With their 10th straight win July 20, the Brewers are on the precipice of activating the famous George Webb promotion.
With their 10th straight win Sunday, the Brewers are now two victories shy of the hallowed mark of 12 consecutive wins, a benchmark that triggers one of the most famous promotions in Milwaukee history, free burgers from George Webb restaurants.
This is only the 12th time the Brewers have won nine or more consecutive games, and they'll look for more in Seattle starting July 21.
Here's a look at the longest streaks in franchise history:
1987: 13 games
Who can forget Team Streak? The Brewers set Milwaukee on fire by winning the first 13 games of the season, punctuated with an unforgettable Easter Sunday walk-off win over the Texas Rangers on April 19, when Rob Deer and Dale Sveum both homered in the bottom of the ninth to help Milwaukee rally back from a three-run deficit to win, 6-4. That was win No. 12 – the one that promised free burgers for everyone from George Webb. Milwaukee came back for a win over the White Sox the next day, 5-4, before dropping its first game of the season, a 7-1 setback against Chicago.
During that streak, Juan Nieves threw the first no-hitter in Brewers history, a 7-0 win over Baltimore on April 15. But disaster loomed on the horizon, and the Brewers lost 12 straight games from May 3-19. They were back to 22-21 overall by May 29.
Paul Molitor's 39-game hitting streak, a mark that has not been reached by anyone in Major League Baseball in the years since, became a talking point of the summer, ending Aug. 26 as he stood on deck during Rick Manning's game-winning single.
In late August and September, Teddy Higuera threw 32 straight scoreless innings (including a complete-game one-hitter), but Milwaukee’s 91 wins weren’t enough to reach the postseason. The Brewers finished seven games out in the American League East.
2018: 12 games
This is a little bit atypical since it crossed over into the postseason. Milwaukee won its final eight games of the regular season, including an unforgettable "Game 163" at Wrigley Field in Chicago to clinch the National League Central. The Brewers then swept the Colorado Rockies in the National League Division Series and won Game 1 of the NLCS against the Dodgers.
It was easily one of the most electric times to be a Brewers fan, although the Dodgers rallied for a Game 2 win at Miller Park, then ultimately defeated the Brewers in a crushing seventh game of the series.
Earlier in 2018, the Brewers won eight straight games.
2021: 11 games
The Brewers came within an eyelash of triggering the Webb promotion yet again, but the bats went quiet on the Fourth of July in a 2-0 loss to the Pirates. Before that, Milwaukee was mashing, recording its first double-digit regular-season winning streak in 17 years.
Milwaukee scored five or more runs in 9 of the 11 games and got to double digits four times, and meanwhile the team's elite pitching staff allowed barely more than three runs per game during the run. The team won a game in which it pitched a two-hitter against Arizona to start a streak and even won a game in which it recorded just two hits (and no homers) in a 2-1 win over the Cubs.
The 2021 team was all about pitching, with Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes joining Brandon Woodruff and Freddy Peralta for a dynamite 1-2-3 punch, but the Brewers couldn't muster enough offense against the Braves in the NLDS and fell to the eventual World Series champion in four games.
2003: 10 games
The 2003 Brewers team was not good, finishing 68-94, but for 10 days in August, Milwaukee couldn’t be stopped. The winning ride included back-to-back wins over Pittsburgh on walk-off hits by Royce Clayton and Richie Sexson, and Dan Kolb recorded five saves in the run.
Milwaukee won a 4-3 battle in 10 innings at Cincinnati on Aug. 10 to reach a perfect 10, with a Bill Hall home run providing the winning margin. But Geoff Jenkins, who batted .475 with 18 RBI in the streak and homered in four straight games to tie a franchise NL record, injured his thumb in that final game and didn’t come back the rest of the year. It was a serious damper on the team’s sizzling performance, and Milwaukee went 10-19 the rest of the way.
1988: 10 games
From late April until early May, the Brewers went from an 8-11 team to an 18-11 team, with two wins apiece in that run from Bill Wegman, Chris Bosio and Nieves. The Brewers needed late magic in the final two games of that run, with a four-run 10th getting the Brewers past Kansas City, 6-2, and a five-run eighth helping the Brewers beat the Twins in the Metrodome, 9-6. Jim Gantner also delivered a walk-off single against the Twins early in the winning run. The Brewers finished 89-73 and took third in the AL East.
1979: 10 games
The Brewers finished second in the AL East with 95 wins that season, and from July 11-22, the squad didn’t lose a game. Milwaukee hit double-digit runs in three of those games and also staged two walk-offs, including a memorable 17-inning battle in which the Indians scored in the top of the 17th to take a lead, only to have the Brewers score twice in the bottom half for a 4-3 win. Don Money’s RBI double and Gorman Thomas’ sacrifice fly accounted for the winning runs.
Sixto Lezcano added a home run in the 11th to beat the Blue Jays at County Stadium three games later in the first contest after the all-star break, and a Robin Yount RBI triple in the 10th helped the Brewers beat the Blue Jays in Toronto earlier in the streak.
1978: 10 games
The Brewers won 10 straight in back-to-back seasons, starting with a run from June 9-17 in 1978, one that featured three extra-inning wins and another walk-off, as well as two doubleheader sweeps. Ben Oglivie’s game-winning single in the 10th against Toronto started the run, Robin Yount’s walk-off homer in the ninth two days later extended it, and the Brewers tied Cleveland in the ninth (Dave May single), then won the game in the 10th (sacrifice fly by Yount, single by Charlie Moore) on June 16 to make it nine straight.
The following day, Sal Bando’s home run in the 12th broke a 4-3 tie in Cleveland. Milwaukee won 93 games, good for third in the AL East that season.
1973: 10 games
From June 8-18, Milwaukee won 10 straight games for the first time in franchise history. Two 1-0 games were part of the stretch, including a win over the California Angels in which the Brewers recorded just two hits (an Ollie Brown home run being one of them) in a strong outing by Jim Colborn, and another in which Jim Slaton outdueled Wilbur Wood and Milwaukee scored the run in the ninth on a Pedro Garcia sacrifice fly.
Colborn won three games in the stretch, Slaton won another pair and Bill Parsons and Jerry Bell won two apiece. The ’73 Brewers finished, 74-88, fifth in the division.
2023: nine games
The Brewers only gained three games in the National League Central standings when they won nine in a row immediately after getting swept in Los Angeles against the Dodgers, but the run in August felt like the moment the Brewers seized control of the division title.
Including an 8-7 walk-off win against the Twins when the Brewers scored twice in the 10th against closer Johan Durán, Milwaukee's offense was on point, scoring fewer than six runs in a game just once in the streak (and that was five runs).
Oddly enough, the streak began immediately after a 1-0 loss when the Dodgers spoiled Corbin Burnes' seven-inning, two-hit, zero-run effort. It ended with another 1-0 loss in a Burnes start, when the Cubs scored in the first and never again over Burnes' seven frames.
2014: nine games
This was Team Streak Light, with a nine-game winning streak out of the gate to start the year 10-2 and a nine-game losing streak later in the season. Six of the games in the winning streak came on the road, including a three-game sweep at Fenway Park that opened some eyes out of the gate. Logan Schafer’s RBI double gave the Brewers a 7-6 win over the Red Sox in the 11th inning of one game.
The Brewers then went to Philadelphia to win three more before sweeping the Pirates at home in a series of low-scoring games, including a 3-2 battle in which Jonathan Lucroy delivered the game-winning single in the bottom of the eighth. Milwaukee remained in first place until Aug. 30, still 11 games over .500 at that point, but a September lull dropped the team to 82-80, a full six games out of the second wild card.
2013: nine games
The 2013 Brewers team also teased its fans with a promising nine-game run in April to open the year 11-8, though the squad (which finished 74-88) spent the vast majority of the year under .500. The run started in St. Louis, when Ryan Braun homered in the eighth and Yuniesky Betancourt doubled to tie the game in the ninth, then Jonathan Lucroy homered in the 10th for a 4-3 win.
Reliever Brandon Kintzler recorded the win in that game and the next one, when Betancourt’s grand slam capped an eight-run third inning en route to a 10-8 win. Milwaukee added a walk-off against the Giants on Blake Lalli’s RBI single, finished off a sweep of the Giants before taking three straight from the Cubs and added two road wins in San Diego.
1997: nine games
This one came in a tight time frame, from July 25 to Aug. 1, and the Brewers swept back-to-back doubleheaders against the Blue Jays on July 28 and 29 after snow relocated a pair of games from April.
The game most people will remember from that stretch was the first of those four, when Steve Woodard made his major-league debut and tossed a one-hit shutout over eight innings to outduel Roger Clemens and the Blue Jays, 1-0. Otis Nixon led off the game with a double, and Woodard was excellent from there with 12 strikeouts and one walk. Mike Fetters tossed a clean ninth for the save.
Scott Karl and Cal Eldred each won two games in the stretch, and the Brewers followed up their doubleheader-days with a 2-1 win over the Mariners the next night on Dave Nilsson’s walk-off single.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The longest winning streaks in Milwaukee Brewers history
Category: Baseball
