While the Braves overcame a four-month stretch of playing at or below .500 to win the National League East, the Milwaukee Brewers took a less-stressful route to the NL Central title.
The Brewers had a losing record on only nine days this season, have been in first place continuously since the third week of June and built their lead to 14 games by mid-September. Their cushion was such that it was unthreatened even when the second-place team, St. Louis, went on a 17-game win streak.
The Braves and Brewers will meet in a best-of-five NL Division Series, with Game 1 set for Oct. 8 in Milwaukee.
The series will be the first-ever postseason meeting between the Braves, who moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta in 1966, and the Brewers, who returned major-league baseball to Milwaukee in 1970.
It also will be the second time this year that an Atlanta sports franchise faces a Milwaukee team in a postseason series. The Bucks eliminated the Hawks in the NBA Eastern Conference finals in July and went on to win the NBA championship.
The Brewers are a daunting postseason opponent, largely because of a superb pitching staff led by three 2021 All-Star starters – right-handers Corbin Burnes (11-4, 2.29 ERA), Brandon Woodruff (9-10, 2.56) and Freddy Peralta (10-5, 2.81) -- and a dominant All-Star closer, Josh Hader (34 saves in 35 chances, 1.25 ERA). Burnes, a leading Cy Young Award candidate, and Hader combined for a no-hitter against Cleveland three weeks ago.
The Brewers entered this weekend, the final weekend of the regular season, with 95 wins, fourth-most in the majors behind the Giants, Dodgers and Rays.
When the Braves rose above .500 for the first time this season at 55-54 on Aug. 5, the Brewers already were 21 games above .500. But from Aug. 6 until Friday, the Braves were 31-18 and the Brewers 30-20.
The Brewers’ large lead in the NL Central came in handy as they lost six of seven to the Cardinals in the past two weeks.
“We fought and fought all season long to get to that point,” second baseman Kolten Wong told reporters when the Brewers clinched the division. “We honestly kept our heads down and tried to create as much of a separation as we could, and we did it. That’s all it’s about, man, understanding that we’re a good team, we’re ready to compete against anybody and we’re not afraid of anybody. We know what we’ve got in this clubhouse, and we’re confident.”
The Braves and Brewers met six times during the regular season, each winning three games. The Braves won two of three in Milwaukee, and the Brewers won two of three at Truist Park.
During the series at Truist, the Braves had more success than most teams against the Brewers’ starting pitchers. The Braves scored five runs on nine hits in four-plus innings against Burnes on July 30, including four runs in the first inning, but eventually lost 9-5. The next day, the Braves scored three runs on eight hits in 5-1/3 innings against Woodruff and won 8-1.
Still, the Brewers’ starting pitching is indisputably elite. The Milwaukee aces against the Braves’ top three starters -- Charlie Morton (2.82 ERA across his past 11 starts), Max Fried (1.46 ERA across his past 11 starts) and Ian Anderson – should make for compelling NLDS matchups.
The Brewers will be without a key member of their bullpen, right-handed setup reliever Devin Williams, who broke his pitching hand by punching a wall following a division championship celebration last weekend. Williams had a 2.50 ERA and 87 strikeouts in 54 innings this season.
While the Brewers’ pitching staff ranks third in the majors in ERA and first in shutouts, their offense ranks more modestly: 10th in runs scored, 16th in home runs and 20th in OPS entering this weekend. Right fielder Avisail Garcia leads the Brewers in home runs (29 through Thursday) and RBIs (85). Infielder Luis Urias is second on the team in those categories (23 and 74, respectively).
The Brewers’ lineup, like the Braves’, benefitted from in-season acquisitions.
Milwaukee’s biggest addition came earlier in the season than the Braves’ much-celebrated July moves: shortstop Willy Adames in a May trade with Tampa Bay. The Brewers, 21-23 and slumping at the time of the deal, won 17 of their next 21 games, a season-turning stretch. Adames, who was hitting .197 with the Rays, entered this weekend with a .285 batting average, 19 home runs and 57 RBIs in 96 games with Milwaukee.
The Brewers acquired two other bats in July: third baseman-first baseman Eduardo Escobar from Arizona and first baseman Rowdy Tellez from Toronto. Escobar has 28 home runs and 88 RBIs with his two teams this season.
An earlier acquisition, Wong, who signed as a free agent last winter, has paid off as the Brewers’ leadoff hitter and in the field.
The most familiar name in the Milwaukee lineup, 2018 NL MVP Christian Yelich, has had a second consecutive subpar season. Veteran outfielder Lorenzo Cain missed two months with a hamstring injury, but hit .328 in September.
“We’ve got a great group,” Yelich told reporters on the day the Brewers clinched their division championship. “Now that we’re in (the playoffs), we’ve got to take advantage of that opportunity and see what we can do. But I like our chances.”
