Milwaukee Brewers: Top Five Moments of the 2017 Season

Orlando Arcia is a defensive stud at shortstop. That much has been known about him for awhile. Fans have been told about his amazing spin move and throw but hadn’t been able to get an opportunity to witness it until June 21st.

In the ninth inning of a 4-3 game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, John Jaso went to the plate against Corey Knebel. There was a runner on second with two outs when Jaso hits a ground ball up the middle. Jaso thinks he has a game-tying single until Orlando Arcia happened.

Oh my goodness, Orlando Arcia! How does anyone even make that play? Even having the range to get to that ball in the first place is ridiculous. But then doing a full 360-degree spin and firing an accurate throw to first base in time is absolutely bonkers.

Also, credit needs to be given to Eric Thames for making a tremendous pick on that hop. It’s not easy catching a ball like that. If Thames misses it, the whole play is wasted and the game is tied.

What makes this play an even bigger moment was that it ended the game. It’s definitely a highlight no matter when in the game it happens but to make the last out on that play just adds an extra flare.

Craig Counsell said after this game that all could think to himself during the play was, “Don’t throw it! Don’t throw it!” He feared that a wild throw would tie the game. Just getting to the ball prevents a run from scoring. He didn’t need to do any more than stopping the ball from reaching the outfield. But Arcia goes above and beyond to make the big play.

If Arcia was able to cut down on the amount of errors this season, this play would be a central part of his candidacy for a Gold Glove this year. Instead, it sits as the fifth best moment of the Milwaukee Brewers 2017 season.

Not to be outdone in terms of game-saving defensive plays, Keon Broxton tries to one-up Orlando Arcia with his home run robbery on August 30th.

With the Brewers struggling to hold on to a 6-5 lead over the St. Louis Cardinals, Corey Knebel was attempting to close down a victory. Milwaukee was trying to keep pace with the Cubs for the division and stay in play for a Wild Card spot. The Brewers needed this win.

With a runner on first and two outs, Randal Grichuk stepped up to the plate against the Brewers closer.

Corey Knebel was understandably hyped about Broxton saving the game for him. The Cardinals would’ve taken the lead on that home run and the Milwaukee Brewers would have been swept at a critical point in the season.

Broxton didn’t enter the game until the eighth inning as a defensive replacement. That’s quite the replacement. It’s certainly more than Counsell was expecting.

Broxton’s catch had shades of Carlos Gomez in it. Back in 2013 Gomez made a similar catch in the exact same scenario. Joey Votto hit a deep fly ball to center field with two outs in the ninth inning and the effervescent Gomez robbed Votto at nearly the exact same spot.

If there’s any recent Milwaukee Brewers centerfielder Keon Broxton would want to be compared to defensively, Carlos Gomez is as good as it gets. Broxton has the speed and the big catch ability to play like Gomez in center field. While Broxton does have his own exuberant personality, it’s a little more tame than Gomez was. Then again, everyone is tame compared to Carlos Gomez.

But being a game saving catch late in the season to keep the Brewers in contention for the playoffs, this moment has deserved its spot at the number four spot on our list.

On a sunny Sunday afternoon in June, Jimmy Nelson took to the mound against the San Diego Padres. He turned in a performance that few expected when they walked into the ballpark that day.

In what ended up being the only complete game of the season, Jimmy Nelson gave Milwaukee Brewers fans a very special Father’s Day moment. The game was a complete pitcher’s duel on both sides but Nelson was able to win out after Hernan Perez and Manny Pina go yard in the sixth inning to give the Brewers the lead.

It was a lead Jimmy Nelson would not relinquish. After Nelson ended the top half of the eighth inning, Brewers fan gave him a standing ovation for a masterful performance thinking that Corey Knebel would finish the game in the ninth. But when it was time for the top of the ninth to begin, the bullpen doors did not open, and Jimmy Nelson walked towards the mound.

Craig Counsell has shown he normally does not care about trivial things like complete games and would rather go to his bullpen too early rather than too late. It’s hard to blame him for that philosophy. But Counsell would have an easier time mixing oil and water than trying to take Nelson out of this game.

The pure emotion that Nelson brings to the field is electric. He wears his heart on his sleeve and he is finally reaching his full potential. He had an up and down first few seasons of his career, but 2017 was the year he was able to put it all together and turn into the dominant frontline starter the Milwaukee Brewers always thought he could be.

Nelson scattered six hits over nine innings while striking out ten Padres. Nelson had the single most dominant pitching performance for the Milwaukee Brewers this season. He proved he is the workhorse of this rotation and he will make for a great one-two punch with Chase Anderson as soon as he gets healthy.

Nelson threw 118 pitches with 81 of them for strikes. There was a lot of concern about Nelson’s ability to throw strikes heading into the season but he silenced those doubts this year and this game played a major role in that.

Once Nelson is back to full health, the Milwaukee Brewers should have every expectation to see more complete games like this from the workhorse of the rotation. But for now, he lands at the third best moment of the 2017 season.

The Milwaukee Brewers are apparently just a bunch of momma’s boys. It seems like every time the Brewers play on Mother’s Day, something magical happens. And 2017 was no different.

Bill Hall hit a walk off home run on Mother’s Day back in 2006. Martin Maldonado hit a walk off homer in extra innings on Mother’s Day in 2015. Manny Pina can now add his name to the list of special Mother’s Day moments, even though it wasn’t a walk off.

But it wasn’t just Pina, it was the whole team. The Milwaukee Brewers were getting absolutely slaughtered by the New York Mets. They were down 7-1 when the Racing Sausages came out, but those Sausages must have brought the comeback train because all of sudden, the Brewers bats came alive.

In the bottom of the sixth, Keon Broxton hit a two run shot to cut the deficit to four. But in the top of the seventh, future Brewer Neil Walker hits an RBI single to put the Mets up 8-3. But a Jonathan Villar homer and a Jesus Aguilar double cut the deficit to two. The Brewers just kept on chipping away at the Mets lead until the eighth inning where Milwaukee took the lead for good.

Hernan Perez gets the two RBI single and sets it up for Manny Pina to hit a three run bomb to take the lead. The Crew went from a 7-1 deficit to an 11-9 lead in the span of three innings. Every player in that lineup was able to deliver in clutch moments.

This game epitomized the first half Milwaukee Brewers. There was lackluster pitching as shown by the nine runs allowed, but the offense just started mashing and gifted the team a victory. For the first six innings, this was a game the Brewers had no business winning. The lineup made up for the poor pitching and carried the team like they did the entire first half.

In case you want to take a trip down memory lane, here is Bill Hall’s Mother’s Day walk-off from 11 years ago against the New York Mets.

The Milwaukee Brewers should play the New York Mets on Mother’s Day every year.

The improbability of this comeback coupled with the clutch home runs that defined this first half Brewers team puts this Mother’s Day Miracle at the second spot on our list of top moments of the season.

Was there really any doubt? Travis Shaw’s walk-off home run in the bottom of the 10th inning against Wade Davis is the top moment of the 2017 Milwaukee Brewers season.

In the midst of a playoff race, the Brewers enter the four game series against the Cubs 3 1/2 games back. The first two games were absolutely incredible baseball games, but the Brewers lost both of them. In ten innings. And the exact same scenario was playing out again.

The Brewers tied the game in the bottom of the ninth on an Orlando Arcia laser off Davis that just barely stayed fair. Then in the top of the tenth inning, like the previous games in the series, the Brewers gave up a run. But then Travis Shaw happened

That victory prevented the Brewers from being swept at home by the Cubs in the heat of the playoff race. It prevented the Cubs from clinching the division in Miller Park. You know what could make this moment even better? That’s right, Titanic music.

Please forgive Shaw’s awkward rounding of first base at 0:41, he just hit a walk off home run, we can cut him some slack.

This home run gave Brewers fans hope once again that this team could find themselves in the playoffs. It was almost kind of lucky that Shaw went opposite field and the ball landed in the Brewers bullpen. That way we all got to see the live reaction of those guys and Josh Hader and Marcus Hanel probably had the best reaction of all.

It was funny how during the broadcast, as soon as announcer Matt Vasgersian said Wade Davis hadn’t blown a save all year, Orlando Arcia goes yard and Davis blows the save. Sweet irony. But Vasgersian had the amazing call of Shaw’s dinger, ” SANTA MARIA TRAVIS SHAW!”. Some headlines just write themselves.

At this point in the season, the Brewers had finally gotten the attention of the national media because they just wouldn’t go away. They almost disappointed with the results of the other games in this series. But this game would not be a disappointment to Brewers fans. Travis Shaw wouldn’t let that happen.

For providing the ultimate walk off home run against a hated rival in the heat of a playoff race, Travis Shaw earned the top spot in this year’s list of the best moments of the 2017 Milwaukee Brewers season. Hopefully next year we will have some moments from the month of October to include in this list.

Next: Check out top moments 6 through 10

What an amazing season it was, full of ups and downs along the way but a surprising season nonetheless. Some teams you have a hard time remembering while other teams you couldn’t possibly forget. This 2017 team could be one of those teams that Brewers fans won’t forget about for a long time.