Even one of baseball’s most dominant pitchers this season, Paul Skenes, proved no match for the surging Milwaukee Brewers. The Pittsburgh Pirates’ ace surrendered two of five home runs in a 14-0 rout Tuesday night, as Milwaukee extended its winning streak to an impressive 11 games.
The onslaught began early when Sal Frelick hit a leadoff home run, ending Skenes’s 24-start streak of not allowing a first-inning run—the second-longest such streak to begin a season in MLB history.
“They’re hot right now,” Skenes said. “I didn’t have my best stuff today, and they jumped on it.”
This marks the Brewers’ second 11-game winning streak of the season, a rare feat. They join the 1954 Cleveland team and the 2015 Toronto Blue Jays as the only teams since World War II with multiple winning streaks of at least 11 games. Milwaukee is the first National League club to accomplish this since the 1935 Chicago Cubs.
The power surge is a recent development for a team that has not relied heavily on home runs for most of the season. General manager Matt Arnold’s trade-deadline strategy of addressing depth rather than making major changes has proven effective. Since the start of August, Milwaukee leads the major leagues in home runs (23), slugging percentage (.567), on-base percentage (.393), and OPS (.960). Their .323 batting average in that span is tied for the best in baseball.
This offensive explosion has been complemented by stellar pitching. The Brewers staff has posted a combined 3.09 ERA during the streak, with the starting rotation allowing just 22 earned runs over the 11 games. On Tuesday, Freddy Peralta continued the trend, throwing six scoreless innings.
“It’s been fun,” Frelick said. “Everyone’s clicking, the offense seems to be rolling, and our pitching has done a great job. Obviously, we’ve been scoring a lot of runs, but they’ve been putting a lot of zeroes and ones on the board.”
A victory Wednesday against the Pirates would secure a fourth consecutive series sweep and extend the streak to 12 games, one shy of the franchise record set in 1987. A 12th straight win would also trigger a popular local promotion from diner chain George Webb, which has promised free hamburgers, a tradition fulfilled in 1987 and again in 2018.
“I heard about that,” Peralta said. “I’m excited for that.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
