The Milwaukee Brewers have finally broken their playoff curse and advanced to the National League Championship Series.

The Milwaukee Brewers have entered the playoffs as both underdogs and championship contenders. Their performance has fluctuated between impressive bursts and inconsistency; at times supported by many stars, and at other times relying solely on a collection of smaller, relatively unknown hitters and outfielders. Yet regardless of the circumstances, venues, or how stacked their roster looked on paper, the outcome of their last five October runs since 2019 has been maddeningly the same: elimination after just one series.

But this year is different. This year, the Brewers have successfully advanced to the National League Championship Series.

William Contreras and Andrew Vaughn each hit go-ahead home runs, Brice Turang shook off his earlier poor series form to deliver a crucial insurance homer, and five Brewers pitchers combined to record 27 outs. Ultimately, Milwaukee defeated the Chicago Cubs 3-1 at home in the decisive Game 5 of the NL Division Series. This victory ended Milwaukee’s embarrassing streak of six consecutive postseason series losses and propelled the Brewers into the NLCS against the star-studded Los Angeles Dodgers.

The first game of the National League Championship Series will be held the day after tomorrow at the Milwaukee Brewers’ home stadium, starting at 9:08 AM Beijing time.

First and foremost, the Brewers savored one of the sweetest wins in the franchise’s history. This triumph not only secured a victory over the Cubs and former manager Craig Counsell but also ended the playoff “curse” that has lingered since their loss to the Dodgers in Game 7 of the 2018 NLCS, providing a satisfying conclusion to this tense best-of-five series.

In this series, the Brewers took an early lead and controlled the first two home games; then lost momentum by dropping Games 3 and 4 at the Cubs’ Wrigley Field; finally, they returned to Milwaukee and sealed the series victory in front of 42,743 passionate fans.