NEW YORK -- The Brewers went from the doorstep of history to one of their most deflating defeats. 

After pushing to within two outs of becoming the first team ever to throw an 11-inning no-hitter, the Brewers instead were denied history and a three-game sweep when they twice squandered the lead in a 13-inning, 4-3 loss to the Yankees on Sunday at Yankee Stadium.

• Every no-hit bid broken up in extra innings

While it wasn’t a game for the history books, it was certainly one for the memory bank. After Corbin Burnes pitched eight hitless innings and Devin Williams and Abner Uribe kept the bid alive -- Uribe, thanks to a death-defying catch from fellow rookie Sal Frelick at the right-field wall in the 10th -- the Brewers scored the game’s first run on Tyrone Taylor’s single in the 11th. That brought reliable Milwaukee setup man Joel Payamps into the game with a chance to complete something special. No MLB team has completed a no-hitter longer than nine innings in 26 years, and there has never been one longer than 10 innings.

But it wasn’t to be. After Payamps lost the no-hitter and saw a 1-0 lead get away on Oswaldo Cabrera’s RBI double, struggling Trade Deadline pickup Andrew Chafin lost a 3-1 lead on Giancarlo Stanton’s towering two-run homer in the 12th, and Hoby Milner took the loss in the 13th on Kyle Higashioka’s walk-off double.

• These 4 no-hitters required extra innings

“We played a good series. We played a good game today,” said Brewers manager Craig Counsell. “There’s a thousand points you can look at in that game where you could have got a run home or prevented a run.”

• Games remaining: vs. MIA (4), vs. WAS (3), at STL (4), at MIA (3), vs. STL (3), vs. CHC (3)
• Standings update: The Brewers (79-63) hold a three-game lead in the National League Central over the Cubs (77-67), who beat the D-backs on Sunday to avoid getting swept. Milwaukee is the third-best division leader, meaning it would host a best-of-three NL Wild Card Series against the final Wild Card entrant starting on Oct. 3.
• Magic number: The Brewers' magic number over the Cubs is 17 to clinch the NL Central.

After winning the first two games of the series by a combined score of 17-4, one run might have been enough for Burnes the way his cut fastball was working. He walked two, struck out seven and averted a scare in his next-to-last inning when he sprained his left ankle fielding a comebacker. Of his 109 pitches, 67 were cutters; Burnes made an adjustment with that pitch between starts and remarked modestly, “I'd say it probably went a little better than expected.”

The timing was right. As he pitched Sunday, it was one day shy of the two-year anniversary of the night Burnes pitched the first eight innings of a combined no-hitter with Josh Hader in Cleveland on Sept. 11, 2021.

This time, Burnes had another lights-out closer, Williams, ready behind him.

“Those are the ones you want to play in, the really competitive ones,” Frelick said. “At the same time, I really wish we could have blown them out again and gave some run support for Corbin there, who pitched an absolute gem. It stinks. A guy goes out and gives you a start like that, you really wish you could give him some support.”

Yankees ace Gerrit Cole had something to say about that, burnishing his American League Cy Young Award credentials by allowing three hits over seven scoreless innings. With each zero on the scoreboard, it became a matchup of managers Aaron Boone of the Yankees and Counsell, who has deftly managed his bullpens in many a September. This one will require the right touch, because the Brewers just entered a run of 23 games in 24 days to finish the regular season slate. Sunday was Day 3 of that stretch. 

Of all the decisions Sunday, the most fateful arrived in the 12th inning. The Brewers had just taken their second lead in as many innings, this time providing a two-run cushion on Joey Wiemer’s tiebreaking double and Andruw Monasterio’s tough, 11-pitch sacrifice fly.

Counsell said his available relievers for that moment were Chafin, Milner and right-hander Thyago Vieira. But he wanted to stay away from Milner because the week ahead against the Marlins and Nationals offers plentiful matchups for a high-leverage left-hander, and Milner figures to get a lot of work. Vieira, meanwhile, was just called up on Wednesday. When he pitched against the Yankees on Friday, it was his first MLB appearance in four years. 

Among the relievers whom Counsell did not mention as available were Trevor Megill and Bryse Wilson, who each pitched the previous two days. He also didn’t mention Elvis Peguero, who pitched an inning the night before. The Brewers are trying to be protective of Peguero’s workload at the moment so that he’s a weapon in the coming weeks and, should they qualify for the postseason, into October.

“I was trying to stay away from Payamps today, too,” Counsell said. “With [the Yankees] righties, it’s a tough inning for Hoby, it’s a tough inning for Chafin.”

Said Chafin: "It was one hung slider to the worst guy you can hang a slider to. That's what it boils down to. It was one of those things where I wasn't trying to throw it anywhere near the damn zone. It's just a terrible pitch -- the only bad pitch of the inning."

In a game like this, that pitch made a big difference. 

“We played a great series, you can't take that away,” Burnes said. “We would have loved to sweep them and finish it off. That's how it goes.”