Brewers fans are hoping 'Uecker magic' will carry the team to a deep October run

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Milwaukee Brewers fans offer a supernatural explanation for their team’s surprising surge to the top of the major league standings.

And they believe it can continue carrying them all the way through October as the Brewers seek to win their first World Series title.

“It’s Uecker magic,” said Bonnie Bruhn, a 79-year-old Brewers fan from the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis, Wisconsin.

As the Brewers prepare to spend this weekend honoring Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Uecker, fans are hoping the team can pay tribute to him by making the deep playoff run that has eluded this franchise lately.

Uecker, who died Jan. 16 at the age of 90 after fighting small cell lung cancer, had broadcast Brewers games for 54 years. He remained loyal to his hometown team even after his chats with Johnny Carson and appearances in beer commercials and the “Major League” movies made him a national celebrity.

The Brewers are holding a celebration of life for the man nicknamed “Mr. Baseball” before their Sunday afternoon game with the San Francisco Giants. The pregame ceremony will be hosted by Bob Costas, Uecker’s longtime broadcast partner on NBC national telecasts.

There already has been plenty for Brewers fans to celebrate this season, as they own the best record in the major leagues and hold a seven-game lead over the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central.

Milwaukee didn’t send a single position player to the All-Star Game, yet the Brewers entered Thursday ranked second in the majors in runs scored thanks to a lineup with a tenacious approach that has manager Pat Murphy comparing his players to woodpeckers because they “keep pecking away.”

Rookie third baseman Caleb Durbin used a different comparison this week.

“It feels like we’re sharks out there,” Durbin said. “We smell blood. Once we get runners on and start scraping those first couple runs across, we want that big inning.”

The Brewers (80-48) could go just .500 the rest of the season and would still end up with the best record in franchise history. They were 25-28 and 6 ½ games behind the Cubs on May 24, but they’re 55-20 since.

That surge includes a franchise-record 14-game winning streak that had some strange coincidences.

Milwaukee scored 12 runs in its 12th straight win. The Brewers extended the streak to 13 when Christian Yelich used a special Uecker-themed bat in a game for the first time and homered twice in a victory over Cincinnati. The Brewers’ 14th straight win featured a go-ahead homer in the 11th inning from light-hitting utilityman Andruw Monasterio, who happens to wear No. 14.

Bruhn noted a couple of those examples Wednesday as she talked Brewers baseball while waiting in line to get her free hamburger from George Webb, a local fast-food chain that gives away burgers whenever Milwaukee wins at least 12 straight games. Bruhn also explained just how much faith she has in this year’s team.

After the Brewers’ last 12-game winning streak in 2018, Bruhn said she got her free burger from George Webb but kept it in the freezer “in a little baggie just to remind us it would happen again.”

“'Til a week ago we threw them away, because we knew that we were going to get fresh hamburgers,” Bruhn said. “It was just a sign that we trusted the team to win 12 in a row.”

The question is whether this Brewers team can be trusted to carry over its regular-season success into the postseason.

Milwaukee has reached the playoffs six of the last seven years but hasn’t won a postseason series since reaching Game 7 of the NL Championship Series in 2018. The Brewers have lost 11 of their last 13 postseason games.

Yelich noted the random nature of postseason baseball and said the Brewers’ playoff history is pretty irrelevant because there’s so much turnover from year to year. Yelich and pitcher Brandon Woodruff are the only players remaining from that 2018 team.

“Each team has just as good of a chance as winning the World Series as losing in the first round every year,” Yelich said. “It’s baseball. You line out a few nights in a row, you’re out of the postseason. If you have some ground balls that find the holes in the right situation, you’re probably going to move on.”

Last year, the Brewers led the New York Mets 2-0 in the decisive third game of the NL Wild Card Series before two-time NL reliever of the year Devin Williams allowed four runs in the ninth inning.

Uecker closed what would end up being the final broadcast of his legendary career that night by saying, “That one has some sting on it,” before heading down to console the Brewers players in a silent locker room.

That message from Uecker still resonates with Brewers fans, who believe in their hearts he’s playing a role in this special season.

“Uecker is contributing, because after the last game, he said this one really stings,” Bruhn said. “He knew he wasn’t coming back for another game. So we’ve got to win for him.”

And they know the longtime broadcaster is still cheering on every victory.

“I’m glad they’re doing it for him after his passing,” said Steve Ebert, a 62-year-old Brewers fan from outside West Allis. “Bob’s looking down, going ‘Go Brew Crew, go.'"

AP Baseball Writer Jay Cohen contributed to this report.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

Milwaukee Brewers' Brandon Lockridge (20) Blake Perkins (16) and Sal Frelick (10) react after beating the Pittsburgh Pirates in a baseball game, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

Fans line up outside a George Webb restaurant in Milwaukee, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025, to capitalize on a giveaway by the local fast-food chain, which gives out free hamburgers whenever the Milwaukee Brewers win at least 12 straight games. (AP Photo/Steve Megargee)

Milwaukee Brewers' Christian Yelich gives the fans a thumbs up after beating the Pittsburgh Pirates in a a baseball game, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

Milwaukee Brewers' Christian Yelich, right, high-fives with William Contreras after Yelich hit a two-run home run against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the fifth inning of a baseball game, Tuesday, Aug.12, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was at the White House on Thursday discussing her country's future with President Donald Trump even after he publicly dismissed her credibility to take over after an audacious U.S. military raid captured then-President Nicolás Maduro.

Trump has raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in Venezuela. His administration has signaled its willingness to work with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president and, along with others in the deposed leader’s inner circle, remains in charge of day-to-day governmental operations.

In endorsing Rodríguez so far, Trump has sidelined Machado, who has long been a face of resistance in Venezuela and sought to cultivate relationships with Trump and key administration voices like Secretary of State Marco Rubio among the American right wing in a gamble to ally herself with the U.S. government.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump was expecting a positive discussion during the lunchtime meeting and called Machado “a remarkable and brave voice” for the people of Venezuela.

The White House said Machado sought the face-to-face meeting without setting expectations for what would occur. Her party is widely believed to have won 2024 elections rejected by Maduro. Machado previously offered to share with Trump the Nobel Peace Prize she won last year, an honor he has coveted.

Leavitt said Trump is committed to seeing Venezuela hold elections “one day,” but wouldn’t say when that might happen.

Machado plans to have a meeting at the Senate later Thursday. Trump has called her “a nice woman” while indicating they might not touch on major issues in their talks Thursday.

Her Washington swing began after U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says had ties to Venezuela. It is part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil after U.S. forces seized Maduro and his wife at a heavily guarded compound in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges.

The White House says Venezuela has been fully cooperating with the Trump administration since Maduro’s ouster.

Rodríguez, the acting president, herself has adopted a less strident position toward Trump and his “America First” policies toward the Western Hemisphere, saying she plans to continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro — a move thought to have been made at the behest of the Trump administration. Venezuela released several Americans this week.

Trump, a Republican, said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was ousted.

“We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things,” Trump said during an Oval Office bill signing. “And I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”

Even before indicating the willingness to work with Venezuela's interim government, Trump was quick to snub Machado. Just hours after Maduro's capture, Trump said of Machado that “it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”

Machado has steered a careful course to avoid offending Trump, notably after winning last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, which Trump wanted to win himself. She has since thanked Trump. Her offer to share the peace prize with him was rejected by the Nobel Institute.

Machado’s whereabouts have been largely unknown since she went into hiding early last year after being briefly detained in Caracas. She briefly reappeared in Oslo, Norway, in December after her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.

The industrial engineer and daughter of a steel magnate began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the nongovernmental organization she co-founded, Súmate, promoted a referendum to recall then-President Hugo Chávez. The initiative failed, and Machado and other Súmate executives were charged with conspiracy.

A year later, she drew the anger of Chávez and his allies again for traveling to Washington to meet President George W. Bush. A photo showing her shaking hands with Bush in the Oval Office lives in the collective memory. Chávez considered Bush an adversary.

Almost two decades later, she marshaled millions of Venezuelans to reject Chávez’s successor, Maduro, for another term in the 2024 election. But ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared him the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. Ensuing anti-government protests ended in a brutal crackdown by state security forces.

Garcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela, and Janetsky from Mexico City. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

FILE - U.S. President George Bush, right, meets with Maria Corina Machado, executive director of Sumate, a non-governmental organization that defends Venezuelan citizens' political rights, in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington, May 31, 2005. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures to supporters during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)