Milwaukee Brewers Fall Just Shy Of Division Title, Head To Wild Card Game

The Milwaukee Brewers fall just short of the NL Central title and now know their playoff fate.

It shouldn’t be this way, but it is. Despite the Cubs winning the first two games of their series against the Cardinals and giving the Milwaukee Brewers two opportunities to pull into a tie for first place and force a Game 163 tiebreaker, the Crew couldn’t pull even. With the Cardinals win on Sunday, they won the division.

The Brewers will head to Washington DC for the Wild Card game on Tuesday night against future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer.

Of all the possibilities for the Brewers heading into this final weekend, this was the least desirable one. Losing those two games to the Rockies killed their best shot at the division, where they could’ve entered the final game ahead of the Cardinals instead of tied.

But instead, the Brewers will get the red hot Nationals, who have won their final eight games of the season.

Wild Card Game On The Road

While it may be difficult to think about it this way, having to go on the road for the Wild Card game may actually be a blessing in disguise.

Since the Wild Card game was first played back in 2012, the visiting team for the NL game is 5-2 in those matchups. For whatever reason, the road team has had much more success in the Wild Card.

If the Milwaukee Brewers do win that game, they’ll head back on the road to Los Angeles to take on the Dodgers in the NLDS, a rematch of last year’s NLCS.

Without Christian Yelich, and possibly without Lorenzo Cain, and a less than healthy Ryan Braun, this offense has lost most of its top end talent, which makes going through Max Scherzer and Patrick Corbin and Stephen Strasburg that much more difficult.

If they can somehow manage that, they’ll have to go take that same beat up lineup through Clayton Kershaw and Walker Buehler.

This is a difficult road for the Brewers, and their last three games in Colorado have not inspired as much hope as the rest of the month has. Perhaps the Brewers already used up their hot streak and can’t take it any further. Perhaps there’s still more in the tank.

We’ll find out on Tuesday night. It’s in the Brewers hands now.

Anything can happen in the postseason, and the Wild Card game is the least predictable of them all. We’re in for a wild Tuesday night.