Brewers Inch Toward Home-Field Clinch Despite Sleepwalk of a Loss to Padres

With four games left in their regular-season slate, the Milwaukee Brewers hold a 2.5-game lead on the Philadelphia Phillies for the top seed in the National League playoff bracket. The Crew looked more hungover than the hungover post-clinch Padres Tuesday night, as San Diego mashed their way to a 7-0 win over the visitors and their cannon-fodder starter, Bruce Zimmermann. However, the Phillies also lost an extra-inning mud-wrestling match with the Miami Marlins. Philadelphia still has five games left, and the separation between the teams is just two games in the loss column, but the Brewers hold the tiebreaker after winning the season series against the NL East champions.

That makes the Brewers' magic number to secure home-field advantage throughout the postseason 3. When the Red Sox beat the Blue Jays in Toronto Tuesday night, it ensured that the Crew will do no worse than tying Toronto, and they have the tiebreaker over the Jays, too. No team in the American League can catch the Brewers now, so if they reach the World Series, Game 1 will be played at Uecker Field. Before then, of course, they'll have to win two playoff series, which would be two more than they've won since 2018, but they've already ensured that they'll bypass the dreaded Wild Card Series. They only need a third of the remaining results in their and the Phillies' games to go their way to make sure that even the NLCS includes home-field advantage for them.

Feeling very good about their chances (and not wanting to shake up their schedule even in the wake of Brandon Woodruff hitting the injured list), Pat Murphy's staff chose to use journeyman hurler Bruce Zimmermann for six innings Tuesday night. He got his ears boxed, surrendering six runs (five earned) over those frames and striking out just one batter against two walks and two homers, but his only job was to stay on the mound long enough to spare a bullpen that had been pressed into unexpectedly heavy duty Monday night. He managed that, and Tobias Myers mopped up the final two frames of a lopsided loss.

With the Padres making the NL West race unexpectedly interesting, it wasn't vital that Murphy shield his best hurlers from the sight of Padres hitters, but the two teams fought almost to a draw Monday night. It made sense to ease off the gas pedal and let ZImmermann and Myers absorb the workload Tuesday, before one final game between the two potential playoff opponents Wednesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Brewers hitters also seemed to take the night off, at least based on a glance at the box score. In reality, there were some tough at-bats, and some hard contact that found gloves. The focus on cobbling together rallies and doing what the situation demanded was relaxed, but despite just four hits and two walks, the Crew forced three Padres hurlers to throw a combined 131 pitches. It's as quiet as the Brewers offense will ever allow themselves to be kept, but they were still somewhat pesky.

A bunch of rowdy Uecker Field crowds await the team, next week and beyond. They got a bit of help Tuesday, and might get a bit more before it's over, but they'd surely love to win three of four and close the season with some momentum, before what will feel like a long layoff before next Saturday's Game 1 of the NLDS. Whatever the results, the name of the game is keeping players healthy and getting back more of those who have been sidelined recently. The team is taking steps in the right direction there, with Trevor Megill still hoping to pitch this weekend after working off the mound pregame Tuesday. Zimmermann and Myers were convenient sponges, but neither factors prominently into the team's plans for a playoff series. It was a good day, because the Crew got one incrementally closer to being sure they'll have a maximum of home games—that, and no one got hurt.