CHICAGO – Christian Yelich's easy smile and champagne-soaked shirt said it all: A division title is much more fun than a Triple Crown.
Yelich collected three more hits as the Milwaukee Brewers won their first NL Central title since 2011, beating the Chicago Cubs 3-1 on Monday in a tiebreaker game. He stalled in his bid for the NL's first Triple Crown since 1937, but he starred once again as the Brew Crew captured the biggest prize of the day.
"I know how hard it is to get to this point and I'm proud to be a part of this group," Yelich said as Milwaukee's boozy party swirled around him.
Lorenzo Cain hit a go-ahead single in the eighth inning to help Milwaukee to its eighth consecutive victory and home-field advantage throughout the NL playoffs. No. 8 hitter Orlando Arcia had a career-high four hits, and Josh Hader closed out another dominant relief performance for the Brewers, who will play host to the wild-card winner starting Thursday in the best-of-five Division Series.
Chicago stays at Wrigley Field for Tuesday night's wild-card game vs. Colorado, after the Rockies lost 5-2 to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Monday's other tiebreaker, for the NL West title. It's a quick turnaround for the Cubs after they fell short of winning their third consecutive division title.
"We'll be ready. This team has responded all year," said first baseman Anthony Rizzo, who homered for Chicago's lone run Monday.
Yelich singled home Milwaukee's first run and won the NL batting title with a .326 average. He had 110 RBI, one behind the Cubs' Javier Baez, and finished with 36 home runs, two shy of Colorado's Nolan Arenado. The tiebreakers were Game 163 of the regular season, and Arenado's homer counted in the totals.
Milwaukee trailed Chicago by as many as five games in September, but manager Craig Counsell's club pushed the season to an extra day with a furious finish and then used its deep lineup and bullpen to outlast the playoff-tested Cubs.
