Brewers Stat of the Day: May 2021
MLB.com is keeping track of a Stat of the Day for the Brewers this season, highlighting a unique, interesting or fun nugget from each game.
May 31: Brewers 3, Tigers 2 (10 innings) -- Ur¨ªas stretches out
The final pitch of the game from Tigers reliever Jos¨¦ Cisnero was 1.73 feet off the center of the plate horizontally, and Luis Ur¨ªas went out and got it for a walk-off single. According to Statcast, it's the third-farthest pitch from the center of the plate that a right-handed batter has turned into a hit this season. Said Ur¨ªas: "The guy was throwing heat, so I wasn't trying to do too much; I was just trying to get a good pitch to hit. I think it was kind of outside, but I'm glad that I stayed through it."
May 30: Brewers 3, Nationals 0 -- Consistent quality
Brandon Woodruff became the eighth pitcher in franchise history to record 10 consecutive quality starts and the first since CC Sabathia (13 from July 8 to Sept. 10, 2008). Woodruff has a 0.94 ERA (67 innings pitched, seven earned runs) with 78 strikeouts in those 10 starts.
May 29 (G1): Brewers 4, Nationals 1 -- May is Garc¨ªa's month
May 29 (G2): Brewers 6, Nationals 2
After the first game of the doubleheader, Avisa¨ªl Garc¨ªa is 24-for-76 (.316) with six home runs, 18 RBIs and 12 runs scored in May.
May 27: Brewers 6, Padres 5 (10) -- Long wait to walk off
Jackie Bradley Jr. had 3,447 regular-season plate appearances under his belt as he strode to home plate with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning. It marked the most plate appearances among active players who'd never delivered a walk-off RBI. That changed when Bradley lined a base hit off the right-field wall and was mobbed by teammates in his best moment so far as a Brewer. Jake Lamb of the White Sox is now the active leader for most PAs without a walk-off RBI with 2,359.
May 26: Padres 2, Brewers 1 (10) -- Arms that hammer
It's May, and the Brewers already have three home runs from their pitchers -- two from Adrian Houser against the Marlins and now another from Eric Lauer, who took his old pal and Padres teammate Chris Paddack deep in the third inning at American Family Field. It's the first time in a decade that the Brewers have three home runs from pitchers, since Yovani Gallardo, Zack Greinke and Shaun Marcum each hit taters in 2011 (Brewers pitchers also hit three homers in 2007 and '03.) The franchise record for home runs by pitchers is five, from the 1969 Seattle Pilots (two from Fred Talbot and one apiece from Gene Brabender, George Brunet and Mike Marshall). Since the move to Milwaukee, the record is four, in 2010. Gallardo hit all of them.
May 25: Padres 7, Brewers 1 -- Crew can't slow Padres
The Padres stole six bases against catcher Omar Narv¨¢ez and three Milwaukee pitchers, only the seventh time in Brewers history they'd allowed that many steals in a game, and one shy of the dubious all-time record. Twice the Brewers have allowed seven stolen bases in a game, and it was to the Dodgers on both occasions: First during a Hideo Nomo start in 1999, then with Matt Garza starting in 2017.
May 24: Brewers 5, Padres 3 -- Woodruff's stellar start
Brandon Woodruff's ERA through 10 starts is 1.41, second best in Brewers history through a pitcher¡¯s first 10 appearances of a season when they¡¯re all starts. Cal Eldred has sat atop that list since he posted a 1.26 ERA following a midseason callup in 1992. Then there's Woodruff this season, Teddy Higuera's 1.78 ERA through 10 starts in 1990, Jeff D'Amico's 1.87 ERA in 2000, Bill Travers' 1.95 ERA in 1976, Chris Bosio's 1.98 ERA in 1988 and Bill Parsons' 1.99 ERA in 1971. Those are the only Brewers pitchers to have a sub-2.00 ERA through their first 10 starts in a season.
May 23: Brewers 9, Reds 4 -- Counsell matches Yost
Craig Counsell improved to 457-435 in the regular season as Brewers manager, tying Ned Yost (457-502) for the second-most managerial wins in franchise history behind Phil Garner, whose teams went 563-617. Counsell played for Yost in Milwaukee, and told a story from early in his tenure as skipper when the Brewers were beat up by Yost's Royals in 2015. Yost called Counsell to meet in a quiet room at Kauffman Stadium for a 45-minute chat.
"He just shared his wisdom with me from managing," Counsell said. "When I think of Ned Yost, that¡¯s what I think of the most, the time he took with me that day to talk about what I was just starting to try to do, and what he had a lot of success at. I always appreciated that."
May 22: Brewers 4, Reds 3 -- As clutch as it gets
How badly did the Brewers need Jackie Bradley Jr.'s go-ahead, two-run single in the sixth inning? Bradley was 3-for-33 this season with runners in scoring position as he dug into the box with the bases loaded with the Brewers down a run. Milwaukee was 0-for-4 in the game and 7-for-85 with runners in scoring position over its last 10 games. Bradley hit a sharp one-hopper that caromed off Reds first baseman Alex Blandino, and two runs scored thanks to Avisa¨ªl Garc¨ªa's hustle and third-base coach Jason Lane's smart send.
"We don't talk about the good ones, usually, and that was a really good send," Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. "It doesn't happen without the player hustling. Avi gave Jason the chance to make a great call."
May 21: Reds 9, Brewers 4 -- Houser can't quell lefties
Sinkerballer Adrian Houser has traditionally had big troubles with left-handed hitters, but he'd managed to reverse those splits heading into his ninth start of the season. Lefties had a .706 OPS against Houser, compared to righties' .734. Compare that to Houser's career marks: .835 OPS for lefties, .649 OPS for righties.
But the Reds did some damage to those 2021 numbers when Jesse Winker homered twice off Houser, after another left-hander, Tyler Naquin, hit a three-run home run in the first inning.
May 19: Royals 6, Brewers 4 -- Nine-strikeout starts
Corbin Burnes has struck out at least nine batters in all seven of his starts, putting him in some good company. According to Brewers PR, Pedro Martinez holds the record (since 1906) for nine-plus strikeout games to begin a season -- with nine such games for Boston at the start of the 1999 campaign. Burnes and Cleveland's Shane Bieber are currently tied for second all time with seven such starts (Bieber is scheduled to pitch again on Saturday), followed by five such starts for Randy Johnson in 1999 and Nolan Ryan in 1991.
May 18: Royals 2, Brewers 0 -- No support for Woodruff
Here's one way to look at the lack of run support: There have been 267 instances this season across MLB of a starter pitching six-plus innings with one or no earned runs allowed, including nine such performances on this day. Of those 267 starts, only 18 resulted in a loss for the pitcher, and three of those belong to the Brewers: Two for Brandon Woodruff and one for Corbin Burnes. There's only one other pitcher who has been saddled with multiple losses when he pitches at least six innings and allows no more than one earned run -- and you can probably guess who: It's Mets ace Jacob deGrom.
May 16: Brewers 10, Braves 9 -- Not so grand month of May
The Brewers hit just enough on Sunday to overcome a rocky finish, to put it mildly, for their pitching and defense. When a pair of misplays by shortstop Luis Ur¨ªas extended the seventh inning for Freddie Freeman's grand slam off Brent Suter, it marked the fifth grand slam off a Brewers pitcher this month, all in the past 15 days. It's the first time in Brewers history they've surrendered five grand slams in one calendar month, and there are still two weeks to go.
May 15: Braves 5, Brewers 1 -- Offensive outage
The Brewers lost for the 10th time in their last 13 games, and while starter Brett Anderson didn¡¯t put them in a good place while falling behind early on Saturday, the problem is offense. During this stretch, the Brewers have averaged 2.6 runs per game, while hitting .202 overall and .143 with runners in scoring position. That explains how the Brewers fell from 17-10 on May 1 -- tied for the best record in the National League -- to 20-20 as of Saturday night.
May 14: Braves 6, Brewers 3 -- Back-to-back blasts
Luis Ur¨ªas had an all-around stellar game. His homer in the 9th inning was the first leg of back-to-back blasts (Manny Pi?a followed with one of his own), the Brewers' first back-to-back home runs since April 27.
May 13: Cardinals 2, Brewers 0 -- 58 K's before one walk
Earmark this name as the answer to the future trivia question: Tommy Edman. He was the first batter to see a ball four from Corbin Burnes in 2021 after 58 strikeouts and no walks to begin the season. That was an all-time record since 1893 on two fronts: The most strikeouts in a season before a pitcher issued his first walk (Kenley Jansen held the previous mark with 51 strikeouts, no walks to begin the 2017 season) and the most strikeouts without a walk during any stretch of any season. Gerrit Cole set the latter record just a day earlier, when his own streak ran to 56 strikeouts without a walk mixed in, and he'll aim to surpass Burnes again in Cole's next start for the Yankees.
May 12: Brewers 4, Cardinals 1 -- Where's the support, bats?
After pitching into the eighth inning, Brandon Woodruff has a 1.19 ERA over his last seven starts -- all of which have been of the quality variety -- and he has held the opposition to a .120 average in that span. The man needs some more run support; including one run in Wednesday's win, the Brewers have mustered 10 runs during Woodruff's time in games. His 1.82 runs of support per nine innings is the lowest of MLB's qualifying pitchers.
May 11: Cardinals 6, Brewers 1 (11 innings) -- Squandering starts
Milwaukee wasted another brilliant starting pitching performance because the club didn't hit. Using Bill James' Game Score as the measue, Freddy Peralta's seven scoreless innings represented the Brewers' second-best start this season, scoring 82 to come up just short of Brandon Woodruff's 83 on April 7 against the Cubs. Milwaukee has had six starts now with a score of 75 or better, and is just 2-4 in those games.
May 9: Brewers 2, Marlins 1 -- Vogelbach's hardest hit
Welcome to Milwaukee Brewers Mother's Day lore, Daniel Vogelbach. The Brewers' first baseman took a four-seam fastball in the fourth inning and shot it over the right-field wall on Sunday, breaking up a scoreless game with the solo home run. Statcast tracked the ball as having left the bat at an estimated 114.3 mph, which made it the hardest hit ball of Vogelbach's career by over a mph. The ball had a launch angle of 22 degrees and traveled just 357 feet, so every bit of that speed was necessary to give Vogelbach his third homer of the season.
May 8: Brewers 6, Marlins 2 --Houser does it all, again
Daniel Castano has met his nemesis, and his name is Adrian Houser. Just 11 days after Houser took Castano deep in Milwaukee for his first career home run, he did it again in Miami. Both were solo shots to right-center field. The last pitcher to take another pitcher deep twice in a season was Noah Syndergaard off Kenta Maeda in 2016, but those were both in the same game. The last to do it in two separate games was Bronson Arroyo off Glendon Rusch in 2006. With six strong innings, Houser also became the first pitcher in Brewers history and just the 15th in the modern era (17 times overall) to hit a homer, walk nobody and strike out 10 or more batters in a game.
May 7: Marlins 6, Brewers 1 -- Brewers slammed again
The Brewers have surrendered four grand slams in the last six days. The closest thing to a stretch like this in Brewers history was from Sept. 18-21, 1983, when Pete Ladd, Mike Caldwell and Rick Waits all surrendered slams in games against the Orioles and Indians. The Brewers managed to win two of those games, however. Brewers pitchers have already matched the dubious record for grand slams allowed in a month, with four, something that happened most recently in July 2010 to Chris Capuano, Manny Parra, Dave Bush and Carlos Villanueva. That was also the year the Brewers allowed their most grand slams in a season, with 10.
May 6: Phillies 2, Brewers 0 -- Woodruff first to eclipse 100 pitches
Brandon Woodruff became the first Brewers pitcher this season to surpass 100 pitches, crossing the club off a shrinking list of teams who have yet to allow one of their arms go that far. As of Woodruff's exit at the 103-pitch mark, only the Pirates (who were idle on Thursday) and the Blue Jays and D-backs (who had later games) had yet to see a starter go past the century mark. The A's are on the other end of the spectrum; they already have 10 starts of 100-plus pitches in 2021.
May 5: Phillies 5, Brewers 4 -- Another early slam
Three days after rookie Alec Bettinger surrendered grand slams in each of the first two innings of a loss to the Dodgers, Freddy Peralta surrendered another first-inning slam, marking the first time since 2013 that Brewers pitchers have allowed multiple first-inning grand slams in a season. In '13, there were three, off Wily Peralta, Alfredo Figaro and Kyle Lohse. The 1970 Brewers still hold the dubious franchise record with four; one apiece off Skip Lockwood, Bobby Bolin, Gene Brabender and Lew Krausse in the franchise's first year in Milwaukee.
May 4: Phillies 6, Brewers 5 -- Wong providing spark
Christian Yelich is back on the injured list and Lorenzo Cain is just getting back, but Kolten Wong has been doing his part to keep the Brewers offense moving. Including Tuesday, when he had two hits and reached safely three times, Wong has a hit in 10 of the 11 games he's started since returning from a stint on the 10-day IL for an oblique injury. He is hitting .395 (17-for-43) with five doubles, two home runs and nine runs scored in those games. The only game he didn't have a hit was May 2 against the Dodgers, when manager Craig Counsell rested Wong after one at-bat with the game out of hand in L.A.'s favor.
May 3: Phillies 4, Brewers 3 -- Going, going, gone deep
Lorenzo Cain thought that his first-inning home run against the Phillies, which sailed a Statcast-projected 446 feet, might have been the longest he's hit in the big leagues. But we checked the math. It was actually his third-longest home run since the tracking service debuted six years ago, but you can't fault Cain for forgetting the others -- they were both back in '15. The longest was a 458-foot solo shot at Kauffman Stadium on Sept. 2, 2015, off onetime Brewer Randy Wolf, who was then pitching for Detroit.
May 2: Dodgers 16, Brewers 4 -- A debut derailed
With the roster decimated by injuries and the Brewers on Day 10 of 17 consecutive game days, rookie Alec Bettinger was asked to endure the worst Major League debut for a pitcher in franchise history, and one of the worst in baseball history.
The sport has tracked earned runs in the National League since 1912 and in the American League since 1913, and Bettinger is only the second pitcher ever to allow as many as 11 earned runs in his Major League debut. The other was Arnie Mu?oz for the White Sox on June 19, 2004, against the Expos.
May 1: Brewers 6, Dodgers 5 (11 innings) -- Three in a row for Hader
Josh Hader did something he'd done only once before since he emerged as one of baseball's nastiest relievers in 2017: He pitched a third straight day. Hader also pitched for the fifth time in eight days and the fourth time in five days, but the three in a row was particularly notable since he'd only done that once before in his career, from July 30-Aug. 1, 2019, at Oakland. The third time wasn't a charm in that series; Hader had a blown save in a loss to the A's. But he got the job done Saturday against the Dodgers, pitching a scoreless ninth inning in a game that went to extras.