Milwaukee Brewers Stat of the Day, July 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.
July 31: Braves 8, Brewers 1 -- 56 players and counting
July is just coming to an end, and the Brewers have already blown by the franchise record for players to appear for them in a season. The 1969 Seattle Pilots and 2018 Brewers each employed 53 players, a mark the '21 Brewers surpassed when Eduardo Escobar made his Milwaukee debut on Friday night. On Saturday, relievers Daniel Norris and John Curtiss threw back-to-back innings in the sixth and seventh, becoming the 55th and 56th players to get in a box score for the Brewers this season. Both pitchers were acquired a day earlier in Trade Deadline deals.
July 30: Brewers 9, Braves 5 -- Crew hits new heights
With wins in nine of their first 12 games after the All-Star break, the Brewers are 20 games over .500 for the first time since the end of the 2018 season. But they had not been 20 games over .500 in July for much longer -- since they reached 58-38 during a 10-game winning streak that spanned July 11-22, 1979, and straddled the All-Star break. That club touched 20 over .500 for the first time on July 22, when Cecil Cooper homered twice and Robin Yount and Sixto Lezcano each went deep once in a rout of Cleveland in Game 1 of a doubleheader.
July 29: Brewers 12, Pirates 0 -- Hard to hit Freddy
From the ¡°pretty good for a No. 3 starter¡± department, MLB.com¡¯s Jason Catania noted that after allowing two Pirates hits in six efficient innings in the series finale, Freddy Peralta now has the most starts ¨C not counting openers -- in a single season in AL/NL history allowing two hits or fewer.
July 28: Brewers 7, Pirates 3 -- Another W with Houser
The Brewers have won the last eight games started by Adrian Houser, whose ERA is 3.69 after five scoreless innings against the Pirates. And it's not all run support; of the 10 Brewers pitchers who have worked at least 20 innings, this season, only two have gotten fewer runs of support per nine innings than Houser's 4.33. They are Brandon Woodruff, whose 2.50 runs of support per nine ranks him among the dubious MLB "leaders" in that category, and Josh Hader, who naturally has little to no run support because he regularly closes out games.
July 27: Brewers 9, Pirates 0 -- Get Rowdy
The Brewers' trade for Willy Adames gets all the love, and for good reason. But it's looking like president of baseball operations David Stearns also has a find in Rowdy Tellez, who is 10-for-28 with three home runs and 10 RBIs in a Brewers uniform after another home run and three more RBIs in this one. Tellez, acquired from the Blue Jays in early July to give the Brewers a bit of punch at first base, started his Milwaukee tenure 1-for-12 in his first seven games while playing sporadically because Jace Peterson was red-hot. Since then, Tellez is 9-for-16 with all three of his homers and nine of his RBIs over his last six games.
July 25: White Sox 3, Brewers 1 -- Woodruff through 20 starts
After delivering his 15th quality start in his 20th trip to the mound in 2021, Brandon Woodruff¡¯s ERA stands at 2.14, the best in Brewers history through a pitcher¡¯s first 20 games of a season in which all of those appearances are starts. Bill Travers had a 2.24 ERA after 20 starts in 1976. After that, it¡¯s Jeff D¡¯Amico¡¯s 2.41 ERA in 2000, Ben Sheets¡¯ 2.45 ERA in '04, Teddy Higuera¡¯s 2.49 ERA in 1988 and Higuera¡¯s 2.75 ERA in '86.
Here¡¯s the number Woodruff and other Brewers starters are chasing: 2.36. That was left-hander Mike Caldwell¡¯s ERA in 1978, the franchise record for a pitcher with enough innings to qualify for the league ERA title. At the moment, three are ahead of Caldwell¡¯s pace: Corbin Burnes¡¯ ERA is 2.12, Woodruff¡¯s is 2.14 and Freddy Peralta¡¯s is 2.29.
July 24: Brewers 6, White Sox 1 -- Crew collects the K¡¯s
The Brewers became the fourth team in modern Major League history, and the first National League team, to surpass 1,000 strikeouts as a pitching staff before playing their 100th game. They joined the 2017 and '18 Astros and the 2019 Red Sox in that category.
"We go out there and put in the work,¡± said Corbin Burnes, who accounted for No. 1,000 with the fifth of his six strikeouts against the White Sox. ¡°Everyone through the rotation to the last guy in the bullpen with [Josh] Hader, everyone knows their job and looks at scouting reports and does what they do best in attacking hitters. It just so happens we have some pretty nasty guys out there who get a bunch of punchouts."
July 23: Brewers 7, White Sox 1 -- Hope you like All-Star SP's!
According to STATS, LLC, this White Sox-Brewers matchup is lined up to be the first three-game series in Major League history to feature five starting pitchers who were All-Stars in the current season. The only non-All-Star was Lucas Giolito, who started for Chicago on Friday night. Scheduled to follow him for the Sox are 2021 All-Stars Carlos Rod¨®n and Lance Lynn. Meanwhile, Freddy Peralta, Corbin Burnes and Brandon Woodruff lined up to start for Milwaukee.
July 21: Royals 6, Brewers 3 -- Home not kind to Crew of late
With three losses to the Reds to finish the first half plus two more against the Royals this week, the Brewers have lost five consecutive games at home -- their longest skid in Milwaukee since dropping six in a row at the stadium then known as Miller Park from Aug. 25-30, 2016, when Craig Counsell was in his first full season as manager and the Brewers were in the midst of an epic rebuilding phase.
July 20: Royals 5, Brewers 2 -- Pi?a delivers at plate
A bright spot in the series-opening loss came from Manny Pi?a, who had three hits in his last 57 at-bats entering the day and tallied two hits -- and nearly a third -- against his former club. Pi?a hit a two-run single in the second inning for a 2-1 lead, then hit one of three singles in the bottom of the seventh as Milwaukee loaded the bases. In the ninth, Pi?a hit a deep fly ball to left field, where Andrew Benintendi made a leaping catch at the warning track to take away potential extra bases.
July 18: Brewers 8, Reds 0 -- Burnes inches from shutout
Corbin Burnes was two outs shy of finishing a shutout for the Brewers when he was lifted during a Reds rally in the bottom of the ninth inning. Had Burnes done it, he would have achieved a rarity at Great American Ball Park. There have only been 23 complete-game shutouts during the regular season at GABP since it opened in 2003, 14 by Reds pitchers and nine by opposing pitchers. Scott Feldman was the last Reds pitcher to throw a shutout at GABP, a 4-0 Reds win vs. the Giants on May 7, 2017. Jake Arrieta of the Cubs was the last opponent to throw a shutout at GABP, a 16-0 no-hitter on April 21, 2016.
July 17: Brewers 7, Reds 4 (11 innings) -- Crew comes back again
With consecutive come-from-behind victories against the Reds to open the series at Great American Ball Park, the Brewers have surpassed Cincinnati for the most comeback wins in the National League so far this season, with 26. In the Majors, only the Red Sox (29) have more. Said Milwaukee infielder Luis Ur¨ªas: "The biggest key for our team right now is just to stay in the moment. Fight every [at-bat] and focus every inning. Hopefully, we can get the result at the end of the game."
July 16: Brewers 11, Reds 6 -- Houser having success
Brandon Woodruff has the lowest run support per nine innings for any Major League starter who has logged at least 80 innings this season, but that hasn't been a problem lately for Adrian Houser. The Brewers have won eight of Houser's last nine starts, including seven in a row while scoring in bunches. Here are Milwaukee's run totals from those nine games: 6, 7, 5, 5, 6, 10, 7, 5, 11. Houser, meanwhile, has held his own. He has a 3.45 ERA in that nine-game span and a 4.14 ERA in the last seven.
July 11: Reds 3, Brewers 1 -- Division matchup continues
If this four-game series between the Reds and Brewers wasn't enough for you, there's more. The two teams will meet again in Cincinnati immediately after the All-Star break to complete what amounts to a unique seven-game series. The Pirates and Mets, the Tigers and Twins, and the Mariners and Angels are also playing each other going into and coming out of the break, marking the first time -- according to the Elias Sports Bureau -- that there's more than one such matchup in baseball. In fact, before this year, it had only happened three other times since the All-Star Game began in 1933: the Astros and Phillies played each other on either end of the break in 1975, the Angels and Orioles in 1976 and the Giants and A's in 2018.
July 10: Reds 4, Brewers 3 -- Basestealers beware of Narv¨¢ez
Newly named All-Star catcher Omar Narv¨¢ez displayed some of the tools that earned him a nod at the Midsummer Classic. With two outs in the seventh and Aristides Aquino attempting to steal second, Narv¨¢ez fired to second baseman Jace Peterson to nab Aquino and end the inning. Narv¨¢ez's 77.7 mph throw, per Statcast, earned him his 14th caught stealing of the year, putting him in a tie for the top three among Major League catchers just before the All-Star break.
July 9: Reds 2, Brewers 0 -- Gustave newest member of Crew
Jandel Gustave, the right-handed reliever acquired in a Minor League trade with the Pirates last month, made his Brewers debut and became the 53rd player to appear for Milwaukee this season. With just 90 of 162 games in the books, the Crew has already matched their franchise record for players employed in a regular season, a mark set by the 1969 Seattle Pilots and equaled by the 2018 Brewers.
July 8: Brewers 5, Reds 3 -- Hader starts a new streak
It didn't take long for Josh Hader to start a new saves streak. After suffering his first blown save in Game 1 of Wednesday's doubleheader against the Mets, Hader was poised to pitch in Game 2, manager Craig Counsell said Thursday, before Luis Ur¨ªas homered in the top of the ninth to make it a non-save situation. So, Hader waited another day before retiring the Reds in order in the ninth inning on Thursday night for his 21st save of 2021. He was the third pitcher in Brewers history to begin a season with at least 20 consecutive saves, joining Francisco Cordero's 22-for-22 to begin 2007 and Francisco Rodr¨ªguez's 30-for-30 in 2015.
July 7: Brewers 5, Mets 0 (Game 2) -- Adames supplies power
Willy Adames hit a solo homer against the Mets in Game 2 of the split doubleheader on Wednesday. It marked his ninth home run in his 44 games since joining the Brewers on May 21. Adames had five homers in 41 games with the Rays before being traded.
July 5: Mets 4, Brewers 2 -- Rare generosity from Woody
Brandon Woodruff (6.1 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, BB, 6 K) allowed more than three runs for just the second time all season. Still, he has yet to allow more than six hits in a start this year. He also finished a start with his ERA over 2.00 for the first time since April 13.
July 4: Pirates 2, Brewers 0 -- 7.6 runs per game during streak
The Brewers were shut out for the first time in 43 games on Sunday as their 11-game winning streak came to a screeching halt. But here's the number that stands out: 7.6. That's the average runs the Brewers scored during the streak, a sensational improvement for a team that still sits at the bottom of the National League in team batting average. Manager Craig Counsell believes all that offense can have a positive effect moving forward. Because the Brewers finally played with some comfortable leads, it allowed Counsell to manage his bullpen in such a way during recent weeks that it lessened the strain on top relievers Brad Boxberger, Devin Williams and Josh Hader despite the fact the Brewers are in a stretch of 33 games in 34 days until the All-Star break.
July 3: Brewers 11, Pirates 2 -- More runs means more wins
ESPN Stats & Info noted on Friday night that the Brewers' plus-47 run differential during their 10-game winning streak was their greatest spread over any 10-game stretch in franchise history. Well, a day later it's an 11-game winning streak and a new club record for a 10-game span. In the 10 most recent games in Milwaukee's winning streak, the run differential is plus-51.
July 2: Brewers 7, Pirates 2 -- Second fastest to 50 in club history
The Brewers and Astros each reached the 50-win plateau on Friday, joining the Red Sox, Giants and Dodgers as the first clubs to get there. Milwaukee made it in its 83rd game, surpassing the 2018 Brewers (85 games). It's just one game shy of the club mark set by the Crew in '14, when they reached 50 wins in 82 games and led the National League Central for 150 days before a late-season collapse left them out of the postseason picture entirely. This year's club will try to avoid a similar fate. Said winning pitcher Adrian Houser, ¡°We¡¯re just going out there with confidence and playing relaxed and not getting uptight, and I think that shows.¡±
July 1: Brewers 7, Pirates 2 -- On-base Jace
After hitting an RBI triple, walking twice and scoring two runs against the Pirates, Jace Peterson owned a .398 on-base percentage through 98 big league plate appearances this season, while going up and down between the Minors and Majors, and playing all over the diamond during his time with Milwaukee. It's an impressive OBP clip; only 23 times in Brewers history (24 if you count Christian Yelich this season) has a player logged at least 98 plate appearances with an on-base percentage of .398 or better, led by Paul Molitor's franchise-record .438 OBP in 1987, when he had a 39-game hitting streak.