The Milwaukee Brewers avoid the Wild Card round as a Cincinnati Reds victory secures their path straight to the National League Division Series.
For the second straight season, the Milwaukee Brewers have clinched a first-round bye in the playoffs.
Skipping the National League Wild Card series is a huge blessing as that's a series that hasn't been too kind to the Brewers in past years.
The best of three format is as wild as it gets, but Milwaukee had success last year when they took down their division rival, the Chicago Cubs, in the best-of-five NLDS.
Things didn't go so well in the NLCS against the eventual World Series champions, but that doesn't mean the roles can't be reversed this year.
Milwaukee suffered a two-run loss earlier in the night, but another division rival, the Cincinnati Reds, took care of business against the Atlanta Braves, 4-0, to knock down the Brewers magic number to zero.
Brewers can officially skip Wild Card round
There are still a few bigger goals this team has to accomplish this season, but no matter what happens, they know their journey in the playoffs won't begin until the NLDS.
Who they play is still up in the air, so it's crucial they continue to focus on resting certain players and getting everyone ready for October.
In an ideal world, they still are able to get past the Los Angeles Dodgers and have the top seed in the NL, if not the best record in all of baseball to secure homefield advantage through the World Series.
All of those things will be figured out by the weekend, so now it's just up to how manager Pat Murphy wants to navigate these next few days.
Will Brewers change their strategy in next five games?
Logan Henderson is scheduled to pitch in game two, but other than that the Brewers haven't announced a single starting pitcher for the rest of the season.
Milwaukee could easily look to Triple-A Nashville to call up a few players who's options have already been used this year. Roster moves could become quite plentiful down the stretch, but at the same time, getting home field advantage feels extremely important knowing how ugly this team looked against the Dodgers last year.
This team has already set the record for the most franchise wins in a single season, but how good would it feel to have a 100-win season?
Going 2-3 down the stretch is all it would take, and this is a team that only needed to use three pitchers in game one, so the bullpen is arguably as fresh as it's ever been since they had Monday, Sept. 20, off.
