The Brewers clinched home-field advantage after hitting three homers off Jeff Locke and winning 7-3 in the final game of the Pirates' season.
The first two home runs were solo shots by Jon Lucroy and Corey Hart in the third. The Pirates got one back in the fourth when Derrek Lee - playing what will probably be his last game as a Pirate - doubled, and Jason Jaramillo knocked him in. But then Locke put two men on in the fourth and Carlos Gomez homered to give Milwaukee a 5-1 lead.
Not much mattered after that. There were errors by both teams, and a couple runs scored by each, but nothing that gave the Pirates much of a chance to get back in the game.
And with that, the Pirates' season is over. I'm relieved, honestly, after two months of awful baseball. The pre-Jerry Meals months of this season will be a nice memory. The complete collapse that followed, not so much.
As for the Brewers, I wish them the best of luck in the playoffs. Yeah, Ryan Braun is a jerk, and yeah, the way they've owned the Pirates over the years has been incredibly annoying, but the Brewers mostly built their team intelligently, and this is probably the last time they're going to reap the benefits for a while.