With an Elusive Series Win in Sight, Postseason Baseball Dealt the Brewers Its Most Forceful Punch Yet

It was so close.

The seeds were sewn throughout the regular season. They seemingly sprouted on Wednesday, night and were minutes from blossoming 24 hours later.

This Brewers team felt different. With new front-facing personnel, a different style of play than past iterations, and an ability to fight back after adversity smacked it in the face, hope grew throughout the year that this group could achieve what those before it could not.

It nearly happened. The Brewers were two outs away from slaying the proverbial postseason dragon that tormented the club for half a decade. On the mound was the man who ranks second in ERA among qualified relievers since the start of the 2020 season. His task was to save a two-run lead in the ninth inning, something he had failed to do on just three occasions in his career.

A potential double-play situation meant the crowd of over 41,000 at American Family Field was one pitch away from erupting in jubilation. Instead, Pete Alonso vaporized the hope of nearly an entire stadium – if not an entire state – by driving a Devin Williams changeup to right field for a go-ahead three-run home run. Fifteen minutes later, the 2024 Milwaukee Brewers season was over.

Willy Adames best summarized the experience from an emotional home clubhouse.

“It’s kind of like when you were a kid and they let you try a candy, but they don’t give you the candy, you just taste it,” he said.

Every postseason since the 2018 run was hardly a taste. If anything, it was the equivalent of walking into the candy store and looking around, only to be forcefully removed while approaching the counter.

Each visit followed the same pattern. The Brewers did not play their best baseball, but the baseball gods also dealt them critical injuries going into October, and the randomness of small-sample postseason baseball often gave the opponent the boost they needed to dispose of the Crew swiftly. It felt, at times, as if there was nothing the Brewers could do to control their fate.

This year’s Wild Card Series was a taste. It felt different. The Brewers snapped a six-game postseason losing streak with a thrilling comeback win in Game 2 that kept their season alive. When Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick hit improbable back-to-back home runs to claim a 2-0 lead with six outs to go, it felt like the unpredictability with which the Brewers were all too familiar, but viewed gloriously from the other side.

That’s not to discredit either player. They put great swings on the ball and did not luck into their home runs. There was, however, an element of randomness behind the moment. Bauers slugged .361 in the regular season, including .262 over his final 115 plate appearances. Frelick had never hit a ball harder than 106.6 mph off the bat in the big leagues. Nor had he hit a home run of more than 391 feet. Both home runs were improbable.

For 40 minutes that feel all too fleeting in hindsight, it appeared the Brewers were finally on the favorable end of enough playoff chaos to punch a ticket to a second round for the first time in years. Then, as quickly as the optimism arose, it crumbled in equally chaotic and unpredictable fashion.

The Brewers battled back as they had all year long. They grabbed a late lead with the unexplainable storybook moment, then handed the ball to the best closer in the National League. Somehow, it still was not enough.

There will be plenty of analysis on this site and others of last night, this week, and this season. The Brewers have plenty to unpack as they reflect on the year that was and determine the best path forward for 2025 and beyond.

The dust from Thursday night must settle first. The devastating reality in the immediate aftermath: just when it seemed the Brewers had slayed their dragon, it reemerged with another snarl and burning burst, as brutal as any.