Brewers' consistency in 2026 is a reason to believe this year is different

Already with a franchise record 98 wins on the season and still with six games left to play, the 2026 Milwaukee Brewers have a good chance to become the first team in the 58-year history of the franchise to win 100 games in the regular season. Not only would reaching the 100-win mark check off a milestone that has eluded the Brewers and just six other MLB teams, but The Athletic recently gave the Brewers a 72% chance of securing the No. 1 seed in the National League if they just reach 100 wins. Put simply, if the Brewers finish with a 100-62 record, the Los Angeles Dodgers would need to go 5-1 in their final six games of the season to pass Milwaukee in the standings.

With their spot in the postseason already secure, and a high likelihood of clinching a first-round bye and the top overall seed on the horizon, the Brewers and their fanbase are asking themselves, "Why is 2026 different from past years when regular season success didn't translate to the playoffs?"

To that question, there are a number of answers. Milwaukee's bullpen group is far healthier now than it was last year when Trevor Megill, Nick Mears, Grant Anderson, and trade deadline acquisition Shelby Miller were all dealing with late-season injuries. Additionally, the Brewers have far more true starting options this year than they did a season ago. Last year, heading into the postseason, it was just Freddy Peralta and an injured Quinn Priester who the Brewers were counting on before Jacob Misiorowski emerged as a bulk option in the playoffs. This year, Milwaukee has Miz, the NL Cy Young frontrunner, Logan Henderson, Dustin May, who has postseason experience, and a surging Robert Gasser.

Zoom out, however, and there's another reason to believe this year's team is better positioned for a deep postseason run than the 2025 Brew Crew. Whereas last year's team was boosted by three impressive winning streaks, the longest of which lasted a franchise-record-breaking 14 games in early August, the 2026 Brewers have gone about their winning differently. This year's team hasn't put together a winning streak of more than five games at any point throughout the course of the regular season. Though they've accomplished a five-game winning streak on three separate occasions, Milwaukee's eye-popping win total this year isn't the result of improbable two-week-long winning streaks, but is rather due to consistent, sustained success throughout the season.

Consistency of Brewers' regular season success should build confidence heading into the postseason

As reported in the Brewers' Game Notes for today's series opener against the Philadelphia Phillies, which are curated by the team's excellent media relations department, should Milwaukee reach 100 wins this year, they could become the first team in MLB history to do so without the benefit of at least a six-game winning streak.

Depending on how one analyzes that incredible stat, it could either be viewed as a positive or a negative heading into the postseason. However, what it undoubtedly means is that there weren't many major fluctuations in the Brewers' performance throughout the 2026 season. Rather than needing to get hot to find success in the postseason like they seemingly needed in 2025, the 2026 Brewers consistently won games throughout the season regardless of how "in form" they were as a team. That level of consistency should build confidence among the fanbase heading into the postseason.

At the same time, it is constantly cited just how random postseason baseball can be. This randomness was the basis for the Brewers' "bites of the apple" approach, which involves getting into the postseason as frequently as possible, with the hopes of capitalizing on this randomness at some point. Well, the Brewers will take their eighth bite of the apple in the last nine years in 2026, hoping that this is the year in which things finally go their way.

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