The Milwaukee Brewers keep streaking and, with the inspiration of former announcer Bob Uecker, have matched their franchise record for consecutive wins at 13.
The Brewers rallied from seven runs down through two innings Friday night by scoring nine unanswered runs in beating the Cincinnati Reds 10-8.
Milwaukee opened the 1987 season winning its first 13 games.
“It’s just a special win,” said Christian Yelich, who had four hits — including two homers — and five RBIs.
Yelich told Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy they would win despite trailing 8-1 after two innings. He played with a bat honoring Uecker, the former Brewers announcer who died in January at the age of 90.
Yelich said the Brewers have been in this situation before and found a way to make it close.
“Just with the way that our team is, I knew we weren’t going to get our doors blown off,” Yelich said. “You know we’re going to find a way to get our way back into that thing. We just got a roomful of fighters and guys who just don’t care what the scoreboard says or anything like that.”
Uecker, nicknamed Mr. Baseball, broadcast Milwaukee games for over half a century. Murphy said they have to convince themselves that Uecker is still with them after what he meant to the organization.
“Somehow, it seems like he’s watching over us,” Murphy said. “I said he’s not going to miss a game. Well, he was definitely here tonight. Yelly proved it. Special.”
Yelich nearly put away the bat honoring Uecker after he homered in his first at-bat in the second inning, but he kept swinging it the rest of the game. He was supposed to use the tribute bat last year, but his back surgery last August postponed the tribute. Uecker loved the bat when he saw it.
Yelich called this kind of a full-circle moment.
“If you know Ueck, you know like crazy things like that are going to happen when he’s involved,” Yelich said. “It just adds to like how special tonight was.”
The Brewers’ latest streak comes in a season when they haven’t lost very often, leaving them atop Major League Baseball with a 77-44 record. That’s six games better than the Toronto Blue Jays, and the Brewers have opened a nine-game lead over the Chicago Cubs in the National League Central.
Milwaukee became the first team in 94 years to extend a double-digit win streak with a comeback win of seven or more runs, according to ESPN Research.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.