Brewers: The 5 Most Heartbreaking Losses of September and October

The Milwaukee Brewers came into the 2022 season expected to compete for an NL Central title and playoff berth. Though they held the top spot in the division for quite some time, the team ultimately collapsed and fell short of both goals.

They had plenty of chances to still make the playoffs down the stretch, however. As the San Diego Padres and Philadelphia Philles, the Brewers were well within reach of a Wild Card spot in the final month of the season. It wasn’t until the third-to-last game of 2022 that the team was officially eliminated from playoff contention.

Milwaukee might have made their fifth straight postseason if not for a number of bad losses down the stretch. Some of them, including these five, took place in even more heartbreaking fashion than the rest.

Here are the five most heartbreaking Brewers losses from the months of September and October.

1. Tuesday, September 6th @ Rockies

Milwaukee came into September needing to stack up wins in order to catch up in the Wild Card race. That didn’t happen as they dropped three of four in Arizona to open the month, so it was off to Colorado to try again.

The Brewers started things off right in the first game of the series, winning 6-4. The second game appeared to be going their way as well as they found themselves leading 6-1 through seven and a half innings behind a strong start from Brandon Woodruff.

Luis Perdomo would enter in relief, which wasn’t a bad idea considering he came in with a 1.46 ERA, albeit in 13.1 innings. Unfortunately, he would end up giving up four earned runs without recording an out.

Peter Strzelecki would relieve him in an attempt to hold the lead. He would come close as he recorded the first to outs before giving up a solo home run that tied the game and gave him his second career blown save.

The game would eventually go into extra innings where Milwaukee would give themselves a chance to still win as they took a 7-6 lead into the bottom of the tenth. But with Taylor Rogers on for the save, the Rockies would tie it on a first pitch double and then win it on a Randal Grichuk three-run homer shortly thereafter.

If that wasn’t foreshadowing for the rest of the season, I don’t know what was.

Here are the five most heartbreaking Brewers losses from the months of September and October.

2. Tuesday, September 20th vs Mets

After ultimately dropping the series to the Rockies, things started looking up. The Brewers would win or tie their next four series, which included taking two of three from the Yankees at home. Once the AL East leaders left town, they were replaced by the NL East-leading Mets.

Though Milwaukee would lose their first matchup in that series, they appeared ready to even things up in game two. Four different run-scoring hits had the Brewers up with a 4-0 lead through five innings.

Home Run Derby champ Pete Alonso would pull the Mets within one with a three-run shot off of normally relieable Brad Boxberger. One inning later, Milwaukee’s lead would be lost as Rogers would give up another late-inning homer, this one a grand slam to Francisco Lindor.

The Brewers would tack on one more in the eighth before eventually losing the game 7-5 for their first series loss since the Colorado series.

3. Sunday, September 25th @ Reds

Milwaukee did a good job of dusting themselves off after that loss. They prevented a Mets sweep with a win in the final game of the series, then headed to Cincinnati and won the first three games of a four-game set, setting things up for a possible sweep of their own.

The Brewers took an early lead on a Hunter Renfroe solo homer in the second inning. Two innings later, the Reds tied the game on a bases loaded hit by pitch by Aaron Ashby who had come on in relief in his second game off the injured list.

Both teams would trade scoreless half innings until the bottom of the eighth. That was when reliever Matt Bush, who gave up more than one back-breaking, late-inning home run after being traded to the Brewers, gave up another one, this one a solo homer to rookie Spencer Steer.

Milwaukee would go down in order in the ninth, not only losing their chance to sweep the Reds but also missing an opportunity to pull within a half game of the Phillies for the final Wild Card spot.