Crew keeps division dreams alive with sweep
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CINCINNATI -- Here the Brewers go again, one game out of first place with three to play and their fate tied not only to winning their own games, but getting some help out of a Cardinals-Cubs series.
It’s 2018 all over again.
A day after clinching at least a spot in the National League Wild Card Game, Milwaukee boosted its division hopes with 5-3 win over the Reds on Thursday at Great American Ball Park. A seventh straight win lifted the Brewers within one game of idle St. Louis.
The Brewers finish at Colorado. The Cardinals are home against the Cubs.
“We’d like to finish strong, win these games and get a little help from the Cubs,” said Chase Anderson. “It’ll be the only time we root for those guys.”
The Brewers were here a year ago, rooting for a division rival -- only the Cardinals’ and Cubs’ roles were reversed. The Brewers had pitched their way into a September spree capped by an eight-game win streak. They entered the final weekend one game back of Chicago with three to go and swept the Tigers at home. The Cubs only won two of three against the Cardinals, forcing a Game 163 to decide the division. The Brewers won and went all the way to a Game 7 of the NL Championship Series.
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Now, things are setting up the same way.
But it won’t matter unless the Brewers continue to win. They have been doing a lot of that; seven in a row, 11 of 12, 18 of 20 and 20 of 24.
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“We’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “We need some help. It’s an uphill climb with three games to go, but we’re giving ourselves a chance. ... To get it to one game with three to play, you feel like you’ve definitely put some heat on the Cardinals, and that’s a good thing.”
The Cardinals could not have seen this coming.
Heck, the Brewers themselves could not have seen this coming.
"I mean, many people didn’t believe it, but here we are doing everything we can, doing all the little things to win ballgames,” said shortstop Orlando Arcia, who delivered Thursday’s go-ahead hit. “And you see the results."
It was exactly three weeks ago Thursday that the Cubs blew out the Brewers at Miller Park in the opener of a critical series. Kyle Schwarber hit a backbreaking grand slam to the second deck. Milwaukee fell 7 1/2 games out of first place in the National League Central and five games out of the Wild Card race, with two teams between them and the nearest postseason berth and 23 games to go. Fangraphs’ simulations pegged the Brewers’ hopes at 5.6 percent to make the playoffs and 0.6 percent to win the division. The Packers beat the Bears on the opening night of football season.
Three weeks later at Great American Ball Park, after some scant hours’ sleep, the Brewers won for the 18th time in 20 games since that night.
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“It feels really good,” Anderson said after delivering five innings in his final regular season start. “Last year at this time of year, I was shut down for the season. I didn’t make any postseason rosters. That kind of fueled me going into the offseason and going to Spring Training. I get put in the bullpen for the first month. There were some ups and downs. I had to persevere through some things. My faith is huge to me, my family is huge to me, my supporters around me. They continued to encourage me. Look at us now.
“We’re in the postseason. We just had two sweeps, back to back. This team is doing some incredible things without our best player. Just imagine what we’d do if [Christian Yelich] was still healthy. It would be crazy. We came together as a group. It’s fun to contribute to this team.”
The series finale in Cincinnati wasn’t a breeze like the 9-2 win the night before. Arcia put the Brewers ahead with a two-out, three-run double that ticked off the end of left fielder Josh VanMeter’s glove, and scored on Mat Gamel’s double for a 4-1 lead.
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It was 5-2 with two outs in the eighth when Josh Hader was summoned to help rookie Devin Williams through the inning. Counsell went to the mound and instructed Hader to pitch to a pinch-hitting Eugenio Suarez, but do it carefully. On the walk back to the dugout, Counsell decided against giving Suarez a chance to hit his 50th home run, even though the intentional walk put the tying runner on base. Hader then hit pinch hitter Christian Colón with an 0-2 pitch to put the potential winning run on base.
Like it has most of this month so far for the Brewers, things worked out. Hader escaped by inducing a bases-loaded popout, then breezed through the ninth inning for his 37th save.
It was the 10th straight game in which Brewers pitchers allowed three or fewer runs.
“The Reds have a good team over there,” Anderson said. “For us to continue this is pretty special. I think we have the ingredients to win in October.”
They still have much to play for in September.