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How the Brewers scored 22 runs (and 11 nuggets about the historic win)
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- How the Brewers scored 22 runs (and 11 nuggets about the historic win)
The Milwaukee Brewers ' 22-0 win over the Seattle Mariners on Aug. 18 marked the largest margin of victory in franchise history and tied for the most runs in franchise history, equaled only by a 22-2 win over Toronto in 1992.
It's one of three modern-era Major League Baseball occasions in which a team scored as many as 22 runs and shut out the opponent, matching instances in 1975 and 2004.
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Here's what happened in the game:
How the Brewers scored their 22 runs against the Mariners on Aug. 18
Bottom 1: William Contreras run-scoring single.It goes down as another great slide by Jake Bauers , who managed to dislodge the ball from Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh (for an error) and dive back to the plate after missing on the first go-round. Brewers lead, 1-0.
Bottom 5: Jackson Chourio RBI single.That's right; it was 1-0 in the fifth, and starter Kyle Harrison already had wrapped up his day when Chourio scored David Hamilton , who had reached on an infield single and stole second. Brewers lead, 2-0.
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Bottom 5: Contreras sacrifice fly.Seattle loaded the bases with a couple of walks, and a Contreras screamer plated Brice Turang . Brewers lead, 3-0.
Bottom 5: Christian Yelich home run.Yelich delivered his ninth home run of the year for a three-run shot that capped a five-run inning against starter Bryce Miller . Brewers lead, 6-0.
Bottom 6: Hamilton home run.It's not a common sight, but the speedy infielder hit his fourth homer of the year after Garrett Mitchell singled and Joey Ortiz walked to open the frame against reliever Josh Simpson. The game had transformed in short order from a 1-0 contest to a laugher. Brewers lead, 9-0.
Bottom 6: Jake Bauers home run.The Brewers weren't finished hitting homers, with Bauers' team-leading 22nd blast coming three batters after Hamilton, a two-run shot. Brewers lead, 11-0.
Bottom 7: Hamilton RBI single.Reliever Nick Davila didn't fare much better, allowing two singles to start the inning and then a Hamilton single to center. Brewers lead, 12-0.
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Bottom 7: Andrew Vaughn plates another thanks to error.Seattle appeared to have finally stopped the bleeding with an around-the-horn double play, but first baseman Josh Naylor straight-up dropped the ball and allowed Vaughn to reach, permitting another run to score. The Brewers just acquired Naylor's brother, Triple-A catcher Bo Naylor , at the trade deadline, by the way. Brewers lead, 13-0.
Milwaukee Brewers third baseman David Hamilton (6) watches his three-run home run off of Seattle Mariners pitcher Josh Simpson (37) during the sixth inning of their game Tuesday, August 18, 2026 at American Family Field in. Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Bottom 8: Luis Lara home run.The floodgates flew wide open in the eighth with the Mariners turning to third baseman Leo Rivas on the mound. Milwaukee went on to score nine more runs. It started with the first career home run for Lara, a three-run shot after Contreras and Yelich reached. It's only the fourth game this year in which the Brewers homered four times, and two of those occasions (June 6 in Colorado with five homers, June 8 in Las Vegas against the Athletics ) took place in basically no atmosphere. The Brewers only other four-homer game took place April 12 at American Family Field against Washington. Brewers lead, 16-0.
Bottom 8: Vaughn RBI single.The hits kept coming against Rivas, and Vaughn's single came with the bases loaded. Brewers lead, 17-0.
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Bottom 8: Jonathan Ornelas RBI single.The newcomer got in on the action by keeping the carousel moving. Brewers lead, 18-0.
Bottom 8: Contreras walk.With the bases loaded, Contreras took four straight pitches for balls against Rivas. Brewers lead, 19-0.
Bottom 8: Yelich sacrifice fly plus one more.Mariners center fielder Julio Rodríguez thought the inning was mercifully over when Yelich hit a line drive to center, when he caught the ball and threw it into the stands. It was, however, only the second out. Not only did it result in a sacrifice fly, but everyone else was allowed to move up a base, resulting in two runs instead of one. Brewers lead, 21-0.
Bottom 8: Lara RBI single.Make it a four-RBI night for the rookie outfielder, who added one more run against Rivas. Brewers lead, 22-0.
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Top 9: Gary Sánchez scoreless inning to close it down?It's not a shutout until the Brewers backup catcher threw a scoreless frame, allowing two singles but also getting two ground outs (one from Rodríguez) and a fly out. It's an identical line to his scoreless inning against the Padres on Aug. 11, when he allowed two hits but no runs.
Eleven random tidbits about the game
Lara isn't the first and won't be the last player to hit his first career home run off a position player. Brewers outfielder Tyrone Taylor turned the feat in 2020 – before an empty Comerica Park, no less – when he homered off Tigers outfielder Travis Demeritte in the ninth inning of a 19-0 Brewers win.
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A position player pitching for the Brewers in a victory? It happened just last year, June 20, when Bauers pitched in Minnesota and gave up four runs (two earned) in the ninth of a 17-6 Brewers win. Brewers fans surely remember Rowdy Tellez working a scoreless inning late in 2022, closing off a 16-1 win over Miami on the same night the Brewers clinched a postseason berth.
Sánchez averaged 38.6 mph on his "eephus" and 70.1 mph on his three fastballs. The Brewers also saw 22 pitches below 40 mph from Rivas, the most pitches thrown that slowly by one team ever (in the era where we have data of such things).
According to OptaStats, it's the first time in MLB history that a team struck out 10 batters in a shutout, played errorless baseball and scored 20 or more runs. It is legitimately the most dominant win in team history.
There have been only two other instances in modern MLB history (since 1900) of a team scoring 22 or more runs and pitching a shutout. Both were 22-0 wins for Cleveland over the Yankees (Aug. 31, 2004) and Pittsburgh over the Cubs (Sept. 16, 1975). According to MLB researcher Sarah Langs, the last game in which a team won by a larger margin in a shutout was June 28, 1887, when the Philadelphia Quakers won 24-0.
The other time the Brewers scored 22 runs in a game? Aug. 28, 1992, a 22-2 win over eventual World Series-champion Toronto. In that game, Paul Molitor hit a two-run homer in the first inning … and that was Milwaukee's only home run of the game. Scott Fletcher had five hits; Pat Listach and Darryl Hamilton each had four, and the Brewers had 31 hits.
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The Brewers have scored 20 runs in a game only four other times, counting that win over Toronto. They won 20-0 over Pittsburgh in 2010, 20-7 over Detroit in 1996 and 20-7 over the California Angels in 1990.
The Brewers now lead all of Major League Baseball with a run differential of plus-158, ahead of the Dodgers (plus-143) and Braves (plus-112) for top honors. The Brewers are fifth in Major League Baseball with 630 runs and fifth with a .252 batting average. They are still last in home runs with 117, two behind Toronto.
The last time the Brewers had three different players with four or more RBIs in a game was Aug. 12, 2021, against the Cubs, when Jace Peterson (four RBIs), Luis Urías (five) and Manny Piña (six) all had big days at Wrigley Field in a 17-4 win. Piña and Urías each hit two homers in the game. In the win over Seattle, Yelich, Lara and Hamilton all drove in four runs.
Seattle committed four errors, the first time a Brewers opponent has committed that many errors in a game this year. Three teams did it against the Brewers last year, including five errors by the Yankees on March 29. The Yankees won that game anyway, 20-9.
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Milwaukee's 22 hits against Seattle are the most in a game this season, out-shining the previous high mark of 18. Milwaukee cleared 22 hits in a game twice last year, a 16-9 win over Washington on Aug. 1 and a 17-7 win over the Phillies on May 31.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: How the Brewers scored 22 runs (and 11 nuggets about the historic win)
