The Milwaukee Brewers' story Thursday featured the unlikeliest of Bash Brothers before landing on an ending befitting the Brothers Grimm.

Every postseason run seems to require big moments from unexpected sources. Nobody could have predicted Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick would hit back-to-back home runs in Game 3 of the wild-card series, giving the Brewers a 2-0 lead in the seventh, but Milwaukee was robbed of the fairy-tale circumstances when New York's Pete Alonso delivered a back-breaking three-run homer in the ninth, setting up a 4-2 Mets victory.

"Just gutted for this group of guys, man," Bauers said after the loss eliminated the Brewers from the postseason with a 2-1 series loss. "It's been a special clubhouse since Day 1 of spring training. To have it end, it's not easy."

"We got beat," a downtrodden Frelick said. "It's going to be something I think we all kind of remember as a group going forward into next year."

Lefthander Jose Quintana had checked out of the game, having delivered six shutout innings for the Mets. And when righthander José Butto took his place, Brewers manager Pat Murphy made an unconventional decision, pulling slugger Rhys Hoskins and inserting Bauers into the game to lead off the frame.

Hoskins finished 0 for 9 in the series, and though many of his 26 homers in the regular season came at opportune times, he had a below-average 2024 season, his first year back after tearing his ACL.

Bauers, a .199 hitter who also joined the organization in 2024, didn't necessarily have better overall numbers than Hoskins, but he did demonstrate some pop (12 homers), had the platoon advantage, and also brought a higher grade of defense at first base to a scoreless game.

And he seemed to know good things were ahead.

"We're just sitting in the on-deck circle and he kind of looked and me and said, 'Let's just have some fun,'" Frelick said of Bauers in the moments before the seventh inning began. "He was smiling, and I could tell he was real excited. Just looked at me and said, 'Let's have some fun here.'"

His idea of fun: A 106-mile per hour rocket on a full-count pitch that went 405 feet, coasting easily over the right field wall and sending American Family Field into a frenzy.

"That's up there with the birth of my child, for sure," said Bauers, who also authored the walk-off single that clinched the division title Sept. 18. "It's tough to be excited about it right now, just really wish we could still be playing."

One pitch later, Frelick added to the moment.

Frelick stood as perhaps the least likely player on the team to hit a postseason home run. For one thing, it wasn't even assured he'd be available for the playoffs at all after sustaining a hip injury in the final weekend of the regular season.

Even when healthy, he had two regular-season homers, coming on back-to-back days May 14 and 15. His exit velocity this year among 252 qualified MLB hitters ranked dead last. And yet, the 107.6-mile per hour screamer that left no doubt to its destination was the hardest-hit ball of Frelick's career in the majors, traveling a near-identical 408 feet to Bauers' blast.

They were on track to be signature moments in a game that sent the Brewers to the National League division series in Philadelphia on Saturday. Instead, they are lost to history under the weight of a jaw-dropping four-run rally from the Mets in the ninth.

"My thoughts were, 'Let's go score some runs in the bottom,' and I think that's what probably everyone was thinking," Bauers said of the ninth. "That's been the mentality all year, and I don't think it changed until it was over."

It didn't happen, though Frelick led off the inning with a single for his fourth hit in the series. He was erased on a game-ending double play off the bat of Brice Turang.

"I think there's something to be said for mental toughness, focus, not giving up, being persistent, and having a little bit of confidence regardless of how things are going or the way they've been," Bauers said when asked to make sense of the unlikely back-to-back homer pair. "Just showing up and trying to be the best version of yourself every day and let the chips fall where they may."

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Jake Bauers, Sal Frelick were on track to be Brewers postseason heroes