Crew capitalizes on Yankees' blunder for first walk-off win of '26 

MILWAUKEE – For the first time in 2026, the Brewers were walk-off winners.

It took a pair of comebacks, a surprise relief stint from one of their starting pitchers and a couple of reminders that even the team with one of the best records in the Majors is prone to occasional blunders before William Contreras’ sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th inning gave the Brewers a 4-3 win over the Yankees at American Family Field.

"My moment. It was my moment,” said Contreras. “That's what I was thinking, and [the Yankees] made it a little bit easier for me there.”

The Brewers came back from an early 2-0 deficit to tie the game in the eighth inning, but they needed another rally in the bottom of the 10th after New York scored in the top of the inning to take the lead. The Yankees did plenty to help out.

Here’s the setup for the winning moment: Luis Rengifo, 0-for-3 in the game and hitting .179 this season, led off the 10th inning trying to bunt the free runner to third, but Yankees reliever Fernando Cruz took him off the hook with a wild pitch. Then Cruz made things worse by walking Rengifo. That set up Jackson Chourio’s tying infield single, which pushed Rengifo to second for Brice Turang’s comebacker to the next New York reliever, Tim Hill.

That’s when the inning really went off the rails for the Yankees. Hill chose to try to retire the lead runner at third, but his throw hit Rengifo in the left hand and caromed off his head, loading the bases and prompting a visit from the athletic trainer to check on Rengifo.

"I didn't know what happened,” Rengifo said. “I was running to third base and I felt something hit my face."

“I made a good pitch, and then a bad decision,” Hill said. “I feel like my instincts told me third, and my instincts were wrong.”

“I just think his aggressive nature just took over,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Usually Timmy’s so good at handling his position, especially as much as he puts the ball on the ground.”

It was a fateful mistake.

"That changes a lot,” Rengifo said.

It changed everything. Had Hill taken an out at any base, the Yankees could have intentionally walked Contreras and had a left-on-left matchup against Jake Bauers, whose home run leading off the seventh inning had sparked Milwaukee’s first comeback of the night.

But now, there was nowhere to put Contreras. He knew Hill would try to keep him on the ground with an array of sinkers.

“I think I was trying to see it a little deeper there and emphasize putting it in the air,” Contreras said. “I wasn't trying to pull it and leave the yard. I was trying to put it in the air and win the game."

And that’s exactly what he did.

Contreras sent a sacrifice fly to right field to win the game and cap his two-RBI night.

“I think they made a bad decision going to third there,” Contreras said, “and whenever another team makes a bad decision, you look to take advantage of that."

The victory went to Brewers reliever Aaron Ashby – making the lefty the Major League leader with seven victories – on a night when Milwaukee got only four innings from starter Kyle Harrison. He was followed by another Brewers starter, Chad Patrick, for three-plus innings amid a stretch of the schedule heavy with off-days that negated the need for a fifth starter.

DL Hall followed with one inning, then Ashby for two, limiting the Yankees to a lone run in the top of the 10th.

"I think it's been the best game that we've been able to put together from a pitching staff perspective,” Contreras said. “I think everybody knows the team that they have over there and the talent they have in the lineup. Just tremendous credit to the guys and the way they've come out and been able to attack.”

It took a pair of late-inning comebacks to win after the Brewers were shut down for the first six innings by Yankees right-hander Cam Schlittler, who was struck on the left calf by a 108.5 mph line drive off the bat of Contreras in the first inning and was undeterred. Schlittler held the Brewers to that single plus one other in six scoreless innings before departing with a 2-0 lead.

But the Brewers stayed close long enough to win the game and the series.

They will have a chance to sweep the Yankees on Sunday afternoon.

“When you're facing the Yankees, you want to win every single time because they always have good teams,” Rengifo said. “We have a good team, too. So just fight and compete every single time out."