept the locker room loose while guiding a team that hasn't suffered
more than three straight losses at any point this season. The Brewers are the
only team that hasn't had a losing streak of at least four games.
"They overachieved in every way, shape or form," Murphy said.
The Brewers have succeeded with what Murphy refers to as an "all-hands-on-deck"
approach.
Milwaukee's had 17 different pitchers start games this season (only the Miami
Marlins and Los Angeles Angels had more). Twelve different Brewers pitchers
have collected a save, just two shy of the record of 14 set by the 2021 Tampa
Bay Rays. Milwaukee entered Wednesday with a 3.65 ERA that ranked fourth in the
majors.
The Brewers relied largely on their pitching the last few seasons and
ultimately came up short in the playoffs, as they've lost nine of their last 10
postseason games. This year's Brewers lineup appears to pack more punch.
Milwaukee entered Wednesday ranked fourth in total runs scored (733) and 11th
in OPS (.735) after finishing 17th in runs (728) and 23rd in OPS (.704) last
year.
Yelich was leading the NL in batting average (.315) and on-base percentage
(.406) before back issues ended his season in late July. Contreras has
developed into one of the game's best hitting catchers. Adames is the first
Brewers shortstop to have a 30-homer, 100-RBI season, something even Hall of
Famer Robin Yount never accomplished in Milwaukee. Jackson Chourio, who doesn't
turn 21 until next spring, is the youngest player ever to hit 20 homers and
steal 20 bases in one season.
"This is exactly what you as a competitor want to be a part of, right?" Hoskins
said. "It didn't necessarily look exactly the way that maybe some of us
thought, but what's cool is that we still were able to find ways to get the job
done."
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
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