Covering the bases 8/11/2025: Brewers 7, Pirates 1 (10 straight wins)
For the second time this season, the Milwaukee Brewers have a double-digit win streak. The Brewers dispatched the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-1 Monday in the series opener at American Family Field for their 10th consecutive victory. The Brewers won 11 in a row from July 6-21 and are now 53-19 since May 18. The Brewers' lead in the NL Central increased to 6½ over the second-place Chicago Cubs, who were off Monday. The Brewers are the first team since the 2019 Houston Astros to have two winning streaks of 10 or more games in the same season. Both of the Astros' runs that year were 10-gamers.
FIRST BASE: Errorless streak ends
One of the reasons the Brewers have been so good recently is their defense. Entering Monday, they had gone 11 games without committing an error. But then a most inoculous situation arose and a lack of concentration led to the first miscue in almost two weeks. Jared Triolo hit a third-inning single to left that Isaac Collins didn't field cleanly, allowing Triolo to reach second. The last error was by Brewers rookie starter Jacob Misiorowski in the first inning of the July 28 game vs. the Cubs.
SECOND BASE: Everyone contributes
Eight of the nine hitters in the Brewers' lineup had a hit. The lone exception? Caleb Durbin, who officially went 0-for-1, but was twice hit by a pitch and also had a sacrifice bunt in his other three plate appearances. The Nos. 2-3-4 hitters – Collins, William Contreras and Christian Yelich – each had two hits. Collins was the only Brewer to score twice, while Brice Turang hit a homer for the third time in four games. It was Turang's 11th homer of the season and his first leading off the game. Turang also has five homers in eight games.
THIRD BASE: Quiet Quintana
He wasn't exactly sharp, but left-handed starter Jose Quintana showed his value in the way he battled. Quintana went six innings, allowing just three hits – including a solo homer – and one walk, striking out three. Quintana now has 10 wins (against four losses), joining Freddy Peralta (13) and Quinn Priester (11) in double-digits.
HOME PLATE: No. 22 for No. 22
Everyone talks about Yelich's leadership and most of that comes in the clubhouse. But then there are the moments in front of the camera with a bat in his hand. After the Pirates tied the game on a Joey Bart homer in the top of the third inning, Yelich came back in the bottom half with a one-out solo homer that sparked a four-run outburst. The four-run third inning was the 40th time this year the Brewers have scored at least that many runs in a single frame, the most in MLB.
EXTRA BASES: Facing Skenes
⚾ Correction from yesterday's post: Freddy Peralta is starting Tuesday and he will be facing Pirates phenom Paul Skenes. The Brewers announced that postgame and I missed it. I won't rehash what I already wrote about Peralta. Skenes, last year's NL Rookie of the Year, provides the ultimate challenge to the Crew. Despite a 7-8 record, Skenes is a leading candidate to win the NL Cy Young Award in just his second season. That is because Skenes has an MLB-leading 1.94 ERA to go along with 162 strikeouts in 144 innings.
⚾ Brewers rookie outfielder Isaac Collins was named the NL Player of the Week. All he did was post an incredible slash line of .476/.577/.982 with eight RBIs, all capped by a walk-off home run Sunday against the New York Mets leading off the bottom of the ninth inning.
⚾ Baseball America and MLB Pipeline each came out with their revised Top 100 MLB prospect lists. There are similarities and one noteworthy difference between the two. Infielders Jesus Made and Luis Pena – both recently promoted from Low Class A Carolina to High Class A Wisconsin – headline the Brewers' prospects, with Made ranked No. 3 and Pena No. 16 in Baseball America's Top 100, while they were No. 5 and No. 16 by MLB Pipeline. Notably, right-hander Jacob Misiorowski, currently in the majors yet on the 15-day injured list, was No. 4 on the Baseball America list, but not on MLB Pipeline's, which was explained here.
