ST. LOUIS — The Milwaukee Brewers’ rebuilding project, which for all intents and purposes ended last season, officially was laid to rest Wednesday night.

Holding on for a tense 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals that completed a three-game sweep at Busch Stadium, the hard-charging Brewers assured their first playoff berth since winning the NL Central title in 2011.

The nail-biter boosted the Brewers' record to 16-7 in September and 22-9 in their last 31 games.

The Brewers celebrated with champagne in the clubhouse afterward but weren’t satisfied with merely clinching a spot in the NL wild-card game. The Brewers remain a half-game behind the first-place Cubs in the division after Chicago prevailed 7-6 in 10 innings Wednesday. While the Brewers will take Thursday off, the Cubs — who also clinched a playoff berth — finish a four-game series at home against Pittsburgh and ace Trevor Williams.

“We’re very fortunate tomorrow is an off day,” Ryan Braun said in the champagne and beer soaked visiting clubhouse at Busch Stadium. “Logistically, it works out really well. Everyone can celebrate. We have another 48 hours before we have to play another baseball game.

“Everyone should get to enjoy this, embrace it. Just enjoy the moment. This is an incredible accomplishment and everyone has contributed to it.”

As the only active player who was part of the Brewers’ last playoff team, Braun knew better than most how difficult it is to get to the postseason. Milwaukee’s task was made more difficult by stripping down the team in 2015 and beginning a large-scale rebuilding plan that figured to take several years to get back to this stage.

“It’s been incredible,” Braun said. “What we accomplished is not something you see with other organizations. We never really had a significant down period which most teams do when they go through a significant rebuild and retooling phase.

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“Obviously, the front office deserves a ton of credit. (Principal owner) Mark Attanasio deserves a ton of credit. They hit on virtually every free-agent acquisition and significant trade they made. I just hope this is the first celebration and not the last.”

In other words, the Brewers have some unfinished business they would like to conduct. A wild-card berth beats going home for the winter but they’d like to win the division and avoid that win-or-go home game.

The Brewers finish the season with a weekend series at Miller Park against the woeful Detroit Tigers while the Cubs finish at home against the Cardinals.

“Winning the division would be huge,” Braun said. “The wild-card game, no matter how good you are, is always something of a coin flip. We’ve got to take care of business and continue to win games, and hopefully find a way to win the division.”

Follow the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Tom Haudricourt on Twitter @Haudricourt.