Some Brewers fan have mentioned “Uecker magic” as a possible contributor to the Brewers’ two 11+ game win streaks this season. Despite a wonderful pre-game ceremony in celebration of the life of Bob Uecker, magic wasn’t enough today as the Brewers choked away a late lead, falling 4-3 to the San Francisco Giants.
Uecker spent 54 years as a broadcaster for the Brewers, debuting as Milwaukee’s play-by-play announcer during the 1971 season. This season is only the second season in the entire history of
the Milwaukee Brewers in which he will not appear on the radio or television broadcast.
Uecker has been on the call for nearly every iconic moment in Brewers’ history. His iconic catchphrases — including “Juuuuust a bit outside!” and “Get up! Get up! Get outta here! Gone!” — remain instantly recognizable not just by Brewers fans, but by baseball fans everywhere.
By the time he passed away, on January 16th, 2025 at 91 years old, Uecker had cemented his place as one of the greatest announcers in sports history. Nobody is more synonymous with Brewers baseball than Bob Uecker.
It’s no small task to honor someone as legendary as Ueck, but the Brewers did an incredible job with today’s ceremony — a nearly two-hour event in celebration of his excellence as a broadcaster and a person. Before the celebration, outfielder Christian Yelich shared a touching tribute on Instagram that is more than worth the watch:
Yelich also gave a speech:
Willy Adames, who spent over three seasons as the Brewers’ starting shortstop before signing with the Giants in the 2024 offseason, was there for the ceremony along with the entire Brewers team and various other guests. He greeted Uecker’s wife, Judy, with a long hug:
Adames even played today’s game in custom cleats honoring Uecker:
Other guests at today’s ceremony included fellow announcer Bob Costas, Baseball Hall of Famer George Brett, former Brewers owner and Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, and two-time MVP Robin Yount. Yount had this touching anecdote to share:
Finally, Bob Uecker Jr. threw out the first pitch. Fittingly, it was juuuust a bit outside:
With all of the emotions and memories in the air during the ceremony, you’d be forgiven for forgetting that the Brewers had a game to play. The top of the first inning was relatively uneventful. with the only Giant to reach being — guess who — Willy Adames, courtesy of a walk by Brewers starter Chad Patrick.
Milwaukee couldn’t manage much against Giants starter Robbie Ray in the bottom of the frame. Sal Frelick reached on a walk, but was picked off first to end the inning after Caleb Durbin and William Contreras both made outs.
San Francisco scored their only runs prior to the ninth inning on a Luis Matos two-run jack. With two outs and Wilmer Flores on first, Patrick threw a cutter middle-in to Matos, who has been hot all series. Matos punished the mistake, sending it over the fence in left-center to put the Giants ahead, 2-0.
After the second inning, Patrick settled in quite nicely. He made it 5.1 innings, allowing just one more hit and striking out seven in the process.
Christian Yelich, who had become close to Uecker through his eight years with Milwaukee, had himself a day. Yelich doubled to lead of the bottom of the second, scoring on a Brandon Lockridge single.
An inning later, Yelich knocked in a run himself on a single off the glove of a diving Dominic Smith.
That brought the game to a 2-2 tie, which would remain the score until the fifth inning when Caleb Durbin squared up a 91-mph meatball from Ray — sending it over the fence in left center to give the Brewers the lead.
The score remained 3-2 until the top of the ninth. Brewers closer Trevor Megill came on to try and end the game for Milwaukee, but was unable to do so for the second time in as many tries. Matt Chapman led off with a double on a ball that Brandon Lockridge dove for, but probably shouldn’t have. Megill then got Wilmer Flores to wave at a 101 mph fastball for strike three. Matos, the next batter, stayed hot with a single to left field that advanced Chapman to third.
Giants manager Bob Melvin pinch-hit Rafael Devers for Andrew Knizner. Devers is scary to face at the plate in a potentially game-tying situation, but he didn’t look comfortable at all pinch-hitting — striking out swinging on four pitches for the second out. Megill then walked Jung Hoo Lee on five pitches, bringing up Heliot Ramos, who delivered for the Giants on a line drive into center field. Chapman and Matos both scored to give the Giants a 4-3 lead.
Despite a two-out Sal Frelick single to keep the Brewers alive, Anthony Seigler — pinch-hitting for Caleb Durbin against Ryan Walker — struck out looking for the final out of the game.
Walker is a little worse against left-handed hitters (.239 opponent batting average) than right-handed hitters (.219), but not bad enough that Brewers fans can’t question why Durbin (who had two hits on the day) wasn’t allowed to face Walker with the game on the line.
Milwaukee will get a chance to end up back in the win column tomorrow against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Brandon Woodruff is scheduled to take the mound against Eduardo Rodriguez. First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 p.m. CT.
