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Chicago Cubs do their part, but Pirates will host wild card

MILWAUKEE — It was in the visitors clubhouse at Miller Park at the end of last season when Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo stated his goal for the 2015 team.

“To be the NL Central champs, to win a division,” Rizzo said then.

Some may have accused Rizzo of undue bravado at the time, but he and the Chicago Cubs came close enough to accomplishing what Rizzo talked about.

The Cubs did not win the NL Central this year, but they are going to the playoffs. They beat the Milwaukee Brewers 3-1 on Sunday and even had a chance at homefield advantage for Wednesday's one-game wild-card playoff game.

But the Pittsburgh Pirates earned that right by defeating the Cincinnati Reds to finish with a record 98-64 to the Cubs' 97-65. The St. Louis Cardinals won the National League Central and finished ahead of the Pirates and Cubs with a record of 100-62.

For the Cubs, that's still pretty heady stuff after they ended last season with a record of 73-89.

“Yeah, it's a great, great season,” said Rizzo, who hit a 2-run single in the Cubs' 3-run first inning to bring his RBI total to 101. “We did a lot of good things this year. Around a year ago, fast-forward a year, we're in a great position. Success. It's on us players to keep going out and repeating that success.”

So what gave Rizzo the confidence to set this kind of goal a year ago and then keep doubling down on it over last winter?

“You just look around,” he said. “We finished off pretty good last year. You just felt it … We went into spring training prepared with our expectations to win the World Series.”

The victory total of 97 is the highest since the 2008 Cubs won the NL Central with 97. Manager Joe Maddon set a franchise record for most wins in his first year with the Cubs, surpassing Jim Frey's 96 wins in 1984, when the Cubs won the NL East.

Maddon repeated that getting homefield advantage would have been great for the fans, but he cited the Cubs' road record of 48-33, compared with a home mark of 49-32, as being little cause for concern.

“I mean that sincerely, it doesn't' matter except for your fans,” he said. “You'd like to play in front of your fans. That would be the separator for me.”

The Cubs finished the season with an eight-game winning streak, the first time they've done that in the modern era. The 1884 club, known as the White Stockings, ended with a nine-game winning streak. This edition of the Cubs won eight in a row with Maddon's alchemy using different lineups and putting players in different positions.

“We set out with the specific plan for the week or 10 days and pretty much accomplished that, looking at different people, moving positions around, getting guys at-bats,” Maddon said. “Honestly, I think we took care of everything pretty well. I'm pretty pleased with all of that. And while doing that we were still able to win games.”

The winning pitcher Sunday was veteran Dan Haren (11-9), working in what he said was the last regular-season game of his career. Haren came to the Cubs from Miami at the July 31 trading deadline. Against the Brewers, he worked 6 innings of 3-hit, 1-run ball.

“It was awesome,” he said. “I'm happy with the way the last few starts have gone, able to contribute to this amazing team and 97 wins. I'm just thankful for being a part of it. I did very little when it comes down to the 162 games, spring training, all the work these guys put in. But it's been really fun, and hopefully there's a lot more games to go.”

The Cubs watched the end of the Pirates-Reds game in the clubhouse. They could have gained homefield advantage over the Pirates based on head-to-head play, but that didn't stop Maddon from beaming about his team.

“To win that many games … how could you possibly be disappointed with anything our players have done this year?” he said. “It's pretty phenomenal. Just for baseball in general, this division, to have that many wins coming out of one division, I'm certain that never happened before. It's pretty incredible.”

• Follow Bruce's baseball reports on Twitter @BruceMiles2112.

Maddon enjoys one-start-fits-all day

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