MILWAUKEE — The Brewers poured out of the first base dugout at American Family Field and converged on the mound in an enthusiastic celebration.

The Chicago Cubs, meanwhile, slunk back to their own dugout and eventually into the visiting clubhouse.

It was the end of the Cubs’ season — and the end of the first-ever playoff meeting between these two teams.

But it was most definitely not the end of the rivalry between the Cubs and the Brewers.

The NL Central champs made sure of that.

Instead of just celebrating their first playoff series victory since 2018, the Brewers jumped at an opportunity to take a shot at the Cubs.

While the Brewers celebrated as a team on the field, they brought out a Cubs “L” flag, like the one that hangs high above Wrigley Field after losses.

They even held it up as the entire team took a photo on the field, with former Cub — and Saturday’s starting pitcher for the Brewers — Trevor Megill holding it:

The Brewers official X account quote-Tweeted a Cubs post from May 3 with a group of goggle-wearing Milwaukee players and coaches holding the L flag prominently during Saturday’s celebration:

They also took a moment to paste the L flag over the famous bean in downtown Chicago:

Three days earlier, the Cubs official account had posted an edited video of a W flag being draped over the bean:

Cubs manager Craig Counsell took a moment to give credit to the Brewers after the game.

“First, just congratulations to the Brewers,” Counsell said. “It’s a very good baseball team and a team that deserves and earned their way for the right to go to the World Series. That’s a good baseball team.”

Before the season started, many baseball pundits picked the Cubs to win the division, even though the Brewers finished first in both 2023 and 2024.

Milwaukee is the smallest market in MLB, while the Cubs play in the third-biggest market and consistently sport one of the top-10 payrolls in the league.

The Brewers played into the “underdog” identity all season, riding it to 97 wins and the best record in baseball.

That gave them homefield advantage in this NLDS, which ended up as the difference-maker. The home team won every game in the series.

Ultimately, it was the Brewers who were victorious in the playoff battle. And for hours after Game 5 ended, large graphics took up every available video board in American Family Field with a simple phrase: “NLCS BOUND.”

And after the hard-fought series, the rivalry might be pushed into a new territory next year.

“It’s absolutely a great battle,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said before Game 4. “Two teams from the same division. The Cubs have been picked to win the division for how many years in a row. Nobody has really believed that we were going to be great.

“It’s been a dogfight every time we play them. It’s great. Players know each other, respect each other. The fans don’t like each other, and we don’t like them during the game. But it’s been great. It’s been a great series.”