The Brewers didn’t just win 100 games on Thursday night in Philadelphia. They also kept doing what they’ve been doing for years now: turning the regular season into their personal runway.
Milwaukee’s first 100-win season in franchise history came with another major reward soon after, as the club clinched baseball’s best record and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs for the second straight season. It’s the latest marker of a run that has made the Brewers one of the most consistently successful teams in the sport.
Since the start of the 2017 season, Milwaukee has piled up the fourth-most regular-season wins in baseball and the second-most in the National League. The Brewers have made the postseason in eight of their last nine seasons and won six division titles in that stretch. Their lone losing season in that span came in 2020, when they finished two games under .500 - and 2020 doesn’t count.
What stands out now is that the Brewers’ regular-season ceiling keeps climbing. Last year they set a franchise record with 97 wins. This year they moved that mark again and reached 100 for the first time.
Pat Murphy has played a major role in that rise. His aggressive style, both in game and across the grind of the season, has helped Milwaukee squeeze out extra wins that other managers might leave on the table.
Whether that approach is the best long-term formula is another debate. What isn’t up for debate is that the Brewers have become even tougher to catch with him steering the ship.
But the bigger reason for Milwaukee’s rise may be simpler: this is a more complete team than the ones that came before it. The Brewers of the late 2010s and early 2020s had to get creative just to stay in the mix.
In 2018 and 2019, they added the best available players through trades and free agency, even when the fit was awkward, and leaned on bullpen games and defensive positioning to maximize imperfect rosters. From 2021 through 2023, they tried to offset shaky offenses with elite starting pitching.
Now, they’re strong almost everywhere. Over the last two seasons, according to FanGraphs, Milwaukee ranks fifth in wRC+, first in baserunning runs, sixth in Defensive Runs Saved, and second in pitching WAR based on runs allowed per nine innings.
The roster is deep, and the front office has done a good job swapping aging talent for controllable players, which gives the club options when injuries or underperformance hit. For all the talk about a special Milwaukee formula, there isn’t really some hidden “Brewers way.”
They just do a lot of things well.
“Everybody thinks we play different than everybody else,” Murphy said in Philadelphia earlier this week. “I don’t really see that all that much.”
Even with the wins piling up, Murphy still sees plenty to clean up. A few minutes after that comment, he listed areas where he wants more from his team: better leads at first base, cleaner work in the field when plays need to be finished, and sharper pitching when it comes to holding runners and protecting pitches. The Brewers will use their bye week to work on those details before the postseason.
That’s where the next test begins. Milwaukee has all the regular-season receipts, but October is still the unfinished business.
The Brewers remain one of five active teams that have not won a World Series, and there are obvious questions about how this group will handle the short series grind. Their offense ranks 28th in home runs, which raises the obvious issue of whether they can produce enough big swings against elite pitching.
The starting rotation also comes with questions behind Jacob Misiorowski and Logan Henderson.
That’s the tension with this team: built to win over 162 games, still waiting to prove it can do the same against the best teams in the tightest moments. Until it does, the ultimate goal remains out of reach.
Still, it’s not fair to reduce everything short of a title to failure. A team has to get to the postseason before it can win the World Series, and Milwaukee keeps doing that year after year. If the Brewers stay on this path, they’ll give themselves more chances to finish the job.
The regular season matters. The Brewers have made sure of that, and no one has done it better.
In Other News...
Jacob Misiorowski Is Chasing A Brewers Mark In His Final Start
Jacob Misiorowski is lined up to take the ball in the Brewers final game of the 2026 regular season, and the timing gives Milwaukee a chance to finish with one more reminder of how far his season has carried them. He has spent the year pitching like one of the leagues toughest arms, and his work has put him on the verge of a mark that has stood in the organization for nearly half a century.
With a league-leading 1.86 ERA, Misiorowski is on pace to break the Brewers single-season record set by Mike Caldwell in 1978. It has been that kind of year for Milwaukees young starter, with every outing adding weight to what has become a defining stretch for the club, and one more appearance now stands between him and a place in team history. [Read more 🡒]
Another Young Brewers Arm Is Forcing His Way Into October Plans
Jacob Misiorowski has given the Brewers another reason to feel good about the rotation as October approaches, adding to a season that already has Milwaukee in rare air. He has been one of the clubs most effective arms all year and is in the mix to become the first Brewers pitcher to win the National League Cy Young Award since 2021, a reflection of how far this staff has carried a team that has already clinched a first-round playoff bye and is closing in on the franchises first 100-win season.
Logan Henderson has quietly pushed his way into the conversation, too, with a rookie year that has stood out even in a strong pitching environment. He set the record for the lowest WHIP by a rookie with at least 15 starts and matched a streak of consecutive starts allowing three or fewer runs, giving Milwaukee yet another young option to weigh as it sorts out October plans. [Read more 🡒]
Brewers Have A New Reason To Watch Chicago's October Slide
Chicagos stumble into October has only gotten a little more complicated with Alex Bregman sidelined after taking a foul ball to the eye and suffering multiple facial fractures. The Cubs have kept him off the injured list, which leaves them short a bench player while they wait on his return, and that missing depth has come at a bad time for a club trying to hold its place in the National League Wild Card picture.
For the Brewers, the timing matters because every wrinkle in the Cubs roster now feeds into the race around them. Chicago has slipped out of the top Wild Card spot and is trying to secure a better postseason position, but playing shorthanded while Bregman remains out adds another layer of pressure to a stretch that already has the divisions attention. [Read more 🡒]