MILWAUKEE -- It’s a good time to be a Brewers fan, even when the ballgame is one to forget.
Take Saturday, when the Brewers inducted one of the most recognizable closers in franchise history into their Wall of Honor, then took players on a tour of the American Family Field parking lots to surprise fans with flying T-shirts before taking the field against the Giants with the best record in baseball.
The Brewers had a 1-0 lead until a pair of sixth-inning errors contributed to three unearned runs for the Giants, who pulled away in the seventh for a 7-1 win.
Before you shrug it off and say the Brewers -- 6 1/2 games up in the NL Central pending the Cubs’ outcome late Saturday night -- have built a cushion to absorb occasional nights like this, listen to manager Pat Murphy.
"Speak for yourself, because it hurts me. I won’t sleep nearly as well,” Murphy said. “‘Cushion’ isn’t a word I want to use, I just want to play right. I have no problem with the way we competed tonight. There was no lack of effort, there was no lack of anything. The guys care a lot. They want to do special things.”
They have been doing special things lately. Here’s how one busy day unfolded during a summer full of them.
Time: 2 p.m. CT
Location: On top of the home dugout
John Axford, the often-mustachioed right-hander who legend says signed in the middle of a Canadian blizzard in 2008 when the Brewers were the only team to show up -- yes, it was snowing, Axford says, but “blizzard” might be going too far -- finally got the closure he deserved on Saturday.
He logged 106 regular-season saves for the Brewers after taking over the job from Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman in 2010, including a franchise-record 46 saves in 2011 and a run of 49 successful save chances from 2011-12 that ranks as the sixth-longest in MLB history.
When he re-signed with the Brewers in 2021 after eight years away, it was something out of the movies he so loves. He’d been hired to work pre- and postgame for the Blue Jays’ television broadcast, but wound up pitching for them in the Minor Leagues instead. When the Brewers needed a big league bullpen arm, they made a trade. The cost? One dollar.
But the story took an unfortunate turn when Axford blew out his already-repaired right elbow his very first game back. It was the late Brewers broadcaster Bob Uecker, Axford revealed Saturday, who convinced him to make another comeback, so he had Tommy John surgery once again and wound up pitching for Team Canada in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
He went out on his terms. And on Saturday, he came back to Milwaukee to join the Wall of Honor, which recognizes notable Brewers players who meet a set of statistical criteria.
"Landing at 10 a.m. and blowing out my elbow by 10 p.m. that same day, it just brought the emotion to a whole other crashing moment that I wasn’t ready to experience,” Axford said. “I think I did everything in my power to not cry while I was walking off the field, [but] there were plenty of tears after that.
"So to have it end the way it did there, this is kind of an elating moment. It’s really hard to describe other than to say that I am extremely proud and happy to be here and to be joining all of these other deserving players.”
Time: 3:18 p.m. CT
Location: Manager’s office
Murphy’s door has been closed for a while now. Maybe it’s a high-level meeting with a club executive about how the Brewers will continue to navigate this trying stretch of 19 games in 18 days. Maybe he is counseling a slumping player.
Or maybe he’s napping.
When Murphy’s door opens, he’s just emerged from a snooze. No one is upset; Major League managers meet the media twice a day, every day, and that’s on top of their obligations for the flagship radio stations and national outlets. If the man needed some shuteye, he’s earned it.
The news of the day is twofold: One, Jacob Misiorowski is staying in the rotation to make his next start as scheduled against the D-backs, coming off three straight outings marred by one long, wild inning. Two, the Brewers might be without second baseman Brice Turang, one of their hottest hitters and best defenders who was hit on the right wrist by a pitch the night before.
"He’s touch-and-go whether he’s going to play today,” Murphy said. “We still don’t know for sure. … He’s in the cage right now. He didn’t feel very good coming in. If he’s going to alter his swing at all, these are the types of things that can get you off-course.”
Time: 4:06 p.m. CT
Location: X (the app formerly known as Twitter)
The answer comes when the Brewers release their lineup to the public.
Turang is not in it. After the game he showed the spot where he was hit, on the outside of the forearm next to the wrist. It was so swollen and tight that he lacked proper range of motion, Turang said. His timetable is to be determined.
Time: 4:44 p.m. CT
Location: Tunnel outside the home clubhouse
The golf carts have been lined up all afternoon, each labeled with the name of a Brewers player or coach. Every year, they surprise fans by driving out to the parking lots, where the grills are smoking and the T-shirts start flying.
Considering that he’s 6-foot-7 and maybe the Brewers' best pitching prospect ever, Misiorowski is easy to spot while riding in the back of a cart with Brewers senior vice president of stadium operations Steve Ethier and vice president of event operations (and professional golf cart driver) Matt Lehmann. They go out the north dock and loop around to the Braves 1 lot, which coincidentally leads to the corner of the stadium where Axford’s Wall of Honor plaque has just been installed.
“It’s kind of crazy that baseball has a pregame like a football tailgate or stuff like that,” Misiorowski said after distributing a massive bag of free T-shirts. “It’s a lot of fun.”
Time: 5:56 p.m. CT
Location: Pitcher’s mound
Back on that mound for the first time in more than four years, Axford’s ceremonial first pitch is a strike to Brewers associate manager and former teammate Rickie Weeks.
"This pitch, at least I won’t blow out my elbow,” Axford said.
Time: 6:10 p.m. CT
Location: Pitcher’s mound (again)
Now it’s Freddy Peralta’s turn. The Brewers have their Opening Day starter on the hill looking to add to his Major League-leading 15 wins in front of the Brewers’ 16th sellout crowd this season, with another capacity crowd coming Sunday when the team hosts a celebration of life for Uecker.
It wasn’t Peralta’s best outing. He walked old friend Willy Adames in the first inning and finished with four walks in all, matching his season high. He pitched five innings without allowing a run, but that left too much of the game to cover with the pitchers at the end of the bullpen depth chart, and the Giants took advantage against Grant Anderson (and some defensive lapses) in the sixth, and Carlos Rodriguez in the seventh.
Rodriguez, though, managed to cover the final three innings of the game, and that should help set the Brewers up better for Sunday’s series rubber match.
They’ll do it all over again in front of a packed house.
"There’s a lot of support and it’s awesome,” Misiorowski said. “The city is coming around and having a lot of fun with the team.”
And why not?
When you have the best record in the Majors, it’s a fun place to be.