These 21 moments defined the Milwaukee Brewers’ regular season

From a dubious start to a rookie sensation to an historic winning streak and a division championship, the Milwaukee Brewers season has been littered with notable moments — even if many fans will ultimately remember it for what comes next.

The team won a franchise-record 97 games and locked up the No. 1 overall seed in the National League playoffs.

Here’s a look at the 21 moments that defined the 2025 Brewers season, in chronological order:

Torpedo bats and Nestor Cortes (March 29 at New York Yankees)

For a hot second, “torpedo bats” were all the rage in Major League Baseball after the New York Yankees used the strangely misshapen barrels to great effect against the Brewers in the second game of the season. The Yankees clubbed a franchise-record nine homers against the Brewers. Staring pitcher Nestor Cortes’ disastrous debut with Milwaukee included five homers and five walks in two-plus innings.

Milwaukee lost the game 20-9, then followed with a 12-3 loss and 11-1 loss to the Kansas City Royals in a horrendous first few games of the season.

But Cortes in his next start allowed just one hit and no runs in six innings, part of a 1-0 win against the Reds.

His third start? It wasn’t actually for the Brewers. A injury sidelined him for months and he was traded at the deadline just as he was about to get healthy, shipped to San Diego for outfielder Brandon Lockridge.

Brice Turang’s walk-off bunt (April 2 vs. Royals)

The start of the 2025 season was dubious, an 0-4 beginning that included three absolute drubbings. But after that, Milwaukee won two straight against the Royals, including a 3-2 victory that required a perfectly executed walk-off squeeze bunt by Brice Turang.

Brewers manager Pat Murphy conferred briefly with Turang before the at-bat, making it seem pretty clear what was coming next. Murphy was asked about it after.

“The honest truth? I said it’s a good idea to put a bunt down the first-base line right here,” Murphy said. “We’ll win the game. He said, ‘OK.’ I said, ‘It’s going to be a breaking ball.’ ‘OK.’ And he did it.”

The Brewers wound up winning four in a row after that cold start, and obviously, things got quite a bit better from there.

The Quinn Priester trade (April 10)

At the time, it looked like a lot to surrender for a pitcher who was presently in the minor leagues and hadn’t found big-league success. But the Brewers got what they wanted when they shipped two promising prospects and a 2025 competitive-balance draft pick to the Boston Red Sox for right-hander Quinn Priester.

While he allowed a home run to his first batter on April 10, he settled in nicely, first with a five-inning performance that day and then with a series of progressively stronger showings.

The Brewers wound up winning a staggering 19 consecutive games in which Priester has delivered a volume pitching performance, either as a starter or following an opener, and he became one of the team’s best players.

Jackson Chourio’s game-saving catch (May 18 vs. Twins)

If you wanted to find the peak turnaround moment for the Brewers this season, here’s your play.

On May 18 against the Minnesota Twins, Jackson Chourio robbed Royce Lewis of a game-tying, two-run homer in the top of the eighth, and the Brewers went on to prevail, 5-2, to avoid a sweep after getting shut out four times in a stretch of five games.

Chourio’s catch may have lit a fuse; the Brewers won three of the next four and, after a couple losses, eight consecutive and nine of 10 to get back above water and into the playoff chase.

Christian Yelich’s walk-off grand slam (May 27 vs. Red Sox)

Christian Yelich was a key part of the strong first half for the Brewers, with a .797 OPS and 19 home runs — already tied for his most in a season since his MVP-caliber 2019. One of those came May 27, when his walk-off grand slam off Boston’s Liam Hendriks provided a no-doubt winner in the 10th inning.

Yelich had struggled mightily against left-handers to that point in the season, but he doubled against Aroldis Chapman leading off the ninth and came around to score to tie the game at 1-1 in the final inning, setting the stage for even more heroics to follow.

Caleb Durbin’s collection of walk-offs (May 28 vs. Red Sox, June 7 vs. Padres, July 12 vs. Nationals)

Scrappy third baseman Caleb Durbin didn’t start the year with the team, but he’s made a major impact since his recall.

His sacrifice fly in the 10th against the Boston Red Sox on May 28 gave Milwaukee its second straight walk-off victory, 6-5, as part of a series sweep. On June 7, after the Brewers had lost a late lead, he belted a first-pitch home run in the bottom of the ninth to rescue Milwaukee with a 4-3 win over the San Diego Padres, marking his second career home run.

Then came the real theft July 12, when the Brewers went into the ninth down a pair to Washington but quickly rallied for two runs on newcomer Andrew Vaughn’s two-run double, followed closely by Durbin’s inside-out ball down the right-field line that scored the winning run. It’s the first time a first-year MLB player has had three walk-off outcomes before the All-Star break since 1971.

Jacob Misiorowski’s debut (June 12 vs. Cardinals)

The hyped top prospect had a pretty sensational debut against the St. Louis Cardinals on June 12, when he threw five no-hit innings and only left the contest because he turned his ankle after some cramping in his calf. He walked four batters and struck out five, and the Brewers won the game, 6-0.

Misiorowski followed that up with six perfect innings in Minnesota before yielding a walk and home run. Among starters, his 11 innings are the most no-hit innings to begin a career in the modern era.

Miz vs. Skenes (June 25 vs. Pirates)

The Jacob Misiorowski Madness that enfolded Milwaukee hit overdrive on June 25, when a sellout crowd flocked to American Family Field for a mid-week day game to see Miz square off with Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes, who was named as the National League starting pitcher in the All-Star Game for a second straight season and became a Cy Young shoe-in as the season wore on.

Miz went five innings, allowing two hits and two walks but no runs, as the Brewers prevailed for a 4-2 victory that perhaps marked the official launch of his profile across baseball.

Brandon Woodruff returns and shines (July 6 at Miami)

After missing all of 2024 and missing more time than expected this year, getting Brandon Woodruff back at all was a storybook development. And then he pitched lights-out, allowing one run on two hits with eight strikeouts in six innings, part of a 3-1 win over the Miami Marlins on July 6.

He looked as good as ever, with superb command, and suddenly the Brewers could dream about a rotation full of top-shelf hammers as the season progressed.

Andrew Vaughn’s first swing (July 7 vs. Dodgers)

Brewers starting pitcher Aaron Civale, unhappy that he was going to be asked to move to the bullpen with the arrival of Jacob Misiorowski, requested that the team trade him. The Brewers obliged, shipping him to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for Andrew Vaughn, a former No. 3-overall pick who hadn’t clicked at the big-league level.

Vaughn started at Class AAA Nashville but was summoned when Rhys Hoskins suffered a finger injury, and he homered in his very first at-bat, kicking off a stunning turnaround and hot streak that lasted through August.

How sweep it is vs. reigning champ (July 7-9 vs. Dodgers and July 18-20 at Dodgers)

To be the best, you’ve got to beat the best, and that’s the Dodgers, the team with the best record in the National League at the break. And Milwaukee won all three games against them from July 7-9, the first home sweep of the Dodgers in franchise history.

Starters Freddy Peralta, Misiorowski and José Quintana were excellent in their games, with the last one ending on a walk-off win authored by Chourio’s game-winning single in the 10th, following up a ninth-inning rally to tie the game. Milwaukee closed the first half with a seven-game winning streak, then moved that streak to 11, including three more wins over the Dodgers.

They held on for dear life in two one-run victories, 8-7 and 6-5, with Abner Uribe recording the final out as the tying run stood at third base to cap off the 6-0 season sweep against the reigning World Series champion.

Jacob Misiorowski in the All-Star Game (July 15 vs. American League)

Named to the all-star team as a replacement despite just five appearances at that point, Jacob Misiorowski became quite the conversation topic around the all-star break. Was it too soon to highlight someone so new in their career? He shattered the previous mark of fewest all-star appearances before getting named to the team — the 11 that Skenes had last year.

Misiorowski held his own, retiring three of the four batters he faced in the eighth inning with the National League down, 6-4. The NL went on to tie the game, which was subsequently settled as an NL triumph in a home-run swing-off.

Trevor Megill also faced a batter in the All-Star Game, making his first appearance.

Trevor Megill’s ‘Power of Friendship’ quote (July 18 in USA TODAY)

A quirky quote given by Megill, one that first appeared in a July 18 USA TODAY story, became a mantra for the Brewers.

Megill was trying to explain, somehwat tongue-in-cheek, what it was that made the Brewers so good.

“The way the Brewers run themselves and the research they do on people, personalities — that goes into a lot of what we’re seeing right now,” Megill said. “Power of friendship, right? We’ve got a college-minded coach at the helm and I think a lot of our guys are just that gritty, tough and we go and get after it. I think that’s our biggest strength: A lot of guys that like each other and a lot of guys willing to put their body on the line every night.”

“Power of friendship” turned into a lighthearted T-shirt worn around by players.

The alumni home-run derby (July 25 vs. Marlins)

The Brewers welcomed back numerous recent ex-players for a postgame home-run derby, and though the current Brewers lost to the Marlins that same night, the showcase proved to be a stroke of genius.

Fans stayed for the fireworks provided by recent legends like Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun, Corey Hart and — in a championship performance — Keon Broxton.

Throw in a cribbage board giveaway and a couple popular T-shirts portraying Jacob Misiorowski and Andrew Vaughn, and it was a huge year for the Brewers’ promotions team.

Pocket pancakes (Aug. 1 vs. Nationals)

Pat Murphy already had a place in Brewers history as the 2024 manager of the year. He might very well win again, a campaign that began in earnest when the Brewers won 14 straight games and surged to the best record in baseball.

The start of that streak coincides with a perfect Murphy moment, when he revealed on the AppleTV+ broadcast that he sometimes kept pancakes and pizza in his back pocket. The Brewers turned the moment of on-air levity into a promotion at the stadium, perhaps helped by a sudden surge of victories.

Perkins gets out No. 27 at the plate … again (Aug. 8 vs. New York Mets)

For the second year in a row, Blake Perkins threw a runner out at home plate to record the 27th and final out, nabbing Starling Marte of the Mets to preserve a 3-2 victory for closer Trevor Megill. William Contreras made the tag, and Milwaukee won for a seventh consecutive game.

One year earlier, Perkins did the same thing in a game against the Reds.

No lead is safe against the Brewers: Isaac Collins walk-off (Aug. 10 vs. Mets)

The emergence of Isaac Collins proved to be a fun story during the season, and his walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth played a role in his emerging notoriety.

Becoming an out-of-nowhere rookie-of-the-year candidate, Collins took a slider from closer Edwin Díaz out, capping a comeback from a 5-0 deficit and giving a sweep to the Brewers, winners of nine straight games at that point.

George Webb burgers (Aug. 13 vs. Pirates)

The Brewers handled the Pirates for a 12th consecutive victory, 12-5, triggering the Milwaukee-famous George Webb promotion that grants free burgers to fans for a winning streak of that length.

Christian Yelich with the Uecker bat (Aug. 15 at Reds)

Matching the franchise record for consecutive wins with 13, the Brewers pulled out a remarkable rally after falling behind at Great American Ballpark, 8-1.

Not only that, but Christian Yelich led the way with his specialty bat for Players’ Weekend designed as an homage to Bob Uecker, the late broadcaster whose presence hovered around the team all season.

Yelich hit two homers with the bat, giving his team a lead with the second, and a two-run single to go along with it. The Brewers won, 10-8.

Andruw Monasterio’s home run and more (Aug. 16 at Reds, Sept. 13 vs. Cardinals, Sept. 20 at Cardinals)

From a wildly unlikely source, a three-run homer from Andruw Monasterio in the 11th inning gave the Brewers the cushion they needed to defeat the Reds, 6-5, and win for a franchise-record 14th consecutive game. In a bit of serendipity, Monasterio happens to also wear jersey No. 14.

Monasterio clobbered a hanging changeup 382 feet after entering the at-bat just looking to drive in the go-ahead run on second.

Then, Monasterio found himself in the middle of history again. On the night the Brewers clinched a postseason berth, Monasterio battled through a 10-pitch at-bat against the Cardinals and drove a single that plated the winning run in the 10th for a 9-8 win.

The Brewers were down, 6-1, but rallied for two runs in the eighth, three in the ninth to tie the game and then two in the 10th after the Cardinals had re-taken a lead.

That wasn’t all. In a game a week later in St. Louis, Monasterio — playing out of position at first base — found himself in the middle of a crazy defensive play that helped the Brewers drop their magic number to win the division to 1.

In the 10th inning with a 3-2 lead and an automatic runner at second base, pitcher Jared Koenig fielded a leadoff comebacker and initially looked at the runner, Lars Nootbaar, then changed course and threw to first.

The quick glance served to push Nootbaar back to second momentarily, but then he broke for third. Monasterio caught the ball for the first out, threw across the diamond to nab Nootbaar for the second, and the Brewers were in great position to seal off the win.

The Brewers won the game and clinched the division the next day.

A farewell to Ueck (Aug. 24 vs. Giants)

The titanic presence of Bob Uecker has been hovering over the season since his death at age 90 in January.

Late in the season, the team got to say a proper goodbye in a ceremony full of luminaries and memories, plus all players wearing a jersey that said “Ueck” on the back.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: These 21 moments defined the Milwaukee Brewers’ regular season

Reporting by JR Radcliffe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect