Nine Hitters, Nine Moments, One World Series Winning Team

[Jake McKibbin]

The Milwaukee Brewers have long been viewed by the national media as a lineup without star power. Perhaps that's one of the reasons the “small ball” narrative became so prevalent during the World Series broadcasts, despite plenty of evidence that this team was far more than an outmatched, plucky little brother who fluked their way to the Fall Classic.

Jake Bauers had the second-highest wRC+ in the National League this season. Jackson Chourio hit 25 home runs in the regular season, despite missing time due to a broken hand. Brice Turang is one of the most complete players in baseball. William Contreras, when he's dialed in, is perhaps the best catcher in the sport. The Brewers had plenty of players capable of changing a game with one swing. The difference was that they didn't have to rely on one or two specific sluggers to do it.

Even more impressive, every hitter in their starting lineup for each World Series game produced a signature moment at the plate during this postseason. Each of them deserves their flowers—particularly those who came into October with question marks hanging over them.

Without further ado, let's revisit the moments that made each hitter's postseason so extraordinary.

Jackson Chourio: The Walk-Off
It feels like a lifetime ago now, but this was the most pivotal moment of the Brewers' World Series run. Without it, Milwaukee would have faced a decisive Game 5 against the Padres, losing the opportunity to line up its rotation for the NLCS and potentially leaving Jacob Misiorowski even more fatigued for the later rounds. We'll never know how differently the postseason might have unfolded without that swing. This was the moment this run began to feel different from those of previous years.

Facing the best closer in baseball, with the bases loaded, two outs and the Brewers trailing by a run, Chourio found himself in the sort of situation every kid dreams about in the backyard, facing down their parents or siblings. He fouled off a 104-MPH fastball from Miller down and away, then took a wicked, perfectly located slider below the strike zone without even twitching. At 2-2, that refusal to chase forced Miller back over the plate. Chourio was ready.

The Brewers' comeback crew was off to a fine start, and this was the first of many signature moments to come in October. As a side note, can you HEAR that crowd pop?

Brice Turang: The NLCS Tonesetter
The Brewers' offense was catatonic in last year's NLCS against the Dodgers. Against Tarik Skubal, they appeared to be heading down the same path. The two-time American League Cy Young Award winner was mowing down hitters, confounding Milwaukee's typically astute plate discipline as the Dodgers held a 1-0 lead. The game was beginning to feel eerily like Game 1 in 2025.

Then Brice Turang stepped to the plate, having fouled the previous pitch off his knee. He'd also struggled against left-handed pitching during the regular season, posting a .620 OPS against southpaws.

Turang took a perfectly located sinker on the edge of the strike zone. The pitch moved like a bowling ball in on him, yet he managed to take it the other way for a potentially series-changing home run. The Brewers later drew a walk, stole second base and scored on a Luis Lara single up the middle to take a 2-1 lead. In doing so, they achieved something they couldn't manage in four games the previous year: beating the Dodgers.

Jake Bauers - The Systematic Grinding Of Blake Snell
From one Cy Young Award winner to the next, Blake Snell was cruising through the Brewers' lineup over the first six innings. Aside from a first-pitch Jackson Chourio home run, Snell had Milwaukee in disarray.

Dave Roberts trusted him to face the lineup for a third time, in a way Kevin Cash hadn't in the 2020 World Series. Down 2-1 in Game 3, with the Dodgers looking to re-establish their authority, the Brewers had Christian Yelich on base in front of Bauers after an Andrew Vaughn walk.

What followed was one of the greatest plate appearances you'll see in the playoffs.

After a similar plate appearance had worn down Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2, this was even more emphatic, with Bauers capping it off with a home run. Eleven pitches ground down Snell until he finally got to the fastball he was sitting on the entire plate appearance. When it came, Rake Bauers didn't miss.

Snell had been worn down so much that, with the broadcast barely paying attention to the next plate appearance, Garrett Mitchell followed up with a home run of his own. Back-to-back home runs off Snell. The game had been turned on its head.

William Contreras - The Slaughtering of Morejon
Once again, we return to the first series of October baseball. In fact, we return to the very first game.

Locked in a 2-2 tie in the seventh inning, with Adrian Morejon and Mason Miller looming, the Brewers found themselves in a tricky situation against two of the best relievers in baseball. This was the back end of a bullpen many considered untouchable. William Contreras disagreed.

Morejon looked his usual steady self as Contreras worked the count to 3-2. Then came a well-located fastball on the outer third of the strike zone. Contreras didn't need to do anything spectacular; he simply guided his barrel to the ball. The swing was easy and smooth, and the ball flew into the right-field stands. The Brewers wouldn't look back. Against the hottest team in baseball, and a popular pick to win the World Series, Milwaukee had stamped its authority.

Christian Yelich - A Captain Leading By Example in the World Series
The Brewers had finally done it. After eight playoff runs in nine years, they were in the Fall Classic. Some nerves undoubtedly awaited, but the captain led from the front. After a plethora of misfortune and hard-hit outs against both the Dodgers and Padres, some of that fortune turned back his way again in Game 1 of the Series.

Facing a stingy Nick Martinez, Yelich came to the plate batting third in the first inning, with Jackson Chourio on first base and one out. Martinez is one of the best pitchers in baseball at generating weak contact, but Yelich had other ideas.

He crushed a 103-MPH triple into the right-centee-field gap, eventually coming around to score himself. Those were the only runs the Brewers managed against Martinez, making the hit critical in helping Milwaukee get off on the right foot.

Garrett Mitchell - Left-on-left crime
We could look at Mitchell's home run off Blake Snell in Game 3 of the NLCS, but he had an even more pivotal hit in Game 4. The Dodgers had raced to a 4-0 lead early via a Shohei Ohtani home run, and it looked as though the sleeping giants were about to wake up. Surely there was only so long the Brewers could keep them in check.

Instead, Milwaukee shut them down and gradually chipped away at the deficit. Jake Bauers and William Contreras doubles helped bring the Brewers level by the sixth inning.

Dave Roberts then brought Tanner Scott, one of the best left-handed relievers in baseball, out of the bullpen to face Mitchell. Given Mitchell's struggles against high fastballs, it looked like a strong matchup for the Dodgers. Scott made one mistake in a 3-2 count, trying to avoid walking Mitchell. That confidence in his fastball came back to bite him.

Mitchell crushed the pitch 409 feet into the right-field bleachers. With that, the air was sucked right out of Dodger Stadium. This was the moment the Brewers clinched their appearance in the World Series, righting the wrongs of 2025.

Sal Frelick; Did that say 400+ ft to Center Field?
Sal Frelick might need shoulder and knee surgery in the offseason. Not that he cared. He flew around the outfield like the Tasmanian Devil, while proving to be one of the most impactful hitters in the World Series.

None of those contributions was quite as big as this one, though. Trailing 4-3, the Brewers were attempting to come back from another 4-0 deficit. They'd knocked Drew Rasmussen out of the game early, and Ian Seymour was in to face the left-handed portion of the lineup. Seymour challenged Frelick with fastballs over and over again. Eventually, he paid for it.

Frelick isn't a player known for prodigious power. Jake Bauers said he'd never seen him hit one out to center field, even in batting practice. Pat Murphy has told him that fly balls to center are automatic outs, and that has generally proved to be the case.

Not that day. Frelick roasted a ball with the second-fastest swing of his career, launching a home run to tie the game at 4-4. It gave the Brewers a platform for yet another comeback win and sucked the energy right out of the Tampa roster. He almost did it again in his next plate appearance, too. With a body in need of significant repair, you have to marvel at the resilience and fortitude of Salvatore Frelick.

Cooper Pratt - Almost THE Moment
Cooper Pratt posted the highest OPS of any hitter in the World Series. He was also this close to producing the moment that would have been replayed across the country had the Brewers held on.

It was the top of the 12th inning in Game 4 of the World Series, with Milwaukee trying to clinch a sweep. Pratt stepped in against Ian Seymour once again, having hit safely in each of his previous three plate appearances and brimming with confidence.

It's the sort of situation people dream about as children. Pratt had just four months of regular-season experience and only four plate appearances above Double-A before entering 2026. The rookie showed no fear whatsoever. He turned on a 2-2 sweeper and pulled it high and majestically over the left-field wall, prompting Joe Davis to deliver a call reminiscent of Bob Uecker.

Unfortunately, the Brewers couldn't hold on in the bottom of the 12th inning. Still, Pratt's home run, along with his hit to drive in the first runs of Game 5, showed the character of the young rookie. He made some mistakes this October—uncharacteristic defensive ones, and some plate appearances where he looked overmatched and overwhelmed. Somehow, on the biggest stages of them all, Pratt rebounded on every occasion.

David Hamilton: Power Hitter
David Hamilton. A player whose defense under pressure had been questionable this season. A bat that had rarely produced much more than the occasional strong bunt and plenty of ground balls. Coming into October, it seemed as though Joey Ortiz would get the lion's share of the playing time. But as the game sped up on the Brewers' primary third baseman, Hamilton stepped in and shone against right-handed pitching. Taking Edwin Diaz deep in Game 4 of the Championship Series was memorable in itself, delivering the final blow against the vaunted Dodgers roster. Hamilton had also produced a three-hit game earlier in the series.

But perhaps his most consequential moment, at least until the late 12th-inning comeback, came in Game 4 of the World Series. The Brewers had hit Griffin Jax hard. They'd hit plenty of the Rays' pitchers hard, too, but had just two runs to show for it. One of those came from Hamilton, who helped set the stage for what could have been Cooper Pratt's career-defining moment.

Hamilton turned on a high fastball up and in, a location in which he hadn't recorded a single extra-base hit all season, and crushed it 391 feet to tie the game in the fifth inning. It felt as though the Brewers were about to stage yet another comeback win to bookend their postseason. Alas, it wasn't quite to be. Still, Hamilton produced a multitude of big performances in October, and they should give him plenty of confidence heading into 2027.

Everybody Played a Part
The Brewers faced several top-heavy lineups this postseason. These were teams that looked to their biggest names and brightest stars at the top of the order to drive their offences. Milwaukee had plenty of thump at the top of its own lineup, but it was the production across the board that won them the World Series.

No individual shouldered the burden across all three series. Every regular position player had a big moment that influenced the team's path to glory. That's Brewers baseball. Teams win trophies, not individuals, and your Milwaukee Brewers are the best team in all of baseball.

Image courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

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[ErnieRilesBrianGiles]

Thanks for this awesome compilation article. Pin this one on the top of the Front Page News until spring training, so that we can relive/reminisce/relish these "team" moments.

[Jake McKibbin]

Just now, ErnieRilesBrianGiles said:

Thanks for this awesome compilation article. Pin this one on the top of the Front Page News until spring training, so that we can relive/reminisce/relish these "team" moments.

It was actually my cousin who deserves the credit for the inspiration. He was saying how it felt like every player had a big moment, and when I thought about it, I couldn't believe every 1-9 hitter had a serious, game defining moment with a big swing. 

That's what makes this team World Champions, the collective is outstanding