Is it defensible to refer to the defending National League Central champs as "upstarts?" It is, and such is the state of the expectations -- and the baseball -- in Milwaukee these days. The Brewers on Saturday night in L.

The MLB trade deadline is less than two weeks away, and the divisional races are heating up. One of the most competitive is in the National League Central, where the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs enter the new week with identical 59-40 records, tied atop the standings.

The Milwaukee Brewers have defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-5, have completed the three game sweep on the road, and have, for the first time since they joined the National League, swept the season series against them.

Will the Milwaukee Brewers trade Freddy Peralta away? Peralta has been the subject of plenty of noise this season, which has been surprising. Milwaukee has bee

Former Brewers pitcher Drew Rasmussen, now with Tampa Bay, threw a perfect fifth for the American League. Former Brewers minor leaguer Shane Smith, pitching for the White Sox in the eighth, retired one of the two batters he faced.

The Chicago Cubs are neck and neck with Milwaukee in the NL Central race and they have to be active at the MLB trade deadline if they want to separate.

Clayton Kershaw ended his interview early as he and the Dodgers suffered a three-game series sweep to the Dodgers on Sunday.

The Milwaukee Brewers have nearly the same record as the high-spending Dodgers and might be an underdog worth rooting for amid baseball's competitive balance wars.

Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy said he watched the final outs of the Cubs' game with 90-year-old longtime Brewers broadcaster Bob Uecker. "We were doing our show and I watched it with him," Murphy said.

The Brewers waited a while, but they now know their opponent in the opening round of the National League playoffs. The Brewers are the No. 3 seeded team and will face the No. 6 New York Mets.

The Milwaukee Brewers have made the Major League Baseball postseason in six of the past seven season. However, they have not won a playoff series since 2018, the year they took the Los Angeles Dodgers to Game Seven in the National League Championship Series.