MILWAUKEE – Not even historic rainfall and flash flooding could keep fans from American Family Field on Sunday, and not even an early five-run deficit could keep the Brewers from finding their way into the win column once again.
William Contreras hit a pair of home runs, Joey Ortiz drove in three runs with a pair of clutch two-out hits and Isaac Collins hit the first walk-off home run of his life leading off the bottom of the ninth inning as the Brewers climbed all the way back from a 5-0 hole in the middle of the fourth inning to claim a ninth consecutive victory, 7-6 over the Mets – all after the club pushed forward with plans to play ball surrounded by flooded streets and homes as the result of a relentless rainstorm the night before.
“I honestly didn’t know if fans were going to be able to make it, and they showed out,” Collins said. “I love playing for this team and for this city.”
The Brewers said fans who couldn’t get to the game would receive credits on their account for unused tickets and prepaid parking passes to use towards any remaining 2025 regular-season home game. Fans in that circumstance should expect to receive an email before noon CT on Monday with instructions for accessing that credit.
But of the paid crowd of 42,461 – the Brewers’ seventh straight sold-out home game, something they hadn’t done since 2008 – a club spokesperson said that 33,700 fans did make it through the turnstiles, reflecting how a team populated by stars like Contreras and upstarts like Collins has captured the city’s imagination while rocketing to the top of the MLB standings with 24 victories in the last 28 games.
“I’ve been here 10 years, that’s the best environment that I’ve seen,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “I don’t know if we added seats or something, I don’t pay too much attention up there. It just seems louder. Wilder.”
And why not? It’s not just the winning, it’s the way the Brewers are winning that stands out. After winning only two of the first 22 games in which the opponent scored first, the Brewers have now come back to win 21 of the last 31 times that’s happened, including in all three games of their sweep of the Mets and in six of the nine games during this latest winning streak.
Sunday’s game unfolded like so many of the ones before it, with the Brewers pecking away. Contreras homered in consecutive innings in the fourth and fifth as Milwaukee cut a 5-0 deficit to 6-5, and Ortiz punched a two-out single past diving Mets first baseman Pete Alonso for a 6-6 tie in the eighth as the Brewers scored off former Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley for the second straight day. That set up Collins to win it in the ninth with a leadoff shot against closer Edwin Díaz.
For Collins, less than three years removed from being a Minor League Rule 5 Draft pick and now a 28-year-old NL Rookie of the Year Award contender, it was his first career walk-off hit in the big leagues, and his first career walk-off home run anywhere.
“Words can’t really describe it,” he said.
The same could be said for his team’s hot streak. The Brewers started four bench players on Sunday, didn’t have closer Trevor Megill or setup man Abner Uribe available and stayed away from using Christian Yelich as a pinch-hitter.
And they won anyway.
“I guess after Contreras’ [second] home run, opposite field to get within two, that was huge. You could tell the pressure was on for them,” Collins said. “That’s kind of how it’s been this whole year, we never really feel like the pressure is on us. The pressure is always on the opponent. It’s like blood in the water.”
Asked when he felt like the Brewers had a chance to come back to win, Ortiz said, “The first inning.”
What’s it like being on a team riding a run like that?
“It’s indescribable,” said starter Quinn Priester, who surrendered at least one Mets run in each of his five innings, yet somehow walked away with his club-record-tying 10-decision winning streak intact. “They definitely made up for a lot of my miscues today, but it’s a team game. I love being a part of this team, because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to smile right now.”
First, officials had to make the decision to play ball.
“It’s not a simple situation, but the fact is that the building is in great shape, so we’re very fortunate that there’s no damage or flooding in the structure,” Brewers president of business operations Rick Schlesinger said an hour before Priester’s first pitch. “We felt that it was the right thing to do to play the game.”
Two of the main access roads feeding stadium parking lots – W. Canal St. and Brewers Blvd. (Wisconsin Hwy 175) were under water, as were approximately half of the more than 13,000 parking spots in the lots themselves, according to the Brewers. Players and uniformed staff, however, were all accounted for, and Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said the visitors’ team buses were able to get to the stadium without incident on Sunday morning. A text chain among Brewers players helped them find the easiest route to work.
“We thought about [delaying the first pitch], but candidly, we didn’t know that would necessarily … lead to any more access roads to the ballpark, so we felt like, ‘Let’s just start the game at 1 o’clock instead of trying to communicate a different time and adjusting all of the work schedules,’” Schlesinger said. “We have a lot of game day staff coming in, and to their credit, most of them are able to make it here and wanted to be here.”
Everyone wants to be at American Family Field these days.
“It’s like magic in the air, almost,” Collins said. “That’s how baseball is. It’s just fun. We’re having a lot of fun.”