Photo credit: Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club
Saturday night’s Brewers game was, to put it mildly, memorable.
The 14-inning contest featured 29 runs on 38 hits and had three different innings where a team scored four or more runs. At five hours and 40 minutes, it clocked in as the seventh longest game in Brewers franchise history, and the expected outcome swung back and forth like a pendulum through much of that time: The Win Percentage Added (WPA) statistic estimates that six different individual plays raised or lowered the Brewers’ chances of winning by 30 percentage points or more, including three in the ninth inning alone. The Brewers’ odds of winning the game shifted by 10% or more based on the result of 27 unique plate appearances.
Saturday night’s game wasn’t just the wildest contest the Brewers have played in 2019; it may also have been the wildest in franchise history. Here are some of the other contenders:
August 24, 2018
The best recent candidate for this title is often remembered simply as the “Jordan Lyles game.” It didn’t have as many lead changes or wild swings as Saturday’s contest, but it ended on a remarkably unlikely series of events.
The Brewers took a 4-0 lead on Pirates starter Joe Musgrove in the bottom of the first inning then packed the bats away for the day. They were held scoreless in each of the next 13 innings, including seven where they were retired in order. Pittsburgh chipped away and tied the game with a single run in the ninth, then finally broke through with two runs in the top of the 15th to take a 6-4 lead.
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Needing two runs to tie, the Brewers were forced to turn to Lyles, who had entered the game as a relief pitcher and was a career .123 hitter, with two on, two out, and the game on the line. Lyles drew one of the more improbable walks in franchise history, setting the stage for Erik Kratz to tie the game with a two-run single and Orlando Arcia to drive home Lyles with the winning run.
June 8, 2004
While Saturday’s game featured nearly a run per team per inning and a combined eleven home runs, the Brewers and Angels combined for an interleague contest that was nearly the exact opposite.
Ben Sheets pitched nine shutout innings and allowed just two baserunners, taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning. He was rewarded with a no-decision, however, as Kelvin Escobar and Francisco Rodriguez combined to shut out the Brewers through the end of regulation as well.
The game continued scoreless long into the night until the top of the 17th when Scott Podsednik doubled on the 457th pitch of the game to drive home Craig Counsell and give the Brewers the lead. Danny Kolb recorded the final three outs for the save and wrapped up the longest 1-0 game in Brewers franchise history and the tenth-longest 1-0 game in the recorded history of Major League Baseball.
May 8 (and 9), 1984
No list of memorably wild Brewers games is complete, of course, without acknowledging the longest game in Major League history.
One day was not enough to complete the Brewers and White Sox’s scheduled contest at Comiskey Park, although both teams had plenty of chances to do so: The Brewers scored twice to break a 1-1 tie in the top of the ninth, only to surrender two in the bottom of the inning and send the game to extras. Nine innings later, the score was still 3-3 and the game was suspended due to the American League’s curfew.
The two teams resumed play the next day, and the Brewers once again put up a crooked number in the top of the 21st, as Ben Oglivie hit a three-run homer to put Milwaukee in front. Chuck Porter couldn’t hold the lead, however, and Tom Paciorek’s single retied the game at 6. It finally ended in the bottom of the 25th when Harold Baines hit a walkoff homer off Porter. He was the 198th batter of the contest.
Even this game, however, with four multi-run innings in the ninth inning and later, didn’t have as many dramatic swings as Saturday night’s: The Brewers’ chances of winning only swung by 30% or more on five plays in this game, as compared to six on Saturday.
In the end, wildness is in the eye of the beholder. By nearly any objective measure, however, Saturday’s Brewers win over the Rangers belongs on a list of the most memorable single games in franchise history.
