Fifteen (OK, maybe a couple more) unforgettable September games for the Milwaukee Brewers
It's the best time of year for regular-season baseball, where playoff chases are decided and some of the season's most unforgettable moments get authored.
As the Brewers proceed down the home stretch in pursuit of a National League Central title, take a look back at some of the great September games in franchise history.
More: It's become an all too common refrain: The Brewers need more from their offense.
First, three monumental October games
The spirit of this exercise is looking at home-stretch regular season games, but three pretty big ones technically took place in October.
Oct. 3, 1981: Rollie Fingers struck out Lou Whitaker of Detroit for a 2-1 win at County Stadium, clinching the Brewers' first postseason appearance in a strange strike-divided 1981 season. Milwaukee and Detroit went into the series tied for the AL East lead in the second half, but Milwaukee won back-to-back games and sealed it on the penultimate game of the season.
Oct. 3, 1982: Possibly one of the most important regular-season games in franchise history, the Brewers defeated the Orioles, 10-2, to hold off a dramatic collapse and win the American League East in a winner-take-all battle. The Brewers scored once in the eighth and five times in the ninth, but it was a tense game to that point. Late-season acquisition Don Sutton delivered the performance for which he's most remembered in Milwaukee, Robin Yount homered twice and Ben Oglivie made a spectacular catch in the left-field corner.
Oct. 1, 2018: "Game 163" pitted the Brewers and Cubs in a one-game playoff at Wrigley Field for the National League Central title. The thriller came down to the eighth inning, where Lorenzo Cain and Ryan Braun delivered RBI singles in a 3-1 victory, and Josh Hader secured the final six outs.
And now, the September games:
15. Daniel Vogelbach's grand slam (Sept. 5, 2021)
Never before in franchise history had a player hit a walk-off grand slam with Milwaukee facing a three-run deficit. But Milwaukee needed every bit of Daniel Vogelbach's Sunday afternoon slam against the Cardinals, a one out shot that gave the Brewers a comeback from a 5-1 deficit entering the ninth.
Luke Maile's RBI single against Giovanny Gallegos started the party. Jace Peterson doubled Maile to third, and Eduardo Escobar walked. St. Louis summoned reliever Alex Reyes, who threw two pitches to the popular pinch-hitting Vogelbach. The win put the Brewers 30 games over .500 en route to a divisional title.
14. Teddy Higuera's near no-hitter (Sept. 1, 1987)
Though "Team Streak" was watching its playoff chances dwindle, the Brewers weren't going down without a fight. In the second start of a run that encompassed a club-record 32 straight scoreless innings, Higuera kept Kansas City in a daze, taking a no-hitter into the eighth until a two-out triple by Ross Jones down the left field line.
To that point, the Brewers hadn't scored, either, but the 0-0 game would get untied in the ninth when Rob Deer and Ernie Riles registered two-out RBI singles. Higuera finished the 2-0 win in the ninth, then threw his third straight shutout five days later before finally yielding a run against the Tigers on Sept. 11 in the fifth; the Brewers won that game, too.
13. The Corbin Burnes/Josh Hader no-hitter (Sept. 11, 2021)
Corbin Burnes threw eight hitless innings, capped when Lorenzo Cain saved a diving liner off the bat of future Brewers teammate Owen Miller, and Josh Hader worked a scoreless night in Cleveland to register the second no-hitter in franchise history. The Brewers won the game, 3-0, and landed their first no-hitter since 1987.
12. Ben Oglivie saves the day vs. Red Sox (Sept. 20, 1982)
With two outs in the ninth inning against Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley, Ben Oglivie faced an 0-2 pitch and slammed it into the right field bleachers, tying a game with the Red Sox at 3-3. He raised his fists above his head as he rounded the bases, having set the stage for a Gorman Thomas walk-off sacrifice fly in the 11th.
The Brewers had won six straight and stayed two games ahead of pesky Baltimore, which had caught fire and hadn't allowed Milwaukee's lead to grow by anything more than one-half game in the stretch. It was Milwaukee's only walk-off win of the season.
11. Brewers stun the Padres, secure winning season (Sept. 29, 2007)
Wisconsin native Vinny Rottino's game-winning single in the 11th officially gave the Brewers a 4-3 win over San Diego on the penultimate day of the year, but the stage had been set in the ninth in an unbelievable stroke of serendipity.
Facing Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman with two outs and a runner on second, Tony Gwynn Jr. — the son of a Padres legend and someone who'd grown up running around the Padres clubhouse and known Hoffman for years — tripled on a 2-2 pitch to tie the score at 3-3. Not only did Milwaukee keep San Diego from clinching a playoff spot, the Brewers secured their first winning season since 1992. The Padres, as it turned out, would fall into a one-game playoff with Colorado and lose in heartbreaking fashion.
10. Prince Fielder's walk-off vs. the Pirates (Sept. 23, 2008)
Most fans remember the Ryan Braun grand slam when they think of the Pittsburgh Pirates series at the end of 2008, but don't sleep on Fielder's big winner. Jason Kendall's two-out double in the eighth tied the score, and after Ryan Braun's two-out single in the ninth, Fielder launched a game-winner against T.J. Beam that would merely represent the start of a wild final week.
9. Trevor Hoffman's 600th save (Sept. 7, 2010)
The playoffs weren't in the picture for the 2010 team, and Hoffman (now with the Brewers for a second season) had long ago lost his hold of the closer's job after a rough start to the season. But as the season wore on, Brewers manager Ken Macha looked for openings to use Hoffman and try to pin down the final four career saves to get him to 600.
On Sept. 7, he hit the milestone, inducing a double play after a leadoff single and then a groundout from Cardinals infielder Aaron Miles to become the first reliever to reach the milestone. He wouldn't be the last to get there, and his Hall of Fame status had already been cemented, but it was a loud and boisterous night for a Brewers fan base that hadn't had much else to cheer about.
8. The 1992 home finale includes a curtain call (Sept. 27, 1992)
With the Brewers still hanging on in the fight for the National League East crown, nearly 55,000 people arrived at County Stadium to watch the Brewers beat Oakland, 5-3. The game featured a couple ejections and a curtain call for players after they left the field, the final home game in what became a 90-win season. It was the sixth of seven straight wins, though Milwaukee fell short of the playoffs, then didn't have another winning season for 15 years.
7. Travis Shaw's walk-off homer (Sept. 23, 2017)
The Brewers had just lost back-to-back heartbreakers to the Cubs in extra innings, and though Orlando Arcia's homer had tied this game in the ninth, the Cubs had again grabbed a lead in the 10th inning. But Travis Shaw's opposite-field two-run homer gave the Brewers the jolt they desperately needed, back to within 1 1/2 games of the wild card. Alas, the Brewers fell short of the playoffs that season, too, missing by one game.
6. Ryan Braun's grand slam against the Cardinals (Sept. 15, 2019)
It's a situation you draw up in the backyard. Ninth inning. Bases loaded. Down a run. Full count. Your star player at the plate.
Ryan Braun may not have been the featured attraction anymore for the Brewers, but he still had some magic in that bat, crushing a slider from Junior Fernandez for a grand slam that turned a 4-3 deficit into a 7-4 lead in St. Louis. The shocked sellout crowd went hushed, and though the Cardinals scored a couple runs in the ninth to make it interesting, it was a landmark win for a Brewers team that had a big September to reach the wild-card game. It will not be the last time a Ryan Braun home run appears on this list.
5. Ryan Braun's clincher against Marlins (Sept. 23, 2011)
In 2011, the Brewers had gotten to the precipice of a division title but still had some room for dramatics. Ryan Braun's three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth broke a 1-1 tie against Clay Hensley and plated the runs that would officially clinch the organization's first division crown since 1982, with the Cardinals losing on the same night to seal the deal. Braun was on his way to winning National League MVP.
4. Adolis García falls down (Sept. 26, 2018)
He's an all-star outfielder for the Texas Rangers now, but Adolis García was a young Cardinals prospect in 2018 when he was called upon as a pinch runner in the eighth inning of a 2-1 Brewers lead, with Milwaukee needing a victory to clinch a playoff spot. Jose Martinez hit a slow roller to third that Mike Moustakas bounced past first baseman Jesus Aguilar, giving García a chance to score. But he fell down between third and home, allowing catcher Erik Kratz to tag him out easily. Jeremy Jeffress worked a 1-2-3 ninth, and the Brewers were back in the playoffs for the first time in seven years.
3. Ned Yost's home run (Sept. 29, 1982)
The future Brewers manager was the picture of an unheralded player delivering an unforgettable moment. Yost didn't bring a bat on the season-ending seven-game road trip because he didn't think he'd get a plate appearance, but in Boston, Ted Simmons had been removed for a pinch-runner in the eighth, and Yost was suddenly at the plate in a 3-3 game with two outs in the ninth against the Boston Red Sox.
With Charlie Moore's bat instead, Yost hit his only home run of the season, a shot over the Green Monster that helped the Brewers get a 6-3 win and move four games up in the standings on Baltimore with five to play.
"It's just like a fairy tale, the kind of moment you spend your whole life dreaming about," Yost said at the time.
2. Braun's grand slam vs. Pirates (Sept. 25, 2008)
Ryan Braun's grand slam against Pittsburgh left-hander Jesse Chavez produced an unforgettable walk-off win, three days before his home run in the finale would officially snap the franchise's 26-year playoff drought. Braun had been fighting through a strained intercostal muscle that had caused him to struggle at the tail end of his second year, but he fought through it to deliver his first career walk-off homer.
1. Obviously, the CC Sabathia/Braun game (Sept. 28, 2008)
You knew this one would be here. The nine-inning performance from CC Sabathia, Ryan Braun's legendary eighth-inning home run, the drama of waiting to see if the Marlins could hold off the Mets and snap the 26-year playoff drought. It's hard to top.
Honorable mentions
Robin Yount's 3,000th hit (Sept. 9, 1992). We keep it off the main list on a technicality; after all, the Brewers endured a heartbreaking 5-4 loss against Cleveland, with an error by pitcher Darren Holmes allowing two runs to score after the Brewers needed just one more out. Robin Yount was actually the last out, lining out to shortstop, but the night will be remembered forever as the one where Yount collected his 3,000th career hit, coming against Jose Mesa in the seventh. The game turned into a celebration of the franchise's greatest player.
The Brant Brown Game (Sept. 23, 1998). Sure, the Brewers didn't have much to play for, but the glorious schadenfreude of the moment wasn't lost on Brewers fans, playing in the National League for the first season. Geoff Jenkins hit a fly ball to left fielder Brant Brown that should have ended the game; instead, he dropped the ball, and three runs scored to give the Brewers an 8-7 walk-off win.
Prince Fielder's bowling ball celebration (Sept. 6, 2009). Fielder's home run against Merkin Valdez gave the Brewers a 2-1 win in 12 innings and prompted one of the most memorable home-run celebrations in Brewers lore.
Christian Yelich homers twice in magical Tigers series (Sept. 29, 2018). It's actually tough to parse between this game and the night before, both 6-5 wins against Detroit with Milwaukee needing every win to force a one-game playoff with the Cubs. In the final throes of his MVP season, Yelich hit a two-run homer in the third and a go-ahead blast in the seventh to help the Brewers secure the must-have win. He homered the previous night too, though Ryan Braun's eighth-inning homer off right fielder Nick Castellanos' glove and over the wall proved to be the difference.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Fifteen unforgettable September games for the Milwaukee Brewers
