THE MORNING HORSEHIDE HERALD

THE PENNANT DESK: A FOURTH STRAIGHT CENTRAL CROWN FOR MILWAUKEE — A THING NO CLUB HAS DONE SINCE THE DIVISION WAS DRAWN — AND THE CHAMPAGNE PHOTOGRAPH IS DOWN TO THREE MEN

The Suds men beat Pittsburgh five-to-one — the card below has the particulars — then repaired to the visitors' clubhouse at PNC Park to watch by wire as Chicago lost at Wrigley, and when that final out was recorded, the National's Central belonged to Milwaukee for the fourth consecutive year. The division was drawn in 1994; no club had won it four years running until last night. Five of the last six now, and six of the last nine. "These things never get old, and doing it four years in a row with these guys means the world to me," said the operations chief Arnold, who thanked "everyone in Wisconsin" for good measure.

On the mound for the champagne photograph stood three men: the owner Attanasio, the former Most Valuable Christian Yelich, and the pitcher Brandon Woodruff — the last souls remaining from the club of 2018 that began this run of celebrations. The photograph shrinks each year; Peralta stood in it last autumn and was traded to the Mets in January. Woodruff's presence is itself a campaign: shelved by the latest shoulder setback, he is throwing at one hundred five feet and will be examined at the month's end for a return to the mound — a long chance, but a better prognosis than the surgery once scheduled. "These guys are hungry. We play together as a team," said Yelich. "Hopefully finish this thing off strong and go into October on a high note." At four-and-ninety victories — the best record in all the game — the Brewers have every appearance of meaning to.

THE MILESTONE DESK: THE PROMISE OF YESTERDAY'S COLUMNS IS KEPT — ALONSO'S THREE-HUNDREDTH HOME RUN, STRUCK IN THE NINTH, IN THE PARK THAT RAISED HIM

One blow shy, these columns wrote yesterday of Pete Alonso's homecoming; the blow arrived within the day. Facing Senga with Baltimore a run down in the ninth at Citi Field, Alonso lined the three-hundredth home run of his career to left-center — in the very park where he struck the first two hundred four-and-sixty of them, more than any Met who ever lived — and the milestone landed as a game-tying blow against his old nine, in a game his new one would win in eleven innings, as the card records. "It was like a movie," offered his teammate Baz. Not even the picture-houses would dare the script: the first series of his life in visiting colors, the ovations of Monday, and then the round number delivered at the old address with the game in the balance. The man himself kept the ledger modest: "No. 300, it's a nice round number. But I'm just so proud of this group. The way we fought today, it's an unbelievable team win." The homer was his six-and-thirtieth of the season — the first-year dividend on the five-year compact he signed with Baltimore in December — and his one hundred one runs driven in lead the American League.

THE INFIRMARY WARD: LUZARDO GOES TO THE SHELF WITH OCTOBER UNPROMISED, BAZ TAKES A COMEBACKER ON THE BONE AND KEEPS HIS TURN, AND OHTANI PICKS UP A BAT AGAIN

The verdict this paper has awaited since Sunday is in, and Philadelphia will not like it: Jesús Luzardo, scratched from his Atlanta start last week with a stiff shoulder, was placed on the fifteen-day invalid list with inflammation, the stint dated back to Saturday. The throwing session that was to clear him never came; the shoulder declined to cooperate. "Trying to get the inflammation to calm down," said the All-Star left-hander, whose readiness for October the club would not venture to promise. The lefty Backhus comes up from Lehigh Valley to fill the vacancy.

In New York the fright was sharper and briefer. Shane Baz took a comebacker off Bichette's bat — the machines clocked it at one hundred five miles to the hour — square on the pitching elbow in the fifth, and knelt behind the mound in visible pain before leaving. The X-rays came back clean, and the man expects to keep his next turn. "It just got me right in the bone. Kind of just went numb," he said. "I was just playing it safe."

And from the western front, a bulletin of the better kind: Shohei Ohtani, shut down a week since with the balky biceps and knee, swung a bat off a tee in Los Angeles and came away feeling well — his first swings since the shelving. The invalid list holds him until the three-and-twentieth at the earliest, when five games would remain to the champions, and the manager Roberts expects him back in regular-season dress: "Today was positive, and hopefully we can just keep building towards that."

THE LEDGER DESK: THE BATTING RACES AT ELEVEN MORNINGS TO RUN — A DEAD HEAT IN THE AMERICAN'S STOLEN BASES, AND A WASHINGTON FLYER NINE CLEAR IN THE NATIONAL

With eleven mornings left to the ledger, the columns of figures now run pennant races of their own. In the American: Houston's Yordan Alvarez bats .310 to lead the averages, Tampa Bay's Simpson at .308 in close pursuit; Junior Caminero's one-and-forty home runs lead the loop — the latest of them last night's walk-off, as the card sings — with Alvarez himself at nine-and-thirty; Baltimore's Alonso, as the milestone desk records, tops the runs driven in at one hundred one; and the theft race stands a dead heat, Simpson and Witt Jr. at one-and-forty apiece with the Yankee Chisholm Jr. a single bag behind. In the National: Arraez holds the averages at .315; Kyle Schwarber, whose five-and-fortieth flew last night in a losing cause, leads the homers with Crow-Armstrong at two-and-forty; Burleson of St. Louis tops the runs driven in at one hundred eleven; and the Washington flyer Nuñez has six-and-forty stolen bases, a comfortable nine clear of the field. Eleven mornings. The abacus trembles.

THE REUNION DESK: THE MONARCHS OF SOUTH PHILADELPHIA MEET AGAIN AT BUSCH — MO'NE DAVIS IN THE STANDS, HER OLD TEAMMATE IN A GIANTS UNIFORM

Among the near eight-and-twenty thousand at St. Louis on Tuesday sat Mo'ne Davis, come to watch her longtime friend and former Little League teammate Scott Bandura wear a major-league uniform for the Giants in their ten-run evening. The friendship dates to 2008 and the Anderson Monarchs, the South Philadelphia youth program Bandura's father Steve has run since 1995, where a seven-year-old girl chasing footballs in the outfield caught the coach's eye. Two decades on, both are professionals: Davis plays for the Los Angeles Queens of the Women's Professional Baseball League, whose inaugural championship series opens Wednesday in nearby Springfield, Illinois — a coincidence of schedules she declined to waste. "This has always been his dream, to be in the bigs," she said. "So for me to come watch him play is pretty cool." One sandlot, two professional leagues; the Herald tips its cap to the man dragging the infield who saw it first.