Jason Lane returns to World Series as Brewers coach

Lane got the last out of the 2005 pennant and now he's on the staff of a Brewers team that just swept the Dodgers. He told the Astros beat that it feels a lot like 21 years ago.

Brian McTaggart

@brianmctaggart

21 seasons after he caught the final out to clinch the Astros' first trip to the World Series, Jason Lane is headed back to the Fall Classic as a coach with the Brewers. “It’s a very similar feeling to '05." t.co/TpBwZD3sG6

For anyone who has forgotten 2005, Lane was the right fielder for Game 6 of the NLCS in St. Louis. Yadier Molina hit a fly ball, it came down in Lane's glove, and Houston had its first National League pennant. He had already homered earlier in that game, backing Roy Oswalt. That's about as good a night as an outfielder can have in October.

The World Series went worse. The White Sox swept Houston in 4 games, and Lane went 4-for-18 with 1 homer. He stayed with the Astros through 2007. After that his career went sideways in a way you don't see often: he played 3 games for the Padres and then came back as a pitcher for San Diego in 2014. Not many guys make the final catch of a pennant clincher and also pitch in the big leagues.

He's now been with Milwaukee for a decade. Lane started as an assistant hitting coach from 2016 to 2019, coached first base in 2020 and third base from 2021 to 2025. This season the Brewers made him their offense and strategy coordinator. That means he sets the offensive game plan with the hitting coaches and gets the pinch-hitters ready during games. The bench moves you see in a big October spot go through him.

For Milwaukee this is a big deal. The NLCS sweep of the Dodgers puts the Brewers in their first World Series in 44 years, and Game 1 is Friday in Milwaukee. Brewers fans have been waiting since 1982. Their offense coordinator is one of the few people in the dugout who has already played on this stage.

Lane said it's "a very similar feeling to '05" and that the run took him back to that Astros team. Sitting on that comparison is the part he probably doesn't want to repeat, because the 2005 club got swept once it got there. If Milwaukee finishes the job, the guy who caught Houston's pennant-clinching out ends up with a ring 21 years later, wearing a different uniform.