MILWAUKEE -- When the newly crowned National League Central division champion Brewers reported to work on Thursday, there were two indications of what had happened the night before. One was the overpowering smell of stale champagne in the room. The other was the lineup card.

For the first time this season, Willy Adames didn’t start at shortstop in what became a 5-1 loss to the D-backs at American Family Field with only two Brewers hits and 15 strikeouts. It ended his bid to become the first Milwaukee player to start every game since Prince Fielder in 2011 (like Adames, Fielder was in a contract year) and the only Brewers shortstop to do it since Robin Yount in 1976.

Adames needed only 10 more starts to complete the feat, but in recent days the 29-year-old has looked like a hitter who could benefit from a break. After a two-homer, five-RBI night on Saturday at Arizona, Adames was 1-for-16 with 10 strikeouts over the next four games, including three consecutive hitless, multi-strikeout games. As the Brewers celebrated their walk-off win over the Phillies on Wednesday night, and the third division title since Adames arrived via a trade with Tampa Bay in 2021, he said in a televised interview that he planned to take the next day off.

“No arm-twisting,” hitting coach Ozzie Timmons said Thursday afternoon.

The decision reflects the tightrope the Brewers will try to walk during what remains of the regular season. On one hand, they know they will play into October, and their hard-worked relievers and everyday position players like Adames will need to get some rest to be fresh for that challenge. On the other hand, these regular-season games still matter, even though the division is won.

The Brewers (88-65) still have a chance to catch the Phillies (91-62) or the Dodgers (91-62) for one of the top two seeds in the NL, which comes with a first-round bye that would push them past the best-of-three Wild Card Series and into a best-of-five Division Series, with four days off beforehand. The Crew is three games back of both foes, with six of its nine remaining games against teams in postseason position in the D-backs and Mets.

So, how hard will Milwaukee push over the next 10 days?

“Obviously, your goal is to be the best team in baseball, so you continue trying to be the best team in baseball without emptying the tank in the meantime,” manager Pat Murphy said. “You have to have gas left.

“If that sounds like an oxymoron, then you haven’t been a part of the last 10 games of baseball after you’ve clinched. When you’ve been part of that, you go, ‘OK, how do we do this here?’ You can’t coast, but you can’t empty the tank.”

The Brewers’ tank looked a little empty the day after they sprayed champagne. Just five days ago on Saturday, Adames hit a grand slam for an 8-0 lead over D-backs right-hander Brandon Pfaadt before the end of the second inning at Chase Field. In a rematch, Pfaadt allowed only Brice Turang’s single through six scoreless innings, and he didn’t allow a run until Garrett Mitchell homered with two outs in the seventh. Pfaadt didn’t walk a batter and struck out 12, including seven consecutive strikeouts to tie Arizona’s franchise record.

Adames’ absence was also felt in the field. With Adames out of the lineup, Joey Ortiz shifted over to shortstop and Andruw Monasterio, who’d had a tough day in the field when these teams met last weekend in Arizona, manned third. Monasterio’s error on a Corbin Carroll bouncer in the fifth inning allowed the D-backs to score the night’s first run off Milwaukee starter Tobias Myers and meant two of the three Arizona runs in the inning were unearned.

“I’m not going to make any excuses,” Murphy said. “These guys competed, and they competed all year. Sometimes you run into a buzzsaw.”

There’s always a pitcher who has to start the day after a clinch celebration, and this year it was Myers, the rookie who has played such a significant role in holding the Brewers’ injury-thinned starting rotation together.

Myers celebrated with his team but was mindful that he still had to pitch the next day as the party moved to downtown Milwaukee.

“I called it like a week and a half ago, this was exactly how it’s going to go,” Myers said. “You just kind of move forward. It was a late night and it was a fun night. We celebrated and, yeah, just move on.”