Milwaukee Brewers: Top Five Moments of the 2017 Season

As the sun sets on the 2017 baseball season, it’s time to reflect on the best moments of the year and there were a lot for this Milwaukee Brewers team. After looking through moments ten through six, it’s time to look at the top five moments of the season.

In such a long season, finding the five best moments can be extremely difficult. The Milwaukee Brewers certainly gave us a lot of options to choose from. Some of these moments defined this Brewers team, while others helped define the young careers of the players that made them.

These moments are what made Brewers fans fall in love with this team. Each day the team went out there and seemingly had more fun than the day before. They played the game with the passion of Little Leaguers and gave energy to a fanbase that was expecting another mediocre season in the middle of a rebuild.

The rebuild took a step forward this season and the unexpected success has given the team higher expectations heading into next year. The players have shown that they can hit in clutch moments, that they can play great defense in clutch moments, that they can pitch in clutch moments. They’re going to need to do it again next year with expectations set on the postseason.

So now just sit back, relax, and enjoy the five best moments of the 2017 Milwaukee Brewers 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.