Hello, baseball, we’ve missed you.
After a run to the National League Championship Series in 2025, the Milwaukee Brewers are back at home to open the 2026 season, starting with the Chicago White Sox on March 26. Can the Brewers replicate their success last season despite an inexperienced, albeit deep, pitching staff?
The Brewers haven’t opened the season at home since 2021 before a half-filled stadium still rebounding from the COVID-19 pandemic. Before that, their last season-opener at American Family Field was when the stadium was still Miller Park, hosting the St. Louis Cardinals for a memorable 5-4 win in 2019 that just might appear on the list of great opening days below.
There have been some fascinating Brewers season-openers over the years, some good and some bad. Take a look at the craziest of the bunch:
12. Cincinnati 3, Milwaukee 3 (2000)
A tie? At least it was evenly matched. The game didn’t count in the standings, but all the stats were registered when the opener was stopped in the sixth inning because of rain. It somewhat dampened the debut of Ken Griffey Jr. as a hometown Red, and the game was made up in its entirety the next night (the Brewers won, 5-1).
11. Milwaukee 10, St. Louis 8 (1999)
The Cardinals scored three times in the bottom of the eighth to pull within two runs, and then Sean Berry hit a three-run homer in the top of the ninth to give Milwaukee a five-run cushion again. The Cardinals rallied for three more in the ninth to make things cozy. But with a runner on first, Bob Wickman retired Willie McGee to end the madness.
10. Milwaukee 5, Colorado 4 (2013)
It was a walk-off winner when Jonathan Lucroy’s sacrifice fly in the 10th inning lifted the Brewers, who had scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth to take the lead, only to lose it in the ninth when Dexter Fowler homered with two outs and nobody on. The Brewers rallied against Adam Ottavino, the second-most-interesting walk-off win against Ottavino in Brewers history – with the first being Mike Moustakas’ Game 1 winner in the 2018 National League Division Series.
9. California 3, Milwaukee 2 (1983)
It was a rematch of the previous year’s American League Championship Series and came down to the wire. Paul Molitor’s sacrifice fly made it a one-run game in the ninth against Luis Sanchez, but it was also the second out. Robin Yount’s infield single and a wild pitch, however, put runners at second and third for 1982’s hero, Cecil Cooper. But, this time he grounded out, and the Angels prevailed.
8. Milwaukee 15, California 9 (1996)
What in the world? The teams combined for 37 hits, with Milwaukee scoring eight in the third and California getting a five-spot in the fifth. Chuck Carr had four hits and three RBI, one of five players in Milwaukee’s lineup to finish with multiple runs driven in. Carr also hit one of the game’s seven home runs. The next night, California won in an 11-inning battle, 3-2 — a game that was scoreless until the bottom of the seventh.
7. Milwaukee 2, San Diego 1 (2018)
The Brewers were one out away from locking up a 1-0 win to start the year, but Freddy Galvis singled off Corey Knebel to score pinch runner Matt Szczur — who had just stolen second base to get into scoring position with two outs. But in the 12th, Orlando Arcia delivered a two-out single to score folk hero Ji-Man Choi, who had doubled with two outs, and Jacob Barnes shut the door by striking out the side in the bottom of the inning.
6. Oakland 6, Milwaukee 5 (1984)
This was pretty crushing. Rollie Fingers, after missing the entire 1983 season with injury, was back on the mound for Milwaukee, facing the Athletics team with which he had won three championships, no less. The Brewers scored twice in the top of the ninth to take a 5-2 lead, and Fingers checked in after Chuck Porter surrendered a leadoff homer to Davey Lopes in the bottom of the ninth. Fingers faced three batters and retired none of them — all singles — and Bob McClure couldn’t get out of the jam. Oakland finished with four runs in the inning, scoring the last on Jim Gantner’s throwing error when he tried to end the game with a double play. Fingers took the loss but he finished the year with a 1.96 ERA, so it wasn’t all bad.
5. Cincinnati 7, Milwaukee 6 (2011)
We can laugh about it now because the Brewers won the division that year and made the NLCS, but the opener was a crushing disaster to kick off 2011. Milwaukee opened the season with back-to-back home runs by leadoff man Carlos Gómez and second baseman Rickie Weeks, then took a 3-0 lead after another run in the first. The lead was 6-3 going to the ninth when John Axford entered and allowed the first two men to reach, but there were two outs and a run in when Ramón Hernández stepped to the plate and hit a three-run blast that sent the Brewers to a jaw-dropping defeat. Milwaukee lost the first four games of the season that year. The Brewers still finished 96-66.
4. Milwaukee 6, Minnesota 5 (2021)
With fans back in the stands for the first time in over a year as the world continued to combat the COVID-19 pandemic — albeit in a limited capacity — Milwaukee staged a thrilling comeback, capped by Travis Shaw’s two-run double with two outs in the ninth and Orlando Arcia’s fielder’s-choice winner in the 10th. Lorenzo Cain’s head-first slide evaded the tag from catcher Mitch Garver and accounted for the winning run. Shaw, who’d played the 2020 season in Toronto, returned to the Brewers at the start of 2021 and plated the tying two runs against Alex Colomé.
3. Milwaukee 5, St. Louis 4 (2019)
The game had a little of everything that represented what made the Brewers great the preceding year, when they reached the seventh game of the NLCS. Reigning NL MVP Christian Yelich hit a big homer, a pitcher (Jhoulys Chacín) homered and center fielder Lorenzo Cain made two great catches, including a game-saving snare that took away a tying home run and ended the game in the ninth. Josh Hader got the save after striking out the side on 11 pitches in the eighth and working through the ninth. Milwaukee wound up winning one of the two National League wild-card spots that season.
2. Milwaukee 4, Chicago Cubs 3 (2008)
An unforgettable opener to a season that finished in the playoffs for the first time in 26 years, although it was an arduous experience for Brewers fans. Milwaukee broke through in a scoreless game with three runs in the ninth, picking up a Ryan Braun RBI single and a two-run double from Corey Hart, but Eric Gagné allowed each of the first three batters he saw in the ninth to reach — with Kosuke Fukudome homering to tie the game. Gagné rebounded to get the three outs he needed, Tony Gwynn Jr. delivered a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the 10th, and David Riske worked a 1-2-3 bottom half at Wrigley Field to save the Brewers from a disastrous loss. Milwaukee, of course, needed all 90 of its wins to claim the wild card that year on a dramatic final day of baseball.
1. Milwaukee 9, Boston 5 (1980)
Sixto Lezcano! Boston scored twice in the top of the ninth on home runs by Carl Yastrzemski and Butch Hobson to tie the game against Jim Slaton, but the Brewers went to work with two outs in the bottom half. With two outs, Ben Ogilvie was intentionally walked, and Gorman Thomas drew an old-fashioned walk to load the bases for Sixto, whose grand slam into the right-field bullpen sent the Milwaukee fans home with a thrill.
A first version of this story appeared in 2019.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The Brewers have had some wild Opening Day games. Take a look back
Reporting by JR Radcliffe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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