Let's bathe in a bunch of clutch home runs during Ryan Braun's career with the Brewers
JR Radcliffe
Sunday marked almost certainly the biggest win of the 2019 season, when Ryan Braun hit a grand slam on a full-count pitch with the Brewers trailing, 4-3, in the ninth inning against division leader St. Louis. Let's review.
Packers win. Brewers win and take the series. It was a great day.
It's obviously not the first critical home run hit by Ryan Braun; you could argue he had three equally massive home runs in 2018 alone (and we'll get to those). Let's just go ahead and re-live some of the greatest hits, particularly in the eighth or ninth inning for playoff teams.
The 2008 clincher
Twenty-six years without a playoff appearance ended in thrilling fashion in 2008, when the Brewers won the National League wild card after a dramatic 3-1 win over the Cubs on the final day of the season. Surely, you remember what Braun did with a first-pitch fastball from Bob Howry in the bottom of the eighth.
The 2011 clincher
The stakes weren't as high in 2011, but the Brewers clinched the NL Central title in 2011 against the Marlins on Sept. 23, with five games left. With the game tied at one in the bottom of the eighth, Braun's three-run homer against Clay Hensley proved to be the difference, and Braun raised his bat to the sky in triumph.
Let's go back to 2008 for another grand slam
It wasn't just the final day of the season that ended with some Braun heroics in 2008. Milwaukee won five of its final six games to take the wild card, and that included a three-game sweep over the Pirates. In the bottom of the 10th, Braun's grand slam with two outs (sound familiar?) on Sept. 25 sealed that sweep, a 4-1 walkoff win.
The 2018 collection
Pick a favorite.
The back-to-back: You've got the game winner against the Cardinals on April 3, when Christian Yelich homered to tie the game with two outs in the ninth against Dominic Leone and Braun won it one pitch later.
It's the first time in Major League history a game began and ended with back-to-back home runs. It was also Yelich's first home run in a Brewers uniform, though it was still Braun who won it.
San Diego sweetness: That was already Braun's second huge homer of the season. On March 30 in San Diego — the second game of the season — Braun faced an 0-2 pitch from closer Brad Hand with two outs in the ninth and crushed it for a three-run blast that gave Milwaukee an 8-6 lead and capped a ridiculous five-run final frame.
The bounce: Against the Tigers in the final series of the year, with the Brewers in the midst of a wild 12-game winning streak that extended into the NLCS, Braun's home run in the eighth bounced off the glove of Nicholas Castellanos of the Tigers and gave the Brewers the edge it needed in a 6-5 win. It was 10 years to the date of his 2008 eighth-inning blast.
There are plenty of other good ones, but these are among the most incredible. We'll find out precisely where the Cardinals blast ranks when we get the context that comes with the final two weeks of the season.
]JR Radcliffe can be reached at (262) 361-9141 or jradcliffe@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JRRadcliffe.