Brewers' Aaron Ashby Somehow Tied With Braves Ace on MLB Leaderboard

Story by

Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Aaron Ashby works out in the bullpen during the fifth inning of their game against the Pittsburgh Pirates Saturday, April 25, 2026 at American Family Field in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Jackson Roberts

Thu, May 7, 2026 at 3:00 PM UTC ·

2 min read

On a team of unsung heroes, Milwaukee Brewers swingman Aaron Ashby continues to stand out from the pack.

In typical Ashby fashion, the 27-year-old left-hander came into the game on Wednesday night needing to give his team multiple innings. He pitched a clean sixth and seventh inning, striking out a batter and only allowing one baserunner to the St. Louis Cardinals in a 6-2 victory.

That victory belonged to Ashby in the box score, which is becoming a theme this season. Now 6-0, Ashby grabbed a share of the major league lead in wins on Wednesday, tied with only Atlanta Braves ace Chris Sale .

If you like our content, choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google .

How Ashby continues to rack up wins

Ashby has thrown 23 innings this season, while Sale has thrown 42. No one else in the league with at least five wins has thrown less than 36 innings, and put another way, Ashby is the only reliever with more than four wins, while only Brant Hurter of the Detroit Tigers has even that many.

The Brewers are learning that they can put Ashby in the game in any situation, and all he'll do is battle. His walk rate is a bit higher than your typical successful starter, sure, but he racks up strikeouts (35 of them so far, giving him a career-high 13.7 K/9).

While the win over the Cardinals was a fortunate happenstance due to Brewers' starter Brandon Sproat not completing five innings, Ashby has had numerous outings this season when he truly made the difference between victory and defeat for this Milwaukee team.

When he took the W over the Boston Red Sox on April 6, Ashby escaped a jam for starter Brandon Woodruff in the sixth inning and then pitched a clean seventh as the offense rallied around him. And on April 15, he shut down the Toronto Blue Jays , who were holding a 1-0 lead, for the offense to put up two runs in the bottom of the eighth.

While expecting the streak of wins to keep up at this pace may be unreasonable, the Brewers know they're lucky to have Ashby on their side.

This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/brewers/onsi as Brewers' Aaron Ashby Somehow Tied With Braves Ace on MLB Leaderboard .