In and out of the car as this was going down and I think I went through several stages of emotions. When it was 8-0, it was anger. When it was 13-0 it was disbelief. At 16-0 it was numbness. When it was over, I had a weird feeling of happiness in knowing that I had witnessed (at least some portions in audible form) an event of historic significance (not in a good way).
In case you missed it, the Brewers won 20-0 this afternoon, completing a very ugly sweep in PNC. Milwaukee had 25 safeties. They received six walks. There were seven doubles, a triple and four homers. Jim Edmonds missed a cycle by a triple and might’ve had it but his second double of the game bounced over the fence, stopping him at second. Ryan Braun (he might turn out to be a pretty good player, you know) had five RBI. Rickie weeks scored four times and could’ve matched Rennie Stennett’s 7-7 game but only managed three hits. Brewer pitchers accounted for three hits, an RBI and two runs scored.
I’m not sure at what point John Russell would think of using a position player to pitch. He didn’t do it today despite a road trip coming up. Instead he used six pitchers. The Beer Makers scored off of four of them. Daniel McCutchen got 11 outs and gave up six runs. Joel Hanrahan got only three outs and gave up six runs. Randy Wolf tossed six scoreless innings to get the win.
The Good
Javier Lopez and Brendan Donnelley weren’t scored on.
The Bad
Lots and lots.
The Rest
This was the third time the Pirates have been shutout this year, including back-to-back games against the Beer Meisters.
According to a search on Baseball-reference.com, the only two times the Pirates gave up 20 or more runs were 5/25/54 and 6/15/29. In 1954 the Giants scored 11 runs in the 8th inning. Willie Mays scored five runs. The loss in 1929 was a 20-15 slugfest with future HOFer Travis Jackson poking two homers and knocking in seven runs.
The previous largest margin of loss in a shutout was 19-0 back in 1910. At least that’s what Bob Walk said on the radio.
This was the fourth time that Braun has driven in five or more runs in a game.
This was the 13th time that Randy Wolf had two or more hits in a game.
Jim Edmonds last four hit game was 8/14/07.
