Brewers WIN NL Central with 3-1 win over Chicago

Chicago, I.L. ~ The Milwaukee Brewers have won the N.L. Central for the first time since 2011 with a heart pumping 3-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Back in April, the Cubs swept the Brewers in a four game series at Miller Park. Now, the Brewers are soaked in champagne at Miller beer, celebrating a division title. The victory ensures that the Brew Crew have home field advantage through the National League playoffs.

Milwaukee dominated the game, but were never quite able to pull away. Even though the Crew outhit Chicago 12 to 3, the final score was 3-1. Orlando Arcia supplied four of those hits, with a very surprising four for four day at the plate, while MVP frontrunner Christian Yelich went three for four with an RBI. Yelich finished one RBI and one home run away from a Triple Crown in the National League.

The young Brewers shortstop led off the third inning with a single, and Jhoulys Chacin moved him to second with a great sac bunt. Arcia then hustled to third when Brewer killer Jose Quintana got Lorenzo Cain. The Cubs decided to pitch to Yeli with two outs, and he delivered with a base hit to score Arcia and give the Crew the lead.

Brewers starter Jhoulys Chacin came up huge for Milwaukee, as he went 5.2 innings allowing only one hit and one run. Chacin’s one and only hit and run came on one swing of the bat from Anthony Rizzo, a game-tying shot deep into the right field bleachers. Chacin’s day ended on a great 1-4-3 double play in the sixth inning. Ian Happ led off the inning with a walk, but Jhoulys got Willson to bounce one back to the mound for a double play.

Xavier Cedeno came in for Chacin and walked Daniel Murphy and gave up a base hit to Ben Zobrist. Joakim Soria came on and relieved Cedeno. Soria fell down to 3-0 against Javier Baez, but battled back and struck out Baez to keep the game tied.

Corey Knebel pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning to set up the Crew for a big eighth.

Arcia led off the seventh with his third single of the game. With Justin Wilson pitching, Domingo Santana hit for Corey Knebel and lined a shot down the third base line to put runners on second and third with no outs for the top of the order. That took Wilson out of the game, and Lorenzo Cain shot a base hit off of Steve Cishek to give Milwaukee the lead for good. Yelich was due up next and he surprisingly struck out. Ryan Braun added on to the lead. with a single off of former Brewer Brandon Kintzler to make the score 3-1.

Josh Hader was on for the eighth and pitched a three up, three down inning. Hader struck out Murphy, and got Zobrist to fly out. One out to go with Baez at the plate. Javy put up a good battle and laced a single to center to put a runner on in the ninth. But Hader retired Anthony Rizzo for the NL Central Crown.

Now the Crew will wait until Thursday, when they will play either the Cubs or Rockies at Miller Park for Game One of the NLDS.

BY Jacob Szczap

One comment

  • Dan Szczap

    Love the wrap up article on the Brew Crew.
    What a year year. Thanks for the in depth coverage.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *