Crew hits 90 wins with latest rally that was 'nothing short of electric'

MILWAUKEE -- It was the full 2026 Milwaukee Brewers experience crammed into 10 entertaining innings, a come-from-behind, 4-3 win over the Cubs at American Family Field that produced baseball’s first 90-win team. “It’s nothing short of electric,” said Brewers starter Jacob Misiorowski, who was just that at the start of the game. “It’s everything I can ask for in teammates.” “That’s what you love to be part of, trusting your team and believing,” said manager Pat Murphy. “And they’ll keep coming back.” “I think the only thing repeating in my head over and over again was, 'Wow, wow, wow,'” said rookie outfielder Luis Lara, who won the game with his first walk-off hit. “It was just unbelievable.” Down to their final strike after the Cubs took a two-run lead in the top of the ninth inning, Christian Yelich kept the game alive with a pinch-hit single and Jackson Chourio launched a tying, two-run home run to extend the night for a thrilling 10th, when Lara roped the winning single into left field. With their 40th come-from-behind victory, the Brewers became the first team in the Majors to reach 90 wins, and moved within striking distance of clinching a postseason berth for the eighth time in the past nine years. That could happen as soon as this weekend’s series against the Reds. After that, the Brewers will focus on clinching the NL Central over the Cubs. How is baseball’s small-market powerhouse in this position once again? Because of nights like Tuesday. It starts with Misiorowski After allowing five Cubs runs in four innings at Wrigley Field last week, the Brewers’ ace looked like himself again. He allowed one run on four hits and struck out nine in 6 1/3 innings with a fastball back up to 104.5 mph at its peak. That’s the Misiorowski the Brewers will need in October, and they were happy to see him again. “You know, he’s worn out. We all know that,” Murphy said. “But this kid can be really, really special. He’s just learning how to pitch. He’s got electric stuff.” Chourio comes up clutch, again “There’s not another person I’d probably want in that situation,” said Brewers center fielder Garrett Mitchell. “He just, like, does less, and absolutely demolishes baseballs.” Here was the situation: Two outs, runner aboard, bottom of the ninth inning. The Cubs had taken the lead in the top of the inning on Carson Kelly’s two-run double off Trevor Megill, who has been saddled with runs in each of the first two games of this series after allowing no earned runs in his previous 15 outings. The Brewers were down to their final strike when a pinch-hitting Yelich fell behind Jacob Webb, 0-2. But Yelich fought back to a full count before lining a single to right that extended the game for Chourio, who already had three hits on the night after hitting a go-ahead single against the Cubs the day before. Two pitches later, the game was tied on Chourio’s 22nd home run, a new career high after he hit 21 in each of his first two Major League seasons. It’s the right time for the 22-year-old to get hot; he’s produced a 1.044 OPS in his first two years playing postseason games. "Like I said before, I like to play with that pressure,” Chourio said. “I think the adrenaline takes my game to another level.” Defense The Brewers don’t rank as high in advanced metrics (14th in outs above average, 17th in fielding run value), but they would argue the metrics have it all wrong. This is still a club built around run prevention. This time the situation was the top of the 10th inning, with Seiya Suzuki on second base as the automatic runner and Alex Bregman, who has killed Brewers pitching over the past week, at the plate. Bregman hit a fly ball to Mitchell in center, and as he prepared to catch the baseball, the left fielder Chourio shouted something. “Tagging! Tagging! Tagging!” Mitchell heard. Suzuki indeed tried to take third, but he slid by the bag as Mitchell’s throw arrived and was out. It helped reliever DL Hall complete a scoreless inning that set up the Brewers for a walk-off. “The throw was incredible,” Chourio said. “That’s how us as a group in the outfield work,” Mitchell said. “We’re constantly communicating. We can talk about the throw, but let’s talk about those other two guys who put up clutch hits to give us a chance to win that game -- Jackson tying the game and Lara winning that game was incredible.” A rookie in a big spot Winning on a budget means believing in young players. On most nights, the Brewers have three players aged 22 or younger in the starting lineup in Chourio, Lara and shortstop Cooper Pratt. So as Lara waited to bat in the 10th, with one out and the winning run at third base, Murphy leaned in. "He asked me if I was ready,” Lara said. “He told me he believed in me 100 percent." Lara was having a lousy night. He was 0-for-4 with a double play groundout and a couple of strikeouts. On one of the strikeouts, he burned one of the Brewers’ ABS challenges. On another, he stranded runners at second and third to end the eighth in a 1-1 game. But the baseball gods provided another chance. “He wants to do good for the team,” Murphy said. “And when he’s doing bad, it’s not just about -- ‘God, I challenged when I shouldn’t, for the 10th time.’ It’s not a forte of his right now. He’s proven that. I think he doesn’t understand that we only get two. … No, he just cares. When you come into the environment here, you care about team. That’s the deal.” So Lara delivered for the team. He hit Caleb Thielbar’s first pitch over the third baseman and won the game. "Really, it was just a great team win,” he said. “What Jackson and Garrett were able to do for us there, I knew I just had to find a way to win the game. I knew that after those moments happened, if an opportunity came up for me again, I was going to find a way.”