MILWAUKEE -- It wasn’t until the eighth inning that the Brewers finally got some real action on the bases. Jim Henderson, one of Milwaukee’s pitching coaches, stole a glance across the dugout to catch the eye of left-hander Aaron Ashby.
It was happening again.
“He looked at me and I looked at him, and it was like, ‘I don’t know what to tell you, man,’” Ashby said. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
Nothing has portended a go-ahead rally for the Brewers better than getting Ashby into a game, and Wednesday afternoon’s comeback, while not nearly their biggest, or their most dramatic, was one of their best. The Brewers had been no-hit by Cardinals right-hander Dustin May for seven dominating innings, when Ashby entered to work a scoreless eighth.
Back in the dugout, Ashby watched his team’s scrappy offense do its thing, scratching out a hit, and then a run, and then a 2-1 Brewers win at American Family Field for a three-game sweep.
Nearly a third of the way into the regular season, Major League Baseball’s wins leader is still a reliever. Ashby has started the year 9-0 with a 2.06 ERA while pitching for a first-place team that does little according to convention. The only other pitcher since at least 1900 to earn nine victories, all in relief, through his team’s first 53 games was Pittsburgh’s Mace Brown, one of baseball’s first full-time bullpen arms, in his lone All-Star season in 1938.
“That was a gritty win,” said Brewers swingman Chad Patrick, who recently converted to relief but delivered four effective innings in a spot start. “We found a way today. We found a way to score some runs today in the eighth and get Ashby the win.”
Patrick smiled in a way that revealed he was waiting to use that line. Ashby has swooped in and picked up many wins that he’s the latest reliever to be dubbed, “The Vulture.” Even after a bit of a lull recently, he’s still on a pace to win 27 games.
Wednesday was among the most satisfying, considering the way May owned most of the afternoon. The last time the redheaded right-hander pitched in this ballpark -- in 2021 -- he was a hotshot Dodgers prospect, and he blew out his right elbow requiring Tommy John surgery. Back with the Cardinals five years later, May needed only 82 pitches to navigate the first seven innings without allowing a hit. The Brewers’ only baserunners to that juncture were Jake Bauers, who was hit on the foot by a curveball in the second inning, and Sal Frelick, who drew another catcher’s interference call in the third. Neither moved beyond first base.
“That’s domination right there,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said.
But surging center fielder Garrett Mitchell finally broke through with a double leading off the eighth, and Luis Rengifo’s bunt single -- that play changed the game, Murphy said -- suddenly knocked May out. On came left-hander JoJo Romero, who was one out away from escaping when Yelich grounded a single to center field to make it a 1-1 game.
The go-ahead run scored with some help from Masyn Winn, whose spectacular play to end the fifth inning had kept May’s no-hit bid intact. Jackson Chourio hit a grounder up the middle that should have ended the inning, but Winn booted it allowing Frelick to score the go-ahead run.
“You feel like you kind of stole one a little bit,” Yelich said. “It’s a credit to our pitchers for keeping us in the game, because we were only chasing one run. Even though it wasn’t going real good for us on offense, when you’re only down one, anything can happen.
“It can change quick.”
The rally secured the Brewers’ third series sweep in the month of May -- all against winning teams in the Yankees, Cubs and Cardinals. The Brewers (33-20) have won 20 of 27 games and 15 of their last 19 to charge to the top of the NL Central standings. Only the best-in-baseball Braves (37-18 and 8 1/2 up in the NL East entering Wednesday evening) have a wider division lead than the Brewers, who were 4 1/2 games up on their closest competitors pending Wednesday’s night games.
Just like Wednesday’s game itself, Murphy knows that can change in the blink of an eye. That mindset explains why he was so furious at reliever Abner Uribe for losing his focus on Tuesday night, and why Murphy sometimes broods over much less visible flaws when they emerge.
May was cruising until he wasn’t. The Brewers are surging until they aren't.
“Isn’t that how our game is sometimes?” Murphy said. “It’s giving up a free base, a wild pitch, a poor throw on a pickoff, you don’t field a bunt, you don’t cover first. We’ve had all those things haunt us. ...
“Games are going to be like this. Games are going to be close. The game is hard. Hitting is hard. Stringing together hits with the defense that’s out there and the type of pitching that’s out there is hard. I think you have to do the little things.”
The Brewers did enough little things, just in time to make their lucky charm a winner.
“Maybe he’s the lucky charm,” Mitchell said. “He seems to be right in the middle of everything.”