Brewers Blast Mariners 22-0, Tying Baseball's Modern-Era Shutout Record
The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Seattle Mariners 22-0 on Tuesday night, matching the most lopsided shutout in Major League Baseball's modern era — a span of more than 125 seasons.
Only two other teams have won a game 22-0 since 1901: Pittsburgh over the Chicago Cubs in September 1975, and Cleveland at the New York Yankees in August 2004. The all-time record belongs to the 1887 Philadelphia Phillies, who beat the Indianapolis Hoosiers 24-0 — but that game predates what baseball considers its modern era (The Guardian). Yahoo Sports and Bleacher Report both confirmed the Brewers' feat as the largest shutout by an MLB team since at least 1900.
The Brewers came in as the best team in baseball at 78-48, and they played like it from the start. Jake Bauers scored the game's first run in the opening inning when Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh dropped the ball on a play at the plate. Christian Yelich stretched the lead to 6-0 with a three-run homer in the fifth — his ninth of the season. David Hamilton followed with a three-run shot in the sixth to make it 9-0, and Bauers added a two-run blast later that inning for his 22nd homer of the year.
Then the eighth inning turned into batting practice. Milwaukee scored nine runs off Mariners infielder Leo Rivas, who was pressed into mound duty once the game was out of reach. Luis Lara capped the frame with a three-run homer — the first of his career. Rivas is a position player, not a pitcher, meaning the Mariners had effectively conceded the innings by sending him in.
The 22 runs tied a Brewers franchise record for a single game. Hamilton's four RBIs were a career high, while Yelich and Lara each drove in four runs as well. Garrett Mitchell collected four hits.
On the mound, Brewers starter Kyle Harrison held Seattle to two hits over five innings. Shane Drohan worked two innings, Grant Anderson pitched the eighth, and catcher Gary Sanchez — a position player — finished things off in the ninth, throwing several pitches under 40 mph in the kind of scene that only a blowout produces.
For the Mariners (68-58), the loss was a bruising one, though they entered the night just 1 1/2 games behind the AL West-leading Houston Astros. A 22-0 defeat counts the same as a 2-1 loss in the standings, but the image of a position player lobbing batting-practice fastballs while a franchise record piles up will linger.
What makes this game remarkable is its sheer rarity. Baseball has played thousands of games since 1901, and only three times has a team won 22-0. The Brewers, already the class of the league this season, put their name on one of the shortest and strangest lists in the sport.
