Opening Day Brewers Highlights: Runs Scored Galore

[Michael Trzinski]

With Opening Day finally in sight, it’s only fitting that we look back at some of the memorable home openers in Milwaukee Brewers history. Today, we'll be looking at some of the highest-scoring affairs in Opening Day history.

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The Brewers have hosted home Opening Days in Milwaukee for 55 years. Their record is 29-26, a winning percentage of .527, or the equivalent of 86 wins in a season. Milwaukee has played eight games where the combined run total is 15 or more. The 12-3 win in 1995 and the 13-4 win in 2008 won’t be included, since they were featured in yesterday’s piece. Here are the other six games that we consider ‘slugfests.’

1974 (9-8 loss to Boston)
The April 6 opener was a chilly one, with the mercury barely crawling to the ‘40’ mark on the thermometer. An 18-year-old kid from California played the first big league game of his Hall of Fame career in front of a County Stadium crowd of 32,761. His name was Robin Yount. ‘The Kid’ batted ninth and went 0-for-1 with a walk and left after being pinch-hit for in the sixth inning by Felipe Alou, who would play in only two more games and get his release from Milwaukee in late April after going 0-for-3.

The Brewers grabbed an early lead on a three-run homer by Johnny Briggs in the bottom of the first. The BoSox came back in the second on a two-run shot by catcher Bob Montgomery. The Brewers got one back in the home second when Pedro Garcia scored on a sac fly by Don Money to make it 4-2.

Boston scored five times in the top of the third after Yount made an errant throw while trying to complete a double play. He made the force at second for out number two, but a sliding Cecil Cooper spiked Yount in the shin and the shortstop’s throw one-hopped first baseman George Scott, who despite his Gold Glove pedigree, could not make the play. Curiously, neither Yount nor Scott were charged with an error, making all five runs earned. In the inning, Rico Petrocelli and Montgomery each had RBI singles, while Doug Griffin cleared the bases with a double to left field. What could have been a good outing for Brewer starter Jim Colborn ended after 2.2 innings, with four hits, four walks, and seven runs allowed.

The 7-4 score held until the bottom of the sixth. The Brewers scored four times in a crazy inning that included a bases-loaded walk; a passed ball that scored Darrell Porter; and back-to-back at-bats with wild pitches thrown by Degui Segui that allowed Bob Coluccio and Garcia to cross the plate, giving the Brewers an 8-7 lead.

Boston legend Carl Yastrzemski slammed a two-run jack to right field off Kevin Kobel in the top of the seventh that scored Cooper to give Boston a 9-8 lead. Milwaukee managed only a lead-off double the rest of the way by Tim Johnson (Yount’s replacement) in the ninth, but Segui struck out Ken Berry and Dave May to end the game. Segui got both a blown save and the victory, while Kobel got a blown save and the loss. Money had the most interesting box score line: 1-for-2 with a run scored, RBI, double, walk, sac fly, sac bunt, and stolen base.

1993 (12-5 loss to California)
After starting the season by dropping three of five games on a West Coast swing, Milwaukee took on the California Angels in the home opener on April 12. A nice crowd of 53,621 took in the proceedings on a pleasant, sunny 45-degree day. The Brewers came in trying to change their Opening Day luck, having lost 10 of 12 games, including the last five.

Chili Davis hit a two-run homer in the top of the first to give the Angels an early 2-0 lead, but that wouldn’t last long. Greg Vaughn and Dickie Thon had RBI singles before a bases loaded walk to B.J. Surhoff scored Vaughn to give the home team a 3-2 lead after one. After Darryl Hamilton banged out his second hit in the bottom of the second, Robin Yount drove him in with an RBI single to extend the Milwaukee lead to 4-2.

The Halos scored three times in the top of the third to take a 5-4 lead, courtesy of RBI singles by Chad Curtis and J.T. Snow. Curtis scored a few batters later when Rene Gonzales walked with the bases loaded to give the visitors a one-run lead. Curtis had another RBI base hit to make it 6-4 in the fourth. Brewers catcher Joe Kmak scored on an RBI groundout by Yount in the bottom of the sixth to close the gap to 6-5.

The game was up for grabs until the Angels roughed up closer Doug Henry for six runs in the ninth. Snow had another RBI, and Greg Myers had an infield single that scored two runs, but with an error by Thon, no RBIs were credited. Two batters later, Damion Easley sent a ball down the left field line that stayed fair for a three-run blast that ended the scoring.

Starter Cal Eldred pitched 3.1 innings, allowing seven hits, six runs, and two walks in taking the loss. Henry’s line was even worse: one inning, three hits, three walks, and six runs.

In the first game that Paul Molitor had not played in a Milwaukee uniform since 1978, Hamilton stepped up as the leadoff batter, going 4-for-4 in the contest. Yount, in the final year of his career, played first base and went 2-for-5 with two RBIs. Thon was 3-for-4 with a RBI.

1994 (11-7 win over Oakland)
The season was shortened by a work stoppage in early August, but the Brewers won their first game of the season and their last, scoring more than 10 runs in both (11 and 10, respectively).

This was one of the worst Opening Days weather-wise in Brewers history, with a temperature of 31 degrees and winds gusting up to 29 mph, making for a wind chill of zero. After the game, general manager Sal Bando said, "I remember openers being postponed because of weather like this, but I don’t remember playing in anything like this.” In what was a prescient comment, Brewer skipper Phil Garner noted, “A dome? No way. A retractable roof with natural grass? Yes.”

The A’s didn’t let the Arctic blasts bother them, as they scored five runs in the top of the first. Rubén Sierra scored Rickey Henderson with a sac fly and then after pitcher Cal Eldred gave up a double and two walks, Terry Steinbach made it 5-0 with a grand slam of Eldred. In the bottom half of the first, Kevin Seitzer scored on a sac fly by Greg Vaughn to make it 5-1. Jody Reed and Darryl Hamilton did the same in the second to cut the lead to 5-2.

The Brewers tied the game in the bottom of the third. Billy Spiers drew a bases loaded walk to score John Jaha, and one batter later, Alex Diaz doubled home Dave Nilsson and Reed.

Troy Neel gave the A’s a 6-5 lead in the top of the sixth when he greeted reliever Mark Kiefer with a leadoff homer. The Brewers would do better in the bottom half. With two outs, Nilsson banged a single to score Vaughn and Jaha to give Milwaukee a 7-6 lead. Then in succession, Reed had a RBI double; Spiers had an RBI single; and Diaz had a RBI triple to increase the lead to 10-6.

Reed had a sac fly in the bottom of the eighth and Sierra did the same for Oakland in the top of the ninth to end the scoring.

Bobby Witt, father of current Kansas City Royal All-World player Bobby Witt, Jr., started for the A’s but only lasted three innings, giving up five hits, five runs, and six walks. On the Brewers side, Eldred got through five innings, allowing four hits, five runs, and five walks.

Kiefer, who got his first big-league win, said, “It’s tough to get a feel on your fastball when it’s that cold.”

2004 (13-7 loss to Houston)
The game featured the most total runs scored in a Brewers home opener and believe it or not, the score was 2-2 going into the top of the sixth.

Brad Ausmus had an RBI groundout in the top of the second, and then Jeff Bagwell had an RBI single in the next frame to make it 2-0, Houston. Geoff Jenkins knocked in Scott Podsednik in the fourth, and one batter later Lyle Overbay plated Jenkins with a ringing double to center field to tie the game.

The Astros tagged three Brewer pitchers for nine runs in the top of the sixth. Starter Wes Obermueller gave up a one out double to Richard Hidalgo that scored a pair of runs. Reliever Ben Ford came in and failed to record an out as two walks and two singles scored three runs to increase the Astros lead to 7-2. Brooks Kieschnick was up next, and he was promptly met by Bagwell’s grand slam. The inning mercifully ended three batters later when Podsednik cut down Jeff Kent trying to score on a Hidalgo single.

Trailing 11-2, the Brewers picked up two runs in the bottom of the seventh. Wes Helms scored on Gary Bennett’s single, and then Ben Grieve scored on a base hit by Kieschnick. Hidalgo struck once again in the top of the eighth, singling to score Bagwell and Jason Lane to make the score 13-4.

The Brewers closed out the scoring in the bottom of the eighth on a solo homer by Overbay and a two-run shot by Bennett to account for the 13-7 final. For the Astros, Bagwell had four hits and five RBIs while Hidalgo had three hits and four RBIs. Wade Miller got the win, going six innings while allowing four hits and two runs.

Hitting stars for Milwaukee were Bennett with two hits and three RBIs, along with Overbay’s two hits and two RBIs. Obermueller didn’t pitch terribly, going 5.1 innings while giving up six hits, five runs, and three walks. The three players that trudged out to the mound after him didn’t fare as well, with Ford, Kieschnick, and Adrián Hernández combining for 3.2 innings, eight hits, eight runs, and five walks. “We just didn’t have good relief pitching today,” manager Ned Yost said. “We didn’t get the job done out of the ‘pen.”

2012 (11-5 loss to St. Louis)
A Miller Park record Opening Day crowd of 46,086 saw Milwaukee put up crooked numbers in the first and last inning, but couldn’t keep up to the Cards, who scored in six different frames.

In the home half of the first, Rickie Weeks scored on a three-bagger by Carlos Gómez and then Gómez scored on a slow roller to third by Aramis Ramírez to give the Brewers an early 2-0 lead.

Yadier Molina led off the second with a solo blast off Yovani Gallardo to cut the lead in half. The gopher ball struck in triplicate the next inning, as Carlos Beltrán and Matt Holliday each hit solo homers, and then David Freese hit a two-run jack two batters later to increase the Redbirds’ lead to 5-2. Freese added an RBI single in the fourth to make it 6-2. Marco Estrada replaced Gallardo after the Freese at-bat and was the only effective pitcher in the contest, retiring all four batters he faced before leaving for a pinch-hitter in the fifth.

Lance Berkman made it 7-2 in the top of the sixth with an RBI double off Manny Parra. The Cardinals got another run in the seventh on an infield dribbler that scored Jon Jay. Matt Carpenter and Rafael Furcal had back-to-back doubles in the ninth that scored three more runs, giving St. Louis an 11-2 lead. The Brewers tacked on three runs in the ninth with a pinch-hit home run by George Kottaras.

The Cardinals were led by Furcal’s three hits; two hits and three RBIs by Freese; and two hits each by Molina and Beltrán. Jaime García pitched well in the win, allowing five hits and two runs in six innings. Kottaras was the RBI star with three for Milwaukee while Weeks, Gómez, Mat Gamel, and Jonathan Lucroy each banged out two hits.

2016 (12-3 loss to San Francisco)
The day was dreary, with temperatures in the low-to-mid 30s with mostly overcast skies. The Brewers scored in each of the three innings but were as cold as the weather in the final six innings, failing to cross home plate after that as the Giants scored a 12-3 victory. The home team could only manage four singles over the last two-thirds of the game.

In the bottom of the first, Chris Carter got a bases loaded walk from Madison Bumgarner to give the Brewers a 1-0 lead. The Giants took the lead in the top of the second on Matt Duffy’s two-run single. The Brewers tied the game on Scooter Gennett’s lead-off homer in the second.

Denard Span and Brandon Belt each had RBI singles in the top of the third, giving San Fran a 4-2 lead. Once again, the gopher ball haunted Bumgarner, as he gave up yet another lead-off homer in the third to Jonathan Villar to cut the lead to 4-3. That would be as close as they would get.

Span hit a sac fly that scored Bumgarner in the fourth, extending the lead to 5-3. Duffy struck again in the fifth with a two-run homer, closing out the scoring until the eighth when the Giants tallied five more times.

Brewer reliever Ariel Peña got lit up in the inning, giving up back-to-back-to-back jacks to Span (three-run HR), and solo shots to Joe Panik and Buster Posey.

Even though they weren’t big-name players, Span (two hits, five RBIs) and Duffy (two hits, four RBIs) led the way for the Giants, while Belt had three hits and Posey had a pair. For the Brewers, Gennett and Domingo Santana each had two hits. Neither pitcher fared well, but Bumgarner got the win despite giving up five hits, five walk, and three runs in five innings. Wily Peralta only lasted four innings, allowing six hits and two walks, along with five runs (four earned). After a promising nine-pitch first inning, things went downhill after that for Peralta.

In his first full season as the Brewers skipper, Craig Counsell preached patience for his young squad. “This is one day,” he said. “They’re going to learn every day they are here. Win or lose, there is a learning experience for a player without a lot of experience.”

Opening Day Excitement
Opening Day is the day that baseball fans live for. It signals the end of winter and the beginning of baseball. In the jam-packed parking lots at Miller Park (AmFamField), grills are fired up, the beer is flowing, kids are playing catch, and the atmosphere gets cranked up in anticipation of the first game of baseball since the previous October.

PLAY BALL!

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