MLB-best Brewers pounce on Paul Skenes, rout Pirates to post second 11-game win streak in two-month span

The Milwaukee Brewers just keep winning and winning and winning. They have won 11 games in a row -- again, and we'll get to that -- after taking down the Pirates, 14-0, on Tuesday.

For their latest trick, they were tasked with facing Pirates ace and two-time All-Star Game starter Paul Skenes. He posted a 1.96 ERA as a rookie and led the majors heading into Tuesday's game at 1.94.

The Brewers chased him after four innings, getting him for four runs on six hits. The diminutive Sal Frelick led things off with a home run to set the tone.

They wouldn't stop there. They never do. These Brewers are relentless. William Contreras doubled home a run in the third before Brice Turang homered and a Frelick single brought in another in the fourth.

Christian Yelich hit a two-run homer in the fifth after Skenes was already gone and the rout continued with a six-run sixth, highlighted by Andrew Vaughn's eighth home run in 27 games with the Brewers, also running his RBI total with Milwaukee to 32.

They also got a two-run homer from Caleb Durbin in the ninth.

On the mound, All-Star Freddy Peralta worked six scoreless innings, running his record to 14-5 and lowering his ERA to 2.90. He leads the majors in wins.

The Brewers are now the second team in the divisional era (1969-present) to put together two separate 11-game winning streaks in the same season. The other was the 2015 Blue Jays.

Unbelievably, these two 11-game winning streaks happened with only eight games in between. The first one was July 6-21 (wrapped around the All-Star break) and this current 11-game streak started on Aug. 1. They went 4-4 in between, meaning we can add all that up to see the Brewers have gone an absolutely mind-boggling 26-4 since July 5. They trailed the Cubs by four games in the NL Central on that date and now have a seven-game lead.

That isn't when these Brewers started winning, of course. Their low-water mark was four games under .500. They started 0-4 and then were 21-25. They were 25-28 after a loss to the Pirates on May 24. Since then, they've gone 50-16.

On the season, the Brewers, now 75-44, have the best record in baseball by 5.5 games.

The longest winning streak for the Brewers in franchise history is 13, which happened to start the 1987 season. This current 11-game winning streak ties, obviously, the 11-game streak that just happened and then another 11-gamer in 2021 for the second-longest.

Also, the Brewers are now 31 games over .500. This is only the third time in club history the Brewers have been more than 30 games over .500 (they were exactly 30 over in 1979 and 2011). The franchise high is 34 games over .500 and that happened in 2021 when they finished with 95 wins. The pennant-winning 1982 Brewers topped out at 31 games over. This Brewers team is now on pace to win 102 games, which would break the club record (96, 2011 and 2018).

While there's still plenty of work to be done, it's reasonable to say this is the best the Brewers have ever been.