Five Brewers who could be surprise playoff heroes (plus five from the past who were)

October baseball is all about legendary performances, and the best part is that they often come from unexpected sources.

Baseball history is littered with unlikely playoff heroes. This isn't any different for the Milwaukee Brewers , either.

As the Brewers' sixth postseason appearance in seven seasons approaches, let's take a look at unexpected heroes from the past as well as toss some darts at who could be this year's folk heroes.

Remember these 5 Brewers playoff folk heroes?

Yuniesky Betancourt

The 2011 Brewers’ offense was a unit of mashers…and then there was Betancourt. But in the postseason, the man with the .652 regular-season OPS outperformed almost everyone. In 11 games, Betancourt batted .310 with a .826 OPS, a homer, three doubles and six RBI. Most of that damage came in the National League Championship Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, but he also did deliver a go-ahead single in the sixth inning of Game 5 of the NL Division Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Charlie Moore

On the star-studded 1982 Brewers squad, Moore had one of the better postseason performances, batting .385 with a .890 OPS in 12 games. He scored the game-winning run on Cecil Cooper's late single in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series against the California Angels and drove in what was ultimately the decisive run in the 6-4 win in Game 5 of the World Series against the Cardinals.

Dave Bush

The man who brought an end to the Brewers’ 26-year playoff win drought pitched in precisely one playoff game in his entire career. Bush went 56-69 with a 4.73 ERA across nine seasons in the majors, but nevertheless was the one to take the mound in Game 3 of the 2008 NLDS, when he allowed one run in 5⅓ innings to the eventual World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies.

Nyjer Morgan

OK, Morgan wasn’t the ultimate unexpected folk hero considering he was pretty good in 2011 – he batted .304 with a .778 OPS – but on that team he was far from the first guy you’d expect to deliver the big hit. With Ryan Braun waiting on deck, it was Morgan who, of course, sent the Brewers to the NLCS with a walk-off single in Game 5 of the NLDS against Arizona.

Mark Brouhard

Brouhard, added to the roster as a last-minute injury replacement for Ben Oglivie, has four playoff at-bats to his name. They all came in Game 4 of the 1982 ALCS against the Angels. In that game, with the Brewers facing elimination, Brouhard opened the scoring with a single and then put the game out of reach with a two-run homer in the eighth just moments after Don Baylor’s grand slam had drawn the Angels within two runs.

Five unlikely folk heroes on the 2024 Brewers

Jake Bauers

Bauers did not have a great year at the plate. He bopped 12 homers and struck out 34% of the time. But he is going to play in the postseason in some capacity and has the capability of hitting a homer at any point, particularly against fastballs. And you can bet he’s going to get challenged with velocity at some point this October.

Blake Perkins

Perkins is just as likely to be a hero with the glove as he is with the bat…although perhaps any potential robberies from someone who robbed five homers in center field this year can’t really be described as "unlikely."

Nick Mears

Every season, there are relievers who come seemingly out of nowhere to shine on a postseason stage. Mears, who missed almost the entire last month of the season with a right forearm injury before being activated from the injured list Thursday, has some of the filthiest stuff in the Brewers bullpen. He struck out 16 and walked just two in his first 10⅔ innings with Milwaukee.

Tobias Myers

Myers’ excellence over the final four months of the season has been front and center for anyone who closely follows the Brewers. In the playoffs, though, he has a chance to introduce himself to a national audience.

Jared Koenig

Koenig screams out folk hero potential. He’s one of the Brewers’ biggest, burliest, hard-throwing relievers since Seth McClung, a folk hero himself for his performance down the stretch in 2008. Koenig has been superb for manager Pat Murphy out of the bullpen in a variety of roles and is the southpaw most likely to be tasked with facing a key run of lefties in the opponent’s lineup.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Five Brewers who could be surprise playoff heroes (plus five from the past who were)