What happens in Vegas? A 29-run, 11-homer, 12-inning slugfest

LAS VEGAS -- Two days after a trade that brought him back to the Brewers for cash, righty reliever Joel Kuhnel joined his new team on Monday for a wild, 15-14 win in 12 innings over his old team, the A’s.

He arrived just in time to provide intel not only on the team that designated him for assignment last week, but on the Triple-A ballpark that Kuhnel called home earlier this year. The A’s are playing a regular-season homestand in Sin City while their new stadium rises on the Las Vegas Strip, and Kuhnel predicted it will probably be more popular with Brewers hitters than Brewers pitchers.

“Be cautious,” he said. “The ball flies.”

Boy, was he right.

Andrew Vaughn ripped a game-tying two-run double in the ninth inning as part of a four-hit, four-RBI night, and William Contreras smashed the visitors’ fourth home run of the night in a four-run 10th. Still, it took Christian Yelich dashing home on a grounder in the 12th, and relievers Abner Uribe and Chad Patrick somehow putting up zeroes in each of the final two innings, for the Brewers to finish their comeback win.

A’s leadoff man Shea Langeliers called it “wild,” which is the word we always use for games like this.

But wild is an understatement in this case. The Brewers and A’s combined to make 16 challenges via the Automatic Ball-Strike (ABS) System, four more than any other game this season. Both teams came back from four-run deficits. They traded four-run rallies in the 10th while combining for three home runs in that inning alone, and combined to hit 11 home runs on the night. The Brewers hit four and the A’s hit seven, including two apiece for Tyler Soderstrom and Nick Kurtz.

But the homer that hurt the Brewers the most was a fly ball with two outs in the 10th and Milwaukee up a run. When Jonah Heim lifted the ball in the air off Aaron Ashby, everyone wearing Brewers blue thought it was a game-ending out.

Milwaukee television play-by-play man Jeff Levering started the call with, “And a popup into right…”

Contreras, the catcher, clapped his glove in celebration.

Ashby put his head down and got ready to shake hands. He confirmed later that he thought the game was over. He would have been the first pitcher in the Majors to reach double-digit wins, even though they’re all in relief.

Trouble was, there is no such thing as a popup here. The baseball carried and carried and carried, all the way to the right field wall and over. The teams, which were tied at 10-10 going into the inning, were tied at 14-14 when it was all over.

The game went on.

At four hours and 14 minutes, it became the longest game in MLB this season. The only other 15-14 game in MLB over the last 25 years was also a Brewers road win, on Aug. 17, 2019, against the Nationals.

“The most bizarre game I’ve ever had in Major League Baseball in 11 years,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Playing at ballparks like this in the whole [Pacific Coast League], I’ve got a lot of experience at this,” said Brewers starter Kyle Harrison, who pitched here a handful of times while he was in the Giants’ system. “Knowing how these games usually go, I haven’t seen anything like this. Credit to this team. Credit to the guys.”

The Brewers let Harrison off the hook after he was burned equally by singles that found their way through the asphalt-hard infield as he was by home runs in the first dud of what has been a sensational start to his Brewers tenure. After allowing 10 earned runs in 57 1/3 innings over his first 11 starts of the season, he was tagged with eight earned runs against the A’s and was out of the game with one out in the third inning. His ERA jumped from 1.57 to 2.72.

But Harrison and the Brewers know better than to draw any conclusions from an outing in these conditions, which made Coors Field look like a pitcher’s park.

“That was pretty nuts to be a part of,” said Jake Bauers, who began the game in right field and homered along with Vaughn, Contreras and Brice Turang. “I’ve never seen anything like that in Major League Baseball, but the guys up here that work in the clubhouse were telling me that they have games like that on a nightly basis in this yard.”

The Brewers were going to play this series in a Triple-A ballpark one way or the other, since the A’s are playing the bulk of their home games in West Sacramento at the home of the Giants’ top affiliate until their Las Vegas stadium opens for the 2028 season.

With this homestand against the Brewers and Rockies at the home of the Las Vegas Aviators, the A’s Triple-A team, the teams are playing the first MLB regular-season games in Las Vegas since 1996. The Oakland Coliseum was undergoing renovations that year, so the A’s played their first six home games at Cashman Field, where Murphy remembers the dugouts were particularly deep into the ground.

“I think it’s a great experience,” Murphy said Monday afternoon upon returning with the Brewers. “You know, why not? It’s a beautiful ballpark. And get used to it, because we’re going to be playing here [in Vegas] in the future.”

That’s a daunting thought. Also daunting is that the Brewers have to get through two more games in this ballpark, and their closer, Trevor Megill is battling some kind of “discomfort,” Murphy said, that had him unavailable on Monday night.

Only one thing was sure about Tuesday.

“We won’t be taking batting practice,” Murphy said.