Ex-Cal Star Andrew Vaughn Delivers Again for the Brewers

Andrew Vaughn’s fairytale 2025 season -- one of the most unlikely by a Cal alum -- lives on.

It’s on to the National League Championship Series for the Milwaukee Brewers after the 27-year-old former Golden Bears star hit the go-ahead home run to spark a 3-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs in the deciding fifth game of the National League Division Series.

"The journey has been kind of crazy," Vaughn told reporters Saturday night. "But not taking anything for granted. The opportunity to be with this group, it's changed my life.”

No kidding.

Vaughn was batting .189 with five home runs on June 3, when the Chicago White Sox — coming off the worst season modern baseball history in 2024 — traded Vaughn to the Brewers, who assembled MLB’s best record in 2025.

He batted .308 in 64 games with the Brewers and things have gotten better still in the postseason. Vaughn’s three-run homer in the bottom of the first in Game 2 against the Cubs erased a three-run deficit and the Brewers went on to a 7-3 victory and 2-0 series lead.

Chicago won the next two games to set up a winner-take-all Game 5.

Andrew Vaughn hits a go-ahead home run for the Milwaukee Brewers — Milwaukee Brewers celebrate first baseman Andrew Vaughn’s home run | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Then, with the score tied at 1-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning, Vaughn battled Colin Rea for seven pitches before knocking a two-out solo homer over the left field fence at American Family Field.

“I blacked out.I felt like I was on the clouds just trying to make sure I hit every base,” said Vaughn, who called it the biggest swing of his life.

Vaughn, who went homerless from Aug. 15 through the end of the regular season, became just the third former Cal player with multiple home runs in the postseason.

The select company he joined:

Jeff Kent: Hit nine career postseason home runs, five of them with the Giants, including three in San Francisco’s 2002 seven-game World Series los to the Anaheim Angels. His total came over 189 at-bats in 49 postseason games.

Marcus Semien: Has four home runs in postseason play, including two in the Rangers’ 2023 World Series win over the Arizona Diamondbacks. Semien has 122 at-bats in 26 postseason games.

Vaughn, the No. 3 pick out of Cal in the 2019 major league draft, has two postseason homers in just 22 at-bats over seven games with the Brewers and White Sox.

The latest one helped Milwaukee snap a string of six consecutive postseason series defeats.

And it sends the Brewers into Game 1 of the NLCS on Monday night at home against the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Milwaukee is pursuing its first Series appearance since 1982.

The Dodgers will be favored by everyone, but Milwaukee beat them all six times they met in the regular season. That included a 9-1 triumph on July 7, when Vaughn made his Brewers debut by hitting a 3-run homer in his first at-bat with the club.

He has made significant, tangible contributions ever since.

“This guy’s a gamer,” Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold said. “He’s been through a lot, and he’s failed, just like all of us. We’ve all failed in this sport. If you haven’t, you haven’t been doing it long enough. So we’ve all failed. For that guy to come in here and be himself and put the team on his back at times this year is really awesome.”

Vaughn told MLB.com he has tried to live in the moment since being promoted from the minors to the Brewers’ big club.

“Just be free, be myself, go back to my roots and just have fun playing the game. Nothing huge,” he said. “I think the message was: Swing at strikes, take balls and just be better at that.”

“He’s just a great dude," Brewers star Christian Yelich said of his new teammate. "This game’s about perseverance and just really, really proud of him.”

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