MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee Brewers became the first major league team to win a division championship on Wednesday when they captured the National League Central title for the third time in the last four years.

The Chicago Cubs’ 3-5 loss to the Oakland Athletics allowed the Brewers to secure the division title.

The Brewers’ locker room emptied with a ninth-inning out in Chicago, a few hours before Milwaukee’s scheduled first pitch against Philadelphia. A muted cheer could be heard after the final out as the Brewers won two consecutive division titles for the first time in 42 years.

The Brewers had even more to celebrate later Tuesday when they beat the Phillies 2-1 on a walk-off single by Jake Bauers.

Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy said he watched the final outs of the Cubs game along with 90-year-old longtime Brewers commentator Bob Uecker.

“We did our show and I watched it with him,” Murphy said. “What’s better than that? Great.”

This is the Brewers’ sixth postseason appearance in the last seven years – a remarkable achievement for a team that only made the playoffs twice in a 35-year period from 1983 to 2017.

But this run into the playoffs was a little different than the rest.

“Nobody wants it easy, let’s be honest,” said first baseman Rhys Hoskins. “Everyone in this room appreciates a challenge. The first challenge is over. Obviously we have a few more to go. We’re excited about that.”

Although the Brewers have become accustomed to exceeding preseason expectations, the odds seemed even more stacked against them this year than usual.

Craig Counsell, the winningest manager in Brewers history, moved to the rival Cubs. Corbin Burnes, winner of the 2021 NL Cy Young Award, was traded to the Baltimore Orioles.

Two-time All-Star right-hander Brandon Woodruff was unable to pitch all year due to shoulder surgery, and two-time NL Reliever of the Year Devin Williams missed the first half of the season due to stress fractures in his back.

All-Star outfielder Christian Yelich and pitchers Wade Miley and Robert Gasser suffered season-ending injuries.

None of it mattered.

“You can say all that to us, but it’s still about human beings, and you have no idea what their best is,” Murphy said. “These guys don’t know what their best is, didn’t know and still don’t know. But one thing they do know: sticking together, competing and being doubted is something that can catapult you into a championship.”

The Brewers took over first place for good in late April and never looked back. They have now won two consecutive division titles for the first time since 1981-82. The 1982 season was Milwaukee’s only World Series appearance, which ended in a seven-game loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.

“We were all kind of written off, right?” Yelich said. “That’s what makes this time special because we found a way. We overcame a lot of adversity. We believed in each other. We came together as a group and got it done.”

The Brewers benefited from the leadership of Murphy, who had been Counsell’s bench coach since 2016. Rather than follow Counsell to Chicago, Murphy stayed in Milwaukee and landed his first full-time job as a major league manager two weeks before his 65th birthday. Murphy’s only previous experience as an MLB manager was as interim manager with San Diego in 2015.

Murphy has loosened up the locker room and led a team that has never lost more than three games in a row this season. The Brewers are the only team that has never had a losing streak of four or more games.

“They have performed above average in every respect,” Murphy said.

The Brewers succeeded in what Murphy calls an “all hands on deck” approach.

Milwaukee has had 17 different pitchers start games this season (only the Miami Marlins and Los Angeles Angels have had more). Twelve different Brewers pitchers have collected a save, just two shy of the record 14 set by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2021. Milwaukee entered Wednesday with a 3.65 ERA, which ranked fourth in the majors.

Offensively, the Brewers entered Wednesday ranked fourth in total runs scored (733) and 11th in OPS (.735), after finishing 17th in runs (728) and 23rd in OPS (.704) last year.

Yelich led the NL in batting average (.315) and on-base percentage (.406) before back problems ended his season in late July. William Contreras has developed into one of the game’s best catchers. Willy Adames is the first Brewers shortstop to post a 30-home-run, 100-RBI season, something even Hall of Famer Robin Yount never accomplished in Milwaukee.

Jackson Chourio, who won’t turn 21 until next spring, is the youngest player ever to hit 20 home runs and steal 20 bases in a season.

“This is exactly what you want to be a competitor in, right?” Hoskins said. “It didn’t necessarily look like some of us might have thought, but the cool thing is we still found ways to get the job done.”

This report uses information from the Associated Press.