The Brewers' 3 best wins and 3 worst losses of the first half of 2025

Opening Day somehow feels like yesterday and a decade ago at the same time. A first half that was looking like one to forget for the Milwaukee Brewers quickly turned into one to remember. After the team looked like they had taken a step back from their recent winning ways, they regained their edge and closed out the first half with a respectable 45-36 record, good enough for second in the NL Central and the second Wild Card spot in the National League.

The rollercoaster that has been the first half of the 2025 season included a few cavernous lows, but the cloud-scrapping highs kept the team encouraged about their potential, and when things clicked, those highs became more and more common. With that in mind, here are the three best wins of the Brewers' first half, followed by the team’s three worst losses.

3 best wins from the first half of the Brewers' 2025 season:

1. Jacob Misiorowski's perfect-game bid, Crew's offensive explosion against Minnesota Twins (6/20/25)

A game that occurred just one week ago, the Brewers’ 17-6 win over the Minnesota Twins should be fresh on fans' minds. While the final score implies a strong offensive showing from both sides, the game started as a pitcher's duel between Twins' ace Joe Ryan and Milwaukee's rookie sensation Jacob Misiorowski. In just his second career MLB start, Miz took a perfect-game bid into the seventh inning before surrendering the first two (and still only two) runs of his major league career.

However, Misiorowski's performance wasn't the only one that made the Brewers' blowout win against the Twins a memorable one. On the offensive side of the ball, Christian Yelich collected a franchise-record-tying eight RBI, and the offense as a whole shockingly scored 17 runs without the aid of a home run. The lone downside was Jake Bauers losing his perfect 0.00 season ERA while closing out the Brewers' lopsided victory.

2. Christian Yelich's walk-off grand-slam against Boston Red Sox (5/27/25)

The Red Sox scored first in the second game of the lone 2025 series between Boston and Milwaukee. The Brewers took game one, and the scuffling Red Sox were in desperate need of a victory. In the bottom of the ninth, the Brewers found themselves down just one run with their best hitter, Christian Yelich, set to lead off. Yelich lined a double down the third base line and scored on an RBI single from Sal Frelick a few batters later, tying the game at one.

The following inning, the Brewers loaded the bases before Yelich returned to the plate, just a few moments removed from his game-tying run scored in the ninth frame. On a hanging slider from long-time great Liam Hendricks, Yelich sent a towering grand slam to right center, earning his first career walk-off home run in emphatic fashion and propelling the Brewers to a third-straight win.

3. Blowout win against NL-leading Philadelphia Phillies (5/31/25)

Just three days after the Yelich's walk-off grand slam, the Brewers traveled to Philadelphia for a three-game series with the NL-leading Phillies. They took game one by a score of 6-2 thanks to a two-homer game from Yelich (it was quite the week for the former MVP), but their win in game two was even more impressive. They scored four runs in the first inning on an RBI single from Yelich and a three-run homer from Rhys Hoskins, while facing Jesús Luzardo, who entered the start with a 2.15 ERA.

Three innings later, with Luzardo still on the mound, the Brewers put up an 8-spot after their first six batters of the inning reached, and Hoskins piled on with another three-run shot. The Crew put up another crooked number in the seventh, bringing their run total to 17 (a season-high before they tied it a few weeks later in Minnesota). Not only was it a convincing win against a really good team, but it also brought the Brewers' win streak to six games — a streak that eventually ended at eight.

3 worst losses from the first half of the Brewers' 2025 season:

1. Opening series 20-9 loss to New York Yankees (3/29/25)

Remember the Brewers' first series of the year in New York? Me neither. However, according to the records, the Brewers surrendered 20 runs to the New York Yankees on March 29 in Nestor Cortes' return to Yankee Stadium. In the bottom of the first, Cortes surrendered three-straight home runs on three-straight pitches (his first three in a Brewers uniform), to Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger, and Aaron Judge. Cortes would go on to give up another HR in the inning, to Austin Wells.

In the end, despite the Brewers putting up nine runs, they lost by 11. The game sparked controversy about the legality of the "torpedo bat," pouring salt in the wound caused by the Brewers’ blowout loss. It was the second of four straight losses by the Crew to begin the season, and a brutal debut for the team's biggest offseason acquisition.

2. Bullpen implosion against Arizona Diamondbacks (4/12/25)

Just a few weeks into the season, the Brewers had made up for their slow start to the season and amazingly eclipsed the .500 mark after a 7-0 victory over a strong Arizona Diamondbacks team in game one of a three-game set in Phoenix. The Crew seemed destined for back-to-back wins over the "snakes," carrying a 4-0 lead into the bottom of the ninth. Without a save situation on the line, Pat Murphy turned to Joel Payamps to close out the game.

But close out the game, Payamps did not. Instead, he earned one out and then allowed a walk and a triple, making it a three-run game, which was enough for Murphy to bring in his closer. Megill did not have his best stuff, and he allowed the first five batters he faced to reach before Lourdes Gurriel Jr. ended the game on a walk-off sacrifice fly. On the doorstep of a win against a playoff contender, the Brewers couldn't shut the door, and the result was one of the most devastating losses in recent Brewers' history.

3. Nolan Arenado's walk-off HR in St. Louis (4/26/25)

For a brief moment, this game looked like it would become a candidate for one of the best wins of the year. Down two runs in the top of the ninth inning and facing one of the best closers in the game in Ryan Helsley, Jackson Chourio sent a two-run homer into the seats at Busch Stadium, extending the game to the bottom of the ninth. With Brendan Donovan, Nolan Arenado, and Nolan Gorman due up, Murphy turned to his closer, Megill, to try and force extra innings.

Megill got Donovan to line out to Chourio in center field before Arenado stepped to the plate. On the second pitch he saw, Arenado turned on an inside 98 mph fastball and sent it just over the left field fence for a walk-off homer. The loss dropped the Brewers' season record down to 13-15, when they very nearly could have returned to .500. Thankfully, Megill and the Brewers exacted their revenge when the Cardinals visited American Family Field for a four-game series in mid-June. The Crew took three of four, and Megill earned saves in two of those wins.