Yelich, Cain make instant impact for NL Central champion Brewers
The Milwaukee Brewers were whooping it up in the cramped visiting clubhouse at Wrigley Field Monday afternoon after beating the Chicago Cubs 3-1 and winning the NL Central title for just the second time in franchise history.
The party really started on Jan. 25.
That is the day Brewers general manager David Stearns traded four of his best prospects for outfielder Christian Yelich.
On the same day, Stearns signed free-agent outfielder Lorenzo Cain to a five-year, $80 million contract.
"This was the goal," a euphoric Stearns said Monday while wiping champagne out of his eyes. "Look, when we make investments like that from a trade perspective and from om a financial perspective in free agency, you're doing it to get to days like this. We didn't know that it was going to come this year, but we certainly had confidence that at some point we were going to get to this point.
"It's great to enjoy it."
Yelich again showed why he is going to be voted the National League's MVP this season, going 3-4 Monday and giving Milwaukee the early lead with an RBI single off Cubs starter Jose Quintana in the third inning.
"It's never about one guy," said Cain, who put the Brewers in front for good with a run-scoring single in the eighth inning. "There is one guy like Yelich, he's been carrying us a lot. But you just can't rely on him. We have to rely on the bullpen, we have to rely on every hitter that steps up to that plate. It's going to take everybody in this clubhouse, from the front office all the way down to the training staff and strength coaches.
"It's going to take everybody to get to where we want to be, and that's the World Series."
The Brewers have made one World Series appearance - in 1982 when they were playing in the AL East. They lost in 7 games to the St. Louis Cardinals.
Bringing home baseball's ultimate championship is the big goal, but for now Milwaukee will settle for the NL Central crown.
On Labor Day (Sept. 3), the Brewers were trailing the Cubs by 5 games. They made it up by going 18-6 down the stretch and they head to the NL division series after beating the Cubs in Monday's division tiebreaker.
"It's unbelievable," Yelich said. "It's really exciting to be a part of. This is really a tough place to play and win a game. It's amazing. We clinched a playoff spot in St. Louis (last Wednesday) but we really wanted to win this division and try to avoid that one-game playoff.
"We were able to do that and we're going to enjoy this. We had to earn it. We knew that. They (Cubs) are a great team. They've been on top of this division for a long time. We knew nobody was going to give it to us. If you want something, you have to take it."
The Brewers did just that while closing the regular season eight straight wins. A crowd of 38,450 packed into Wrigley for Game 163, and Milwaukee fans were well represented.
"That's pretty cool," Stearns said. "Our fan base did an incredible job getting down here on short notice. There were a lot of Brewers fans all over this ballpark. They were loud. It was great to see and they deserve a tremendous amount of credit for what happened today."