With 12 games left in the season for the Brewers, the team fires head coach Ned Yost after going 3-11 so far in September and losing 4 straight to the Phillies. The Brewers are still tied with the Phillies for the Wild Card position, so this makes for a stunning move with 2 weeks left in the regular season.

Yost became a lightning rod for fan criticism in Milwaukee in recent years as he stubbornly stuck by players mired in slumps and refused to criticize them in public—even when they get in shoving matches in the dugout during games.

And the Brewers haven’t looked like contenders in some of their biggest series this season, including a three-game sweep by Boston in May, a four-game sweep by Chicago at home in July and the just-completed four-game sweep by Philadelphia.

Yost was in his sixth season as the Brewers’ manager. When Milwaukee hired him from Atlanta after the 2002 season, the team was in the midst of four straight seasons with 94 losses or more.

Under Yost, the young Brewers improved to records of 81-81, 75-87 and 83-79 in the past three seasons—a significant improvement for a franchise that hadn’t had a winning record since 1992. But Yost seemingly couldn’t get the Brewers to take the next step.

Yost spent 12 years on the Braves’ coaching staff with Bobby Cox, and Atlanta won division titles every year Yost was there except the strike-shortened 1994 season.

AP Sports Writer Colin Fly contributed to this report from Milwaukee.

The Brewers still have to play the division leading Cubs 6 more times.