Brewers Take NL Central and Become 1st to Clinch in 2024

It's always a good feeling to be the first team in your league to clinch a spot in the playoffs, because that's one step in a multi-layered goal: winning a championship. In the case of the 2024 MLB season, that honor went to the Milwaukee Brewers, who had a stranglehold on the National League Central for months. The Brewers had their first opportunity to clinch the division on Tuesday, needing a win and a Chicago Cubs loss. A funny thing: the Cubs did lose at home to the lowly Oakland Athletics, but unfortunately, the Brewers fell to the Philadelphia Phillies.

Even so, the Cubs loss knocked the Brewers' Magic Number for the division down to 1. Regarding Wednesday's schedule, the Cubs played before the Brewers, so Milwaukee could celebrate before they took the field. But there was no way the Cubs would lose again to the A's, right? Well, Oakland did score first, but the Cubs would take a 3-1 lead. However, the A's tied it in the seventh and took a 5-3 lead in the eighth, and that score ended up holding up.

So with the Cubs' loss, the Brewers won the NL Central for the second straight season, and the third time in four seasons, while also becoming the first team to lock in a spot in this year's postseason. For the Brewers, this continues their most successful stretch in franchise history. The team debuted as the Seattle Pilots in 1969, and moved to Milwaukee a year later and became the Brewers. In their first 49 seasons, the Brewers only reached the postseason four times, which includes their lone pennant in 1982. This year marks their sixth postseason in seven seasons, and in the one year they missed (2022), they only missed out by a single game.

The Brewers' latest postseason appearance comes despite a number of key losses. For one, Craig Counsell was out as Brewers skipper, opting to take the same position with the rival Cubs--with a huge payday. Secondly, their big ace pitcher, Corbin Burnes, ended up with the Baltimore Orioles. Even so, the Brewers righted the ship, and one of their big bats was none other than Willy Adames, who leads the team in home runs (32) and RBIs (109). William Contreras, Rhys Hoskins, and Jackson Chourio have also been big bats for the Brewers, especially with Christian Yelich missing a vast amount of time this season.

Regarding pitching, it's been a bit of a mixed bag for Milwaukee. The wins leader is Colin Rea with only 12, and regarding ERA, Freddy Peralta leads with a 3.69 Earned Run Average. So pitching's been average for the most part, but it really helped that the rest of the NL Central has been mostly mediocre all season.

Now, while this current stretch has been the most successful in the team's history, we've seen very little results. It all started in 2018, and that year saw the Brewers come within one win of their second pennant in franchise history, but they lost Game Seven at home. They have not advanced in the postseason since then, and they are still looking for their first championship. Right now, the Brewers are in a tight race with the Phillies and Dodgers for the top spot in the entire National League. They are three games behind the Phillies for #1, and two games behind the Dodgers for #2, with both spots being the 1st-round bye positions. Unfortunately for the Brewers, they lost their season series against both teams. If they remain at #3, they'll host a Wild Card Series against the #6 seed (the #3 Wild Card), which would be a prime position...except for the fact that, in the brief time this format has existed, the #6 seed in the National League has gone on to win the pennant. So the Brewers need to get the key wins and surpass at least one of those two teams, and they still have some time to do just that.