Dairyland Madness: Milwaukee Brewers Round Two

Round two of Dairyland Madness continues today with the Milwaukee Brewers region. It should be interesting to see what four performances prevail in round two.

Every matchup in the second round is a hitting vs. pitching matchup. In three of them, the pitching matchup is the lower seed. Will hitting or pitching prevail? Only time will tell how these things will shake out for these eight Milwaukee Brewers’ performances.

There aren’t any questions about how much the fantastic performances that are still left deserve to be here. They have won one matchup and done things that no one would expect to see when they come to the ballpark on any given day. The rare and unique nature of each of these eight games gives each matchup an interesting flair. Which of these performances are the most impressive to you? Make sure to go over to Twitter and vote on each matchup or follow the link at the end of the article to make your voice heard.

#1 C.C. Sabathia CG 1-hitter 2008 vs. #9 Yelich 2nd Cycle 2018

Sabathia defeated an NLCS relief appearance from Josh Hader with 86 percent of the vote and shows no signs of slowing down as the number one seed. This was a game that could have been a no-hitter and it is possible that people may vote for it as if it was a no-hitter. That will make it tough to beat as we all remember how magical C.C. was in his partial season in Milwaukee.

Yelich needed an overtime vote to beat out eight-seeded Ryan Braun’s 3 HR, 7 RBI game after their matchup ended in an exact tie. Yelich was the only upset of the first round and it was a minor upset being a nine over an eight seed. It would be a huge upset for Yelich to beat Sabathia, but a cycle is a rare feat and not something to be taken lightly.

#4 Yovani Gallardo CG Shutout 2011 vs. #5 Christian Yelich 6-6 cycle 2018

Yovani Gallardo was the Milwaukee Brewers’ Opening Day starter for years before he eventually started the curse just a few years ago. This was the best game of his stretch, pitching a complete game shutout. Even with it being his best performance, he just narrowly beat out 13-seed Prince Fielder’s 3 Home Run game with 55 percent of the vote.

Gallardo beat a three-home run game narrowly, but now can he beat a cycle? Not just any cycle though, a cycle with six hits in an overtime win. Yelich beat George Kottaras’ cycle with 81 percent of the votes, and for a while, he had 100 percent. He had a comfortable win, but beating out Gallardo and his phenomenal day is a tall order.

#3 Sexson+Burnitz 3 HR Each 2001 vs. #6 Woodruff 8 IP, 1 hit, 2-3 2 RBI 2019

Richie Sexson and Jeromy Burnitz are a dynamic duo that were never able to win much of anything together because the rest of their team lacked the talent to get them there. This tournament is their chance to finally make a big run at something. As they say, two is better than one, and beating a combined effort will be tough to do for Woodruff.

Woodruff is up for the challenge though, as he took on nine hitters, one at a time of course, in this game and gave up only one hit. With his two hits in the bottom half of innings, he managed to outhit the team that he was pitching against. I don’t know how many games there have been like that, but I have to assume it’s almost as rare as a perfect game. So can Woodruff beat the odds here just like he did that day against the Phillies?

#2 Ben Sheets complete game 18 Ks vs. #7 Braun 3 HR, 3B, 6 RBI 2012

Ben Sheets’ 18 strikeout game is on the opposite side of Sabathia’s one-hitter, and if they both manage to not get upset, it will be a matchup of the two best pitching performances in recent Milwaukee Brewers’ history. Sheets took 93 percent of votes over Junior Guerra’s standout game in 2016, the greatest margin of any matchup in this region. Of course, he did give up that one homer to Andruw Jones, making it not a shutout, which could help Braun.

Ryan Braun came into this tournament with three iconic performances in the running. He is left with just this one after losing to Woodruff and falling in the heartbreaking overtime defeat to Christian Yelich. While he’s down to one game left, this is his best one. He racked up 15 total bases and had a game that may even be rarer than the MLB-record four home run game. The triple is rarer than the home run, giving this performance a little something extra special.