The Milwaukee Brewers keep winning, and somewhere in the middle of their 4-2 win over the Reds on Wednesday night, Aaron Ashby quietly walked into some of the rarest air a relief pitcher has breathed in more than a century.
Ashby picked up his 12th win in relief before the team’s 85th game. That ties Roy Face’s 1959 mark and trails only Mace Brown, who had 13 wins in relief before Pittsburgh’s 85th game in 1938. MLB’s Sarah Langs flagged the stat, and it’s the kind of number that makes you stop and check the math twice.
Twelve relief wins in 84 games. That’s not a typo.
Modern baseball doesn’t really do this. Relievers don’t pile up decisions like starting pitchers, and wins are generally seen as a noisy stat for bullpen arms. But 12 of them before a team plays its 85th game? That’s not noise. That’s a pattern.
How Ashby Keeps Ending Up in the W Column
Ashby worked the sixth and seventh innings Wednesday, entering after starter Colin Rea left with a 3-2 lead. He gave up a hit, struck out one, and kept the Reds from tying it. The Brewers added insurance in the bottom of the seventh, and Ashby got the decision when Joel Paymans closed it out.
That’s the thing about Ashby’s season. He’s not coming in with five-run cushions. Most of his wins have come in games where the margin was one or two runs. Manager Pat Murphy has used him as a high-leverage bridge, the guy who gets the ball when the starter’s done and the game is still hanging in the balance.
Garrett Mitchell went 4-for-4 and drove the offense. But Ashby’s role in the win column tells you something about how the Brewers view him. They trust him when games are tight. That trust has taken pressure off a rotation that’s been solid but not dominant, and it’s given Milwaukee a bullpen identity that’s central to their first-place push in the NL Central.
Why This Matters in a First-Half Race
The Brewers are 53-31. That’s the best record in the National League. And a lot of that comes down to a bullpen that has been reliably aggressive in close games. Ashby is the face of that aggression.
Wins don’t always measure relief work well. But when you’re at 12 before the 85th game, you’re not just getting lucky. You’re being used in the right spots and executing. Ashby has a 3.02 ERA and has struck out 63 batters in 56 2/3 innings. The strikeout stuff plays. The command has been better. And the Brewers keep handing him the ball in spots where the game can tip either way.
Mace Brown’s 1938 mark is in reach. Ashby needs one more win in the next game to tie it. Two to own it outright. That’s not a guarantee, but it’s real. And if he keeps pitching the way he has, Milwaukee might end up with a relief season that people talk about long after this summer ends.
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