Brewers Go Back-To-Back As Division Champs
Before the Milwaukee Brewers touched the field for their series finale against the Philadelphia Phillies, they were already division champs.
Last year, despite a 4-1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals at home, the Brewers clinched the division title when the Chicago Cubs lost to the Atlanta Braves. With a 5-3 loss to the Oakland A’s, the Cubs were, once again, what cinched it for the Brewers this year.
Despite already being division champs, Brewers’ pitcher Devin Williams said they still wanted to win their game against the Phillies.
So they won. The Phillies struck first with a second-inning homer by Alec Bohm. Rhys Hoskin, a former Philly, struck gold with a homer in the fifth to tie the game. The Brewers and Phillies continued to battle it out with a few close calls until the ninth inning.
Williams secured three outs. Jackson Chourio started the second half of the ninth inning with a triple to right field. William Contreras was intentionally walked. Garett Mitchell struck out. Willy Adames walked. Then, with the bases loaded, Jake Bauers, batting .196 on the season, hit a walk-off single into right field that brought Chourio home.
2024 Season
After losing manager Craig Counsell to the Cubs last year, the Brewers weren’t expected to do well this season with many projecting them to be middle of the pack or below and missing the playoffs. However, former Brewers bench coach and current skipper Pat Murphy has helped this team defy the odds.
The odds: 2021 NL Cy Young award winner Corbin Burnes was traded to the Baltimore Orioles; the winningest manager in Brewers history, Counsell, abandoned ship for the Cubs; two-time All-Star pitcher Brandon Woodruff hasn’t pitched all season as he recovers from shoulder surgery; NL reliever of the year Williams missed the first half of the season because of stress fractures in his back; and Christian Yellich, Wade Miley, and Robert Gasser had season-ending injuries. That list doesn’t include the other 15-day and 60-day injuries the Brewers faced this season.
This season, the Brewers received help where they could. Seventeen different pitchers started this season. Twelve different pitches collected a save. Together, Brewers pitchers recorded a 3.65 earned run average, making them fourth in Major League Baseball.
The Brewers have gone 6-4 in the past ten games with series wins against the San Francisco Giants, Arizona Diamondbacks, and the Phillies. The Brewers swept the Diamondbacks, but they did lose the series against the Colorado Rockies.
Looking Ahead
Brewers currently sit third in the NL, three games behind the Phillies and one game behind the Los Angeles Dodgers. They are fourth overall in the league with the New York Yankees being two games above them in third place.
The last time the Brewers had back-to-back division titles was 42 years ago in the 1981-82 seasons. That season the Brewers also made their lone World Series appearance.
Although the Brewers have clinched the division title, they aren’t stopping here. They are now fighting for playoff positioning.
After the win against the Phillies, the Brewers celebrated with champagne and beer—and for Chourio, their 20-year-old who can’t drink, they had a stroller filled with non-alcoholic beers and sparkling cider.
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