Major League Baseball descended on Williamsport for another edition of the Little League Classic on Sunday night, a great opportunity to give kids from around the world the chance to see the best players on Earth up close — and help the kid in all of us reconnect with why we love those game so much in the first place.
But this was about much more than good vibes. We also had a potential postseason preview on our hands at Bowman Field, as the Atlanta Braves snapped a two-game losing skid and delivered a major statement against the NL-leading Milwaukee Brewers in a 4-2 win. Milwaukee still took the series two games to one, but salvaging the finale gives a slumping Atlanta team some needed confidence that they can hang with the league’s best teams.
What does Sunday’s win tell us about the Braves? Is there cause for concern in Milwaukee? And why is everybody mad at Rob Manfred this time? There are plenty of takeaways to be had from one of the coolest events on the MLB calendar.
Instant takeaways from Braves’ win over Brewers at Little League Classic
1. It’s old news at this point, but this really is one of the best ideas Major League Baseball has had in a minute — one that hasn’t gotten less compelling over time. Watching wide-eyed Little Leaguers take in batting practice and get some autographs before the game while hanging out with MLB stars during it never gets old, and it feels like that enthusiasm rubs off on the big-leaguers involved. No notes, let’s do it again next year.
2. Seriously, can we get Jacob Misiorowski his own variety show? The man’s got impeccable comic timing.
These kids were asking The Miz the hard-hitting questions 🤣
— SportsCenter
3. And speaking of next year! During Sunday night’s broadcast, MLB announced that the 2027 Little League Classic would feature the Toronto Blue Jays against the Chicago Cubs. Both teams should be pretty good next season, both have passionate national fan bases and this is a funky interleague matchup we haven’t seen much of. Sign me up.
4. As for the actual game, this felt like a step forward for this struggling Braves lineup — even if three runs on the board doesn’t necessarily show it. Atlanta had traffic on the bases all night long against Shane Drohan and Milwaukee’s pitching staff, grinding out tough at bats and finding ways to put the ball in play and generate havoc even when they weren’t able to do a ton of damage. This felt like a playoff setting, and that was a playoff performance; I still believe the power will come around with time.
5. On the other side, though, this won’t quiet any questions about the back of Milwaukee’s rotation. Drohan allowed eight hits and three walks across five innings, and while he held Atlanta to just two runs, he struggled to miss bats all night long. Jacob Misiorowski, Kyle Harrison and Logan Henderson are a great top three, but they’re also young and inexperienced, and right now the Brewers have no idea who would take the ball for Game 4 of a playoff series.
6. If you want to know why Milwaukee has struggled to translate its regular-season success to October in recent years, this was a pretty good object lesson. The Brewers simply do not have much pop in their lineup, and when you play that way against a contending team, you leave yourself very little margin for error. Winning close, low-scoring games consistently in the postseason requires playing near-perfect baseball, and Milwaukee didn’t do that on Sunday, from errors in the field to walks on the mound.
7. It was hard not to watch this game and think about the paths these teams chose not to take at the trade deadline. Tyler Mahle was good enough for Atlanta but didn’t really look like a guy who could start a playoff game, while the left side of Milwaukee’s infield remains a sore spot — David Hamilton got the start at third base and failed to cash in runners in scoring position in addition to a crucial error on a ground ball that keyed a Braves rally. Sure would’ve been nice to push your chips in!
8. For as great as this event is, ESPN’s presentation of it … was not. I’m all for Karl Ravech getting a victory lap on his way out the door, but there was zero juice to this broadcast, from a confusing in-game interview with Garrett Mitchell to multiple plays that went by uncommented upon while Ravech and Eduardo Perez yapped to themselves about something or other.
9. That’s infinitely preferable to hearing Rob Manfred, though. The moment he came on for his on-air interview, it felt like the air got sucked out of the building. Nothing says the joy of baseball like listening to the drone of the man hell-bent on erasing the 2027 season, am I right?
