Simply over a yr in the past, the Brewers made the very best sort of baseball historical past: bizarre baseball historical past. On Might 31, 2024, they hosted the White Sox in Milwaukee, shellacking them 12-5. That half wasn’t bizarre. It’s arduous to think about something much less bizarre than the 2024 White Sox shedding a baseball recreation (except it’s the 2025 Rockies shedding a baseball recreation). The bizarre half was how the Brewers beat the White Sox. They put up 23 hits, and 16 of these hits got here on groundballs. That’s probably the most groundball base hits ever recorded because the pitch monitoring period started in 2008. Would you wish to see all of them? In fact you’d.
That’s what a file appears like. Groundball after groundball discovering the varied nooks and crannies that made the 2024 White Sox protection so much like an English muffin. We’ve been ready till this recreation’s anniversary to put in writing about it. In response to Baseball Savant, since 2008, just one different crew has surpassed 12 groundball base hits in a single recreation. The White Sox tallied 15 towards the Tigers on September 14, 2017. And that’s it. That’s the one crew that got here inside three groundball hits of Milwaukee. First, let’s speak about how the Brewers pulled off this feat of worm-burning ingenuity.
As with every file, a good bit of luck was concerned. Balls took loopy hops off the mound and the primary base bag. The Brewers hit a superbly positioned chopper and despatched a ball hugging the third final analysis on a verify swing. They wouldn’t have damaged the file if any a type of balls had bounced one other manner. However because the saying goes, luck is the residue of design, and there was loads of design concerned right here too.
For starters, the 2024 Brewers offense was designed to rack up low-launch-angle hits. They featured younger speed-over-power guys like Brice Turang, Sal Frelick, and Joey Ortiz, and the crew led the league by a mile with 19.7 baserunning runs above common. Even the Brewers’ energy hitters aren’t energy lifters. We’ve been writing about Christian Yelich’s launch angle just about since he appeared within the massive leagues, and the Brewers have largely let him do his low-altitude factor. Since 2021, 109 gamers have taken at the least 2,000 plate appearances. Yelich’s 3.3-degree launch angle is the bottom. Catcher William Contreras’ 5.7-degree mark is third lowest.
In 2024, the Brewers had been nice at reaching base on choppers, they usually had been nice at hitting the ball proper again up the center. That they had the fourth-highest groundball fee and the third-lowest launch angle within the league. Regardless that a excessive stroll fee and average strikeout fee meant they ranked twentieth in balls in play, they nonetheless led the league with 511 groundball hits. As a result of they beloved low line drives too, additionally they led the league with 715 base hits that traveled lower than 201 ft. In the course of the recreation in query, Yelich led the best way with 4 groundball hits, together with two doubles. Contreras and Turang had been behind him with three, and Blake Perkins chipped in two. All of that is to say that it makes an entire lot of sense that the Brewers had been those to set this specific file.
On the opposite facet of the sector, the White Sox protection was designed to surrender base hits. Their -87 defensive runs saved had been the worst in baseball in 2024, and the thirteenth worst since Sports activities Data Options began calculating the stat in 2002. Over the course of the entire season, the infield wasn’t essentially the principle offender, operating a -12 DRS that ranked sixth worst within the recreation. However on the day in query, they fielded one in all their worst defensive infields. Chicago’s 4 infielders from that day mixed for -11 DRS at their respective positions, regardless that none of them spent a lot as half a season at these positions.
Might 31, 2024 White Sox Infield
The one factor that wasn’t stacked in favor of groundballs was the pitching. Virtually-submariner Tim Hill’s complete recreation relies round inducing grounders, however he threw only one third of an inning, throughout which he allowed two groundball hits. (As you’ll see later, the one out that he acquired was a groundball that simply barely missed going for a success.) Starter Erick Fedde and reliever Michael Soroka each ran middle-of-the-pack groundball charges in 2024. The pleasant John Brebbia someway allowed 4 groundball hits in a 3rd of an inning. That may be bonkers sufficient by itself, however two of them had been on excessive fastballs. Over the course of the season, Brebbia ran a 30% groundball fee, which ranked 462nd out of the 474 pitchers with at the least 30 innings pitched! This was really an improbably sequence. Jared Shuster, who ranked 412, allowed the ultimate hit. Seems the Brewers may flip any pitcher right into a groundball pitcher.
So right here’s the apparent query: On Might 31 of final yr, the Brewers notched probably the most groundball hits of the pitch monitoring period. However did they notch probably the most groundball hits of all time? The straightforward reply is perhaps. The marginally much less straightforward reply might be not. The reply that’s only a bit simpler than that’s that we’ll by no means be certain. All of those solutions are true, however we are able to nonetheless do some investigating.
Sports activities Data Options has its personal batted ball information that predates Statcast and PITCHf/x. Mark Simon, editorial content material operations lead at SIS, was in a position to take a look at the years 2004 to 2007, and he confirmed that no crew was credited with greater than 12 groundball hits in a single recreation over that interval. We’ve added three extra years of knowledge, so we are able to now say that the Brewers’ file stretches again by the final 22 seasons, or 17.6% of recent baseball historical past. After that, we enterprise into guesswork and chance.
A bunch of historic elements are working towards Milwaukee’s possibilities at holding an all-time file. The additional again you return, the extra probably a recreation like this appears. Baseball has been trending towards extra strikeouts, extra energy, and better launch angles because the time of Babe Ruth. When you return to 1910, when there have been heaps extra balls in play, with extra of these being grounders, and when the fielding was worse, getting 16 groundball hits doesn’t sound all that inconceivable.
Then once more, the ball was softer, the grass was longer, and usually talking, the gamers weren’t as fantastically yoked as they’re at the moment. All of this may lead to slower groundballs, giving fielders extra time to get to them. Though league-wide BABIP has been trending down because the highs of the mid-Nineties, it’s nonetheless increased than it’s been at any time because the early Nineteen Forties. As Mike Petriello reminded us lately, one of the best ways to rack up groundball hits is to blast the ball by the infield as arduous as Aaron Decide does. Possibly it’s not that a lot tougher to place a ball by the infield now than it was manner again when.
Within the historical past of the pitch monitoring period, 46.9% of singles and 33.5% of all hits have been grounders. Clearly, one recreation is a tiny pattern measurement during which something can occur, however in keeping with these percentages, a median crew would want to notch 30 singles or 48 complete hits so as to find yourself with 16 groundball hits. No crew has ever come near reaching both complete in a nine-inning recreation. Enjoying the Blue Jays on August 28, 1992, the Brewers set the file for many singles in a nine-inning recreation with 26. Additionally they tied the 1901 New York Giants with 31 complete hits. The web incorporates three units of highlights from that recreation, they usually mix to point out 13 of the crew’s hits. They’re within the video beneath. Solely three of these 13 hits had been groundballs, which means that so as to even tie the 2024 Brewers, 13 of the remaining 18 hits must have been hit on the bottom. There’s simply no manner that occurred.
Have in mind, that’s probably the most hits ever recorded in a nine-inning recreation, and it was performed on quick turf, and we are able to nonetheless say with close to certainty that it didn’t even come near having 16 groundball hits. We are able to additionally say that for sure about different latest video games that featured tons of hits. On July 22, 2022, the Blue Jays tied for fifth all time with 29 hits towards the Pink Sox in a 28-5 win. Solely 9 of their 29 hits had been grounders. On June 24, 2023, the Angels had 28 hits towards the Rockies, with eight of them on grounders. Clearly, it’s not simply {that a} crew wants a number of hits. In all, 24 groups have reached 25 hits in a single recreation through the pitch monitoring period, and none of them have matched the Brewers.
The Brewers wanted simply 23 hits to get their 16 groundball hits, however as we’ve established, they had been a particular crew, designed to hit a number of grounders and to beat them out for hits. They hit 30 complete groundballs within the recreation, a feat that’s occurred simply 13 instances since 2008. Presumably that sort of crew was rather more frequent in earlier, less-powerful variations of the sport, so the very best we are able to do is to make use of the Stathead database to see what number of video games would have at the least given a crew an opportunity at 16 groundball hits.
Since 1901, 350 groups have put up at the least 23 hits in a nine-inning recreation. As a result of we all know no person has matched the Brewers since 2004, we are able to remove these years, lowering our checklist of 23-hit video games to only 269. If we additional cut back our checklist by mandating that at the least 14 of the hits got here on singles – the identical because the Brewers had towards the White Sox, since extra-base hits are more likely to return on fly balls and line drives – the checklist will get shortened to 239. In trendy baseball historical past, there have been 239 video games during which it appears conceivable {that a} crew may’ve performed what the Brewers did. That’s the closest we’ll get to a solution, however earlier than we go, there’s yet one more factor it’s essential to see.
Really, there are 4 extra issues it’s essential to see. Check out these performs, all of which befell through the Brewers’ probably historic recreation on Might 31.
That’s proper, all 4 of those groundballs had been a razor’s-width from ending up as base hits too. Three of them bounced off anyone’s glove earlier than being picked up and changed into an out! That is how shut the Brewers got here.
These 4 outs may have simply ended up as 4 extra groundball base hits, which might have given the Brewers 4 extra outs to play with, which may have given them the prospect to rack up much more groundball base hits. We’ll by no means know for sure whether or not the pitch monitoring period file the Brewers maintain is definitely an all-time file. However no matter file they maintain, they undoubtedly earned it.