Jake Bauers with the At Bat of the year in Game 2.

Jake, the man colloquially known as Rake on this blog and podcast since 2024, Bauers! One of the most impressive at-bats these eyes have ever seen. Especially considering the atmosphere, the circumstances, the pitcher on the mound, a 12-pitch at bat that just DRAINED the life out of Yamamoto. Yamamoto was like a character in Street Fighter whose life force slowly went away pitch by pitch by pitch. Obviously there were a LOT of key moments last night, but this at bat, leading into Yeli’s go-ahead 2-RBI single, was perhaps the moment of the night. Yamamoto SHOVED a complete game against the Brewers in Game 2 of the NLCS at Am Fam last season, this year they knocked him out in 2.2 innings.

^Related: How about that “pitch com malfunction” after pitch #11. Sure, buddy. Sure sure sure. A pitcher in the middle of an epic at-bat, desperately needed a moment to breathe, just so happened to have his pitch com go haywire. Nuts! And, what a coincidence, after a 30 second meeting on the mound, that son of a gun started working again! Weird!

A few other takes from last night in no particular order:

• What a postseason for The Captain, Christian Yelich so far. Brutal regular season, but he’s been on fire in the playoffs. Key hit last night, hitting .368 in the NLDS and NLCS so far. Hunt for Red(emption) October. Is that something??
• Pat Murphy just pulls all of the correct strings. Starts David Hamilton for the first time since last week Tuesday, and all he does is gather two hits, two steals, and scores three runs. All while playing really solid defense at 3rd base.
• Turang is alive again after a tough NLDS. Game tying home run in Game 1, two hits, two walks, an RBI and three runs scored last night.
• WILD BILL. What else can you say. The guy has been absolutely clutch in October. He really came on during the last two months of the regular season, and I don’t know if there’s anyone else I want at the plate right now in a big situation. MANY months ago we had a podcast question about who the Brewers should throw a huge contract at, Brice Turang or William Contreras. For 95% of the year I thought Turang, but Wild Bill is making a strong push since August. Or, in the words of that little girl in the Old El Paso commercial talking about hard or soft shell tacos, “why not both?”
• Jackson Chourio had an underrated night. He went 0 for 5, but twice moved runners over in key moments and both times that runner scored. Unselfish baseball.
• I did not have Aaron Ashby evolving into 2018 Josh Hader on my bingo card, but I’ll be damned if we’re not there right now. The guy is untouchable. Big out after big out. It’s been easy to see since his debut in 2021 that his stuff is absolutely nasty, but for many years he couldn’t quite harness it. But the last two years as a high-leverage reliever he’s been great, and we’re seeing another GIANT step forward in the playoffs. Just like Wild Bill at the plate, I’m not sure there’s another pitcher I want on the mound in a big situation right now.
• Another underrated moment last night: Dustin May’s scoreless inning. Calmed things down after a disastrous defensive inning from Logan Henderson.
• Speaking of, Logan, my man, PFP. He some Tom Emanski tapes to Am Fam STAT. He pitched fine, but we can’t be throwing easy outs into the 3rd row loge section in the NLCS. JUST a bit outside!

So, we are certainly a world removed from last year’s NLCS. Brewers lost both home games, and just looked overmatched and outclassed on every level. This year? Punching back and going toe-to-toe every inning.

I’ve had several listeners (3) text the morning show over the last few days asking, “do we think this is really it? Can they do this??” And my response is this: I trust this team. I trust them more than any other Brewer team I’ve watched in my lifetime. That doesn’t guarantee they’re going to go to the World Series or win a title, it just means, I’ve never felt more confident in a team in my 35-ish years of watching Brewer baseball. I stand by the 2011 team being the best team of my lifetime, followed by the 2018 team, and then probably last year’s team. But ALL of those teams had flaws and I always kind of felt like the other shoe was going to fall at some point. I don’t feel that with this team. They’ve got a great rotation headlined by a (soon to be) Cy Young Award winner. They’ve got an elite bullpen. They’ve got hitters that just grind and grind and grind you. They’ve got some pop, they’ve got some clutch, and they’ve got the best manager in baseball. Again, that guarantees you NOTHING. But they don’t flinch when they’re down 2-0 against a Cy Young pitcher. And they don’t lose their edge when they’re up 7-4. That’s the type of chemistry that can do something special.

PS: Hit it: