He’s become The Vulture, and no, we’re not talking about the “Spider-Man” villain. We’re talking about Aaron Ashby, the Brewers' lights-out reliever who leads the Major Leagues in wins and became the first to double-digits on Tuesday.
Ashby (10-0, 2.86 ERA) entered the seventh inning Tuesday protecting a 1-0 Brewers lead over the Guardians, following a scoreless 5 2/3 innings from starter Robert Gasser and one key out from Joel Kuhnel.
Ashby went strikeout-walk-strikeout, including a wild pitch that allowed Stuart Fairchild to advance to second. Gabriel Arias’ two-out RBI single tied the game before Ashby induced a groundout to close the frame.
But as Ashby has done for them many times this season, the Brewers’ bats had the lefty’s back. Garrett Mitchell retook the lead with a massive solo home run, and Abner Uribe and Trevor Megill shut the door to secure a tight win.
And Ashby, who has been largely dominant en route to his 10 wins, heard it from the clubhouse afterward -- especially since Gasser would’ve taken the W had Ashby finished a clean sixth. All in good fun, of course.
“That’s a vulture win for Ashby,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “He’s got nine good ones, but that was a vulture.”
“Was he setting himself up for one? I don’t know,” Megill said with a smile. “But just fantastic stuff. There’s different storylines all over the place here in this clubhouse, and that’s one of them. Great effort out there.”
In the process Tuesday, Ashby became just the second pitcher in MLB history to be the first to 10 wins while having all of them come in relief, according to OptaSTATS. The other was the late Roy Face in 1959, who appears on another exclusive list alongside Ashby.
According to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs, Ashby’s 10 wins through the Brewers’ first 70 games are the fourth-most for a reliever in that span, joining 1938 Mace Brown (12), 1969 Clay Carroll (11), and Face (11).
The excellent start certainly has Ashby vying for a trip to Philadelphia next month for the All-Star Game. After all, no pitcher who has made at least 80 percent of his appearances in relief has ever led MLB in wins over a full season.
“That’s the goal,” Gasser said, "get Aaron to the All-Star Game and get him a record."