Hernan Perez's Recent Pitching Appearance Broke a Franchise Record that Sal Bando Set on a Very Long Evening in Kansas City

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Sal Bando, former mound ace of Brewers position players.

On Sunday, in a relatively lighthearted portion of the Brewers’ nearly two-week string of hard luck, embarrassment, and misery, Hernan Perez and Erik Kratz combined to pitch the final three innings of the Brewers’ 11-2 beat-down by the Dodgers. It was the second outing this year for both players, making them the first Brewers position players to make multiple appearances in a season since catcher Rick Dempsey threw in two games in 1991.

It also brought Perez’s career innings pitched total to four, making him the franchise’s all-time leader in that category for true position players. And it was the first multi-inning appearance for position players since 1979, when a battered Brewers club actually had more outs recorded by position players than their pitchers. Let’s take a look back at one of the weirder evenings in team history.

Even if the Dodgers’ pounding of the Crew this past weekend wasn’t entirely a surprise, serious blowouts in baseball tend to come out of nowhere. That was the case on the evening of August 29, 1979 when the Brewers took on the Royals in Kansas City.

It had been a great, but frustrating, season for the Crew. Following up on a 93-win season in 1978, the Brewers were on a 97-win pace in ’79. Their record of 80-53 was the second-best in all of baseball, but they were stuck behind the eventual-AL Champion Orioles, 6.5 games back in the AL East. Having won seven of their last eight against the Royals (who were just a half game back in the AL West despite having 11 fewer wins than the Brewers), the Crew went into that Wednesday’s game looking to take the series and gain a little ground on the stubborn Orioles.

Righty Jim Slaton was starting for Milwaukee. One of their top hurlers, Slaton had struggled in his previous couple of starts, permitting 10 earned runs in less than five innings of work. He badly needed a rebound. He would have to wait.

After a leadoff groundout, the Royals stroked three straight singles and a double to plate three runs. Following another groundout and a walk, Clint Hurdle belted a two-run triple to end Slaton’s night in the first inning. But the strong-willed Brewers struck back in the second, blasting a trio of home runs to make the score 5-4.

After a scoreless frame, Reggie Cleveland, who had spelled Slaton, allowed a run-scoring single and a three-run homer in third inning, then opened up the fourth by allowing a single and a two-run Amos Otis homer. Paul Mitchell, already worn out from a long outing two days earlier, came in with the Brewers down 9-4 and allowed another homer, a walk, and a pair of base hits to put the score at 12-4 with no one out in the bottom of the fourth.

It was enough to make Brewers manager George Bamberger wave the white flag. The Brewers had had only two off days in the previous three weeks—a run that included three extra inning games and a double header. “This is ridiculous,” Bamberger told the Milwaukee Sentinel after the game. “I’m not going to ruin our pitching staff over one game.”

Third baseman Sal Bando, who had last pitched in high school, had long pestered Bamberger to let him pitch in a blowout. “I had been telling him that I could pitch," Bando later said. “[When Bamberger] came out of the dugout to make a change and I looked in the bullpen and I see no one warming up… I knew it was my turn.”

Bando moved from third to the mound to face Willie Wilson with two on and no outs. He actually got Wilson to hit an easy grounder to the right side, but was so excited to be on the mound that he forgot to leave it and cover first base. It was the first of three hits Bando allowed in the inning. By the time he’d recorded three outs, it was 17-4 Royals. After popping out to end the Brewers half of the fifth (DH Cecil Cooper was removed for a defensive replacement in when Bando came into pitch, meaning the pitcher now had to bat his turn in the order), Bando settled down on the mound, working around an error to record a scoreless frame. Bando later said he was throwing—or at least trying to throw—a mix of fastballs and changeups (he managed one slider, which Frank White crushed for a double). He even admitted to mixing in a few spitballs. “The ball was shining when it got to the plate,” catcher Charlie Moore later said with a grin.

After his second inning, Bando was gassed. “I can only go one more,” he told Bamberger in the dugout. “After that, I won’t be able to comb my hair.” In his final inning of work, Bando got the Royals 1-2-3. Seeing Bando finally get his crack at pitching, other Brewers started at Bamberger to get their shot.

“[Jim] Gantner was on my back about it, so I put him in,” Bamberger said after the game. With Bando taking over for him at second base, Gantner worked around a pair of singles to set keep the score at 17-6. In the 8th, catcher Buck Martinez, who Bamberger picked over Paul Molitor, Gorman Thomas, and Jim Wohlford—each of whom said they were ready to go, came off the bench and held the Royals to a double and run before getting Otis to pop out to shortstop, closing the book one of the weirdest pitching lines in franchise history.

It was the first time any Brewers position player had ever pitched, and would be the only such incident until 1989, when Terry Francona tossed an inning in a blowout against the Athletics.