With the Oakland Athletics’ 5-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs this afternoon, the Milwaukee Brewers have officially won the National League Central.
It’s an exclamation point at the end of a season in which preseason expectations for the Brewers were, by most accounts, low. A team that was without its longtime manager (widely regarded to be the best, or at minimum among the best, in the game) and its dual aces from the past several seasons, a team that lost its All-Star closer in spring training for the first half of the season, a team that lost its former MVP (who was playing at an MVP level) for more than half the season, and a team that felt like it was searching local sandlots to find starting pitchers for a while just became the first team in baseball to clinch its division.