Sometimes, one home run becomes the symbol of a run to the World Series. Other times, it illuminates a team’s character. And in the rarest of cases, it embodies a biblical, theological and philosophical truth about our calling in life.
Submitted Photo.
The home run that Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers raked off of Los Angeles Dodger’s ace pitcher Blake Snell in the seventh inning of Game 3 of the 2026 National League Championship Series last Wednesday night flew 411 feet into the Los Angeles night.
It turned a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 Brewers lead, ultimately leading to a 6-2 victory that evening that put the Brewers in control of the NLCS, a series they ultimately won the next evening to punch their first ticket to the World Series in 44 years.
But perhaps most importantly, the greater intent of Bauers’ muscle-filled left-hand swing reflects the words from the sixth chapter of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians in the New Testament: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ.”
His teammate, bullpen pitching stalwart Abner Uribe, had placed a burden of baseball Confiteor upon his shoulders and a burden of coming back upon his teammates.
The inning beforehand, Uribe had been given a 1-0 Milwaukee lead, but Uribe walked the bases loaded, and Dodgers catcher Will Smith smashed a double that scored a pair of runs and gave Los Angeles a lead that put them in prime position to stay in the best-of-seven game series.
Jake Bauers’ faith is not well-known, but immediately his thought process and that of his team seemed to dive into that truth from the Book of Galatians, at least in retrospect. It especially seems that way when you look at the word choice Bauers made during his postgame interview with Fox Sports after their Game 3 win.
It wasn’t about winning the game for himself, or for generally the team itself.
It was about winning for Uribe, his teammate.
“The culture we’ve built is based around winning but also based around having each other’s backs in the good and the bad,” he said.
“We lose the lead, [and] the only thing the entire dugout was thinking was, ‘We’ve got to pick him up. We’ve got to win this game. We’ve got to win this game for Uribe.’”
In that moment, the Brewer specifically made winning for his teammate the mission of the evening. Not necessarily winning to come one step closer to the World Series but winning for their teammate who suddenly had a burden of giving up a lead on his back.
Uribe had helped carry his team in countless high-pressure situations throughout their first two rounds of the postseason. In six appearances against the two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers and similarly loaded San Diego Padres, Uribe had not allowed a run.
In picking up a struggling teammate, Bauers and the Brewers offered a small example of the Christian call to bear one another’s burdens.
Bauers battled in an 11-pitch at bat with Snell. On pitch 11, he cast Uribe’s burden 411 feet into the night.
The burden was gone. The lead was back. Uribe bounced out of the dugout with a relieved yet determined face as he thanked and congratulated his teammates for the series-changing, and perhaps the series-determining, home run.
That moment, and the 47 others so far this Brewers season that turned deficits into comeback wins, including six of their seven total postseason wins, even actualized the words of the fifth chapter of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans: “We even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint.”
Bauers’ entire journey to the Milwaukee Brewers even reflects carrying a burden for his family. It has been well documented that he had been on a pathway toward quitting baseball in general, but the burden of his family led him to choose returning to the game solely to provide for his family and allow for new life to come.
“The only thing that brought me back was that my wife got pregnant, and I was like, ‘Well, we need health insurance,’” he said to Fox Sports after Game 3. The mom and baby were insured. Eventually, so was a World Series trip.
One swing couldn’t erase Uribe’s difficult inning. But it showed what teammates can accomplish when they refuse to let one another carry their burdens alone.
Editor’s note: This article is a commentary reflecting the author’s interpretation of a memorable Brewers moment through the lens of Christian faith. At time of publication, the Brewers held the lead in the World Series.
