Brewers news: William Contreras injury update, Robert Gasser starting, Central clinch

It's shaping up to be an exciting Sunday for the Milwaukee Brewers after what was another thrilling Saturday tilt against the St. Louis Cardinals. Exactly a week after the Crew's unbelievable comeback win over the Redbirds at American Family Field, Pat Murphy's squad pulled off another extra-inning victory over their heated division foe.

A masterful performance from the Brewers bullpen, including two huge innings from left-hander Jared Koenig, set the Brewers up for their fourth win in the last five days, and their 95th of the 2025 season. With a now seven-game lead over the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central, and just seven games left in the season, last night's win dropped the Brewers' magic number to clinch a division crown down to one. However, Saturday night's victory didn't come without a scary injury to one of the Brewers’ key players, catcher William Contreras. Luckily, the news on that front is positive. Here are three storylines to watch out for as the Brewers embark on the final week of the 2025 regular season.

X-rays negative after William Contreras struck with bat on glove hand in Saturday night's win

In the eighth inning of last night's game, St. Louis' designated hitter, Iván Herrera, swung at an elevated Aaron Ashby changeup and caught William Contreras’ glove on the swing. With a runner on third at the time, Herrera walked to first after the umpire called catcher's interference, but Pat Murphy and the Brewers trainers were not worried about the runner on base; their attention was fixed on their All-Star catcher, who has been dealing with a fracture in his left middle finger all season.

Despite Contreras remaining in the game for the final out of the eighth, which thankfully came in the next at-bat, the Brewers’ iron-man back-stop was replaced by trade deadline acquisition Danny Jansen when the team went back out in the field in the bottom of the ninth. With Jansen behind the dish, as Koenig and the Brewers looked to hold the Redbirds in their place and send the game to extra innings, Contreras was already receiving an X-ray on his glove hand. As reported by Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the X-rays were negative, and Contreras' attention was already set on how he could convince his manager to put him in the lineup in the following day's series finale.

While the news of a negative X-ray is surely positive news for the 2x Silver Slugger Award winner, Contreras is not in today's lineup. That said, if today was a playoff game, you can be assured that the Brewers' everyday catcher and team leader would be pushing the buttons for the Brew Crew.

Robert Gasser set to make his first big league start of 2025 in today's series finale

Yesterday, MLB.com's Adam McCalvy revealed that left-hander Robert Gasser was with the team in St. Louis and expected to start this afternoon's contest with the Cardinals. Today, the team confirmed the news by officially adding Gasser to their roster, much to the delight of Brewers fans who have been anxiously waiting to see the talented southpaw back on a big-league mound following his lengthy recovery from Tommy John surgery.

Gasser, who technically still holds his rookie status, was excellent for the Brewers a season ago, making five starts between May 10 and June 1. In those five starts, Gasser went 2-0 with a 2.57 ERA, striking out 16 in the 28 innings that he covered. Additionally, the Brewers as a team won each of the five games that Gasser started.

The 26-year-old southpaw has been pitching out of the Triple-A Nashville Sounds' bullpen as of late, covering anywhere from five to ten outs. The Brewers ask him to tap back into his starter's mentality for today's game and will likely have him go two times through the Cardinals' batting order before turning things over to a more well-rested bullpen than it has been for most of the season.

For Gasser, today marks the culmination of months of hard work, resilience, and a dedication to doing whatever the Brewers need in order for the team to succeed. If he gives the Brewers a good chance to win in today's potential NL Central clinching contest, it will be another notable episode in what has been an exciting, albeit tumultuous start to the talented young starter's big-league career.

With a win today, the Brewers clinch their third-straight NL Central Division title

Yesterday's win, paired with a third-straight loss from the Chicago Cubs, dropped the Brewers' NL Central magic number down to one, which means that with either a win today or a loss by the Cubs to the red-hot Cincinnati Reds, the Milwaukee Brewers will take home the NL Central Division crown for the third consecutive season and the fourth time in the last five years.

However, not only does a win today give the Brewers another division title, it also guarantees them a first-round bye, meaning their first postseason series would be the NLDS, putting them two stops away from a World Series before the playoffs even begin. For the Brewers, who have struggled to get past the short, three-game Wild Card series in each of the last two seasons, a free pass to the NLDS is exactly what they need to shake up their postseason mojo.

Not many picked the Brew Crew to win the Central before the season began, and through the first two months of the season, those pessimists looked to be correct. However, what has transpired since has been months of sheer dominance from the scrappy ball club in Milwaukee, and all that stands between them and a history-making third-straight division title is a win over their rivals in St. Louis.