Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick were on their way to becoming postseason heroes for the Brewers

Thursday's Milwaukee Brewers story featured the unlikeliest of Bash Brothers before coming to an ending befitting the Brothers Grimm.

Every postseason run seems to require big moments from unexpected sources. No one could have predicted that Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick would hit back-to-back home runs in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series, giving the Brewers a 2-0 lead in Game 7, but Milwaukee was robbed of those fairytale circumstances as New York's Pete Alonso hit a game-winning three-run home run in the ninth to give the Mets a 4-2 victory.

“Just disappointing for this group of guys, man,” Bauers said after the loss eliminated the Brewers from the postseason with a 2-1 series loss. “It’s been a special clubhouse since the first day of spring training. Finishing it isn’t easy.”

“We were beaten,” said a subdued Frelick. “I think it will be something we all remember as a group next year.”

Left-hander Jose Quintana was out of the game after pitching six shutout innings for the Mets. And when right-hander José Butto took his place, Brewers manager Pat Murphy made an unconventional decision, stripping hitter Rhys Hoskins and bringing Bauers in to take the lead out of frame.

Hoskins finished 0-for-9, and although many of his 26 regular-season home runs came at opportune times, he had a subpar 2024 season, his first year back after suffering a torn ACL.

Bauers, a .199 hitter who also joined the organization in 2024, didn't necessarily have better overall numbers than Hoskins, but he showed some power (12 home runs), had the platoon advantage and also brought a higher level of defense at first base to a goalless game.

And he seemed to know that good things were ahead.

“We were just sitting in a circle on the deck and he kind of looked at me and said, 'Let's just have some fun,'” Frelick said of Bauers just before the start of the seventh inning. “He smiled and I could tell he was really excited. He just looked at me and said, 'Let's have some fun here.'”

His idea of fun: A rocket traveling at 106 miles per hour on a filled field that was 405 feet long, rolling easily over the right field wall and sending American Family Field into a frenzy.

“This is definitely on par with the birth of my child,” said Bauers, who also wrote the walk-off single that won the division title on Sept. 18. “It's hard to be excited about it right now, I just wish we were still able to play.

A pitch later, Frelick added more to the moment.

Frelick was perhaps the player on the team least likely to hit a postseason home run. For one thing, it wasn't even certain that he would even be available for the playoffs after suffering a hip injury on the final weekend of the regular season.

Even when healthy, he hit two home runs in the regular season, back-to-back on May 14th and 15th. His exit velocity ranked last among 252 qualified MLB hitters that year. And yet the 107.6 mph ball that left no doubt that he had reached his destination was the hardest-hit ball of Frelick's career in the majors, traveling a nearly identical distance of 408 feet to Bauers' shot back.

They were on pace to be standout moments in a game that sent the Brewers into the National League Division Series on Saturday in Philadelphia. Instead, they fade into history under the weight of a stunning four-run rally by the Mets in the ninth.

“My thoughts were, 'Let's score some runs down there,' and I think that's probably what everyone was thinking,” Bauers said of the ninth. “That was the mentality all year and I don’t think it changed until it was over.”

It didn't happen, although Frelick led off the inning with a single for his fourth hit of the series. He was taken out of the game on a game-winning double play by Brice Turang.

“I think mental toughness, focus, not giving up, perseverance and a bit of self-confidence have a lot to offer, regardless of how things are going or how they were,” Bauers said when asked what to say about the unlikely back-to-back Home run pair. “Just showing up and trying to be the best version of yourself every day and letting the chips fall where they may.”

More: Milwaukee delivers a stunning heartbreaker to the Mets in the ninth inning, 4-2

More: Brewers radio legend Bob Uecker is back in the booth for Game 3 of the playoffs

Leave a Reply Cancel reply