Monday, the Milwaukee Brewers and the Los Angeles Dodgers were slated to open a four-game series in Dodger Stadium.

The first-place Dodgers were 32-15. The fifth-place Brewers were 19-28.

After 28 seasons in the American League, the Brewers joined the National League in 1998. Since then, the Brewers and Dodgers had met in 31 series. Care to guess how many times the Brewers swept the Dodgers?

Zero times.

The Brewers had never swept the Dodgers. Not in a three-game series, or a four-game series. Not in Milwaukee, or Los Angeles.

You already know where this is going: Thursday night, the Brewers finished sweeping the Dodgers in a four-game series.

The first two games were close affairs, 3-2 and 2-1. The third was less close (6-3), though close enough that John Axford came on for his third straight save. Axford didn't get into Thursday night's finale. The Brewers went ahead 2-0 in the second inning, then 4-0 in the third on Aramis Ramirez's two-run home run. And in the top of the ninth, pinch-hitter Carlos Gomez made it 6-1 with a two-run shot of his own.

The Dodgers did push across a run in the bottom of the ninth, but it was far too little.

Zach Greinke went six innings and ran his record to 6-2.

The Dodgers are still in first place, but suddenly they look a bit vulnerable, and not only because Matt Kemp's going to miss at least another month with his hamstring injury. Just a couple of months ago, it was widely assumed that the Brewers were somewhat better than the Dodgers. A four-game sweep doesn't prove that everyone was right about these teams. But we could always expect the Dodgers to fall off some, and the Brewers to make a move.

We just couldn't have expected those things to happen at once, and so dramatically.