The Milwaukee Brewers had a good first half of the season, putting up a 56-40 record. That put them in second place of the National League Central, one game behind the Cubs. Since the second half began, they’ve been near unstoppable, going 29-12. Perhaps the biggest factor behind their rise has been the emergence of second baseman Brice Turang.
Turang was first called up by the Brewers in 2023 and the 23-year-old rookie quickly established himself as a strong defender at second base. However, his
offense was lacking, as he only managed a .585 OPS. In 2024, his defense got even better, as he was awarded not only the NL’s Gold Glove as second base, but the league’s Platinum Glove for the best overall fielder. While his offensive numbers still weren’t spectacular, they did improve. A .665 OPS certainly isn’t spectacular, but you can live with it from an elite defender in the middle infield.
Through most of 2025, Turang showed more modest improvement, and his OPS sat at .703 at the end of July. But since the start of August, he suddenly became one of the best hitters in baseball. He batted .343 during the month, and his ten home runs were more than he hit in either of his first two seasons.
What’s behind the sudden jump in performance? It’s probably just a case of a young player figuring it out. Turang had been a top 100 prospect, so it’s not like he came out of nowhere. That said, the power surge is probably a little fluky, and expecting more double-digit home run months doesn’t feel realistic.
Hopefully, he leaves that hot streak behind in August, and the change to September cools him down a bit.
X-Men character of the series
Cameron Hodge
Cameron Hodge was a human who secretly hated mutants, specifically his supposed best friend Warren Worthington aka Angel. Hodge eventually revealed himself as a villain and took several steps to ruin Worthington’s life. Worthington eventually became fed up and chopped off his head.
Unexpectedly, Hodge had made a deal with a demon from the hellish land of Limbo, and was granted immortality, so Angel’s attack didn’t kill him. He then became far more powerful when his head was grafted onto a super-powerful robot body.
Additional thought about the series
Going against the best team in baseball should serve as a barometer for the Phillies. Unfortunately, they’ll be starting off the series at a disadvantage. They played on Sunday night and then had to fly into Milwaukee for an afternoon game on Monday. I understand that they wanted to have a game during the day on Labor Day, it’s just poor timing for the Phillies, especially since they’ve had a few “schedule losses” where travel seemed to play a part in their poor performance.
But the Phillies can’t use that as an excuse. If they want to make the World Series, it feels like they’re going to need to get through Milwaukee, and the last time they faced the Brew Crew, it didn’t go very well. The Brewers visited Citizens Bank Park in late May are largely dominated the Phillies in the three-game series.
That series aside, the Phillies have generally held their own against top competition, so I expect a better showing this time around. (It would be difficult to do much worse.) Answering with a sweep of their own is too much to ask for, but it would be nice to earn a series win and show the Brewers that despite their gaudy regular season record, winning in the playoffs won’t be quite as easy.
