A litany of quirky stats and figures from the 2024 Milwaukee Brewers season

With the 2024 regular season in the books, the Milwaukee Brewers had a successful showing, with a third division title in four years.

Now, of course, comes the fun part.

But before we get there, take a look back at some of the statistical achievements and oddities that characterized the year that was.

Thanks to Sarah Langs of MLB.com and Baseball Reference for providing many of these nuggets:

The grand (pun intended) achievements for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2024

The Brewers hit six grand slams in 13 days, and only two other teams have done that

Milwaukee went on an absolute grand-slam heater from June 22 to July 5, belting six of them in less than two weeks. Only two other teams have done that; the 2020 San Diego Padres and the 1996 Montreal Expos.

For a while, it was an every-other-day situation, with grand slams on June 22, 24, 26, 28 and 30. Overall, the team hit 10 grand slams for the season, tied with 1995 for the most in any season. Rhys Hoskins wound up with a franchise-record-tying three slams in 2024.

Perhaps crazier was that Brice Turang hit two of the grand slams, nearly a full third of his seven 2024 home runs heading into the final four games of the year.

Here are the Brewers' grand slams in the June 22-July 5 stretch:

• June 22; Brice Turang at Padres (Brewers were trailing 6-0, then 6-4)
• June 24: Rhys Hoskins vs. Rangers (Brewers were trailing 3-1, then up 5-3)
• June 26: Jake Bauers vs. Rangers (Brewers were trailing, 1-0, then up, 4-1)
• June 28: Jackson Chourio vs. Cubs (Brewers were trailing, 2-0, then up 4-2)
• June 30: Brice Turang vs. Cubs (Brewers were up 3-1, then 7-1)
• July 5: Rhys Hoskins at Dodgers (Brewers were trailing 2-1, then led, 5-2)

BONUS NUGGET: The Brewers had a run of five straight bases-loaded hits that were homers, the second-longest streak in the expansion era (since 1961) behind only San Diego's six consecutive bases-loaded hits being homers in 2020.

Jackson Chourio became the youngest player with a 20/20 season

Surely you know that Chourio became the youngest player to have a 20/20 season — with 21 home runs and 22 stolen bases — still at age 20. Mike Trout hit his 20th homer as a rookie on the day of his 21st birthday.

Here's what else to know about Chourio's season:

• He became the youngest player to hit a home run since Juan Soto in 2018 when Chourio went deep April 3 against Minnesota.
• He became the youngest Brewers player to homer since Gary Sheffield in 1988. Only Robin Yount and Darrell Porter had also hit homers for the Brewers at a younger age in addition to Sheffield.
• He became the youngest Brewers player to hit a multi-homer game and youngest across baseball since Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in 2019.

BONUS NUGGET: Jackson Chourio and Willy Adames became the first 20/20 teammates in Brewers history. Adames finished with 32 home runs and 21 stolen bases.

Freddy Peralta started the year with a bang and finished with a milestone

The Brewers became the fifth team in the expansion era (beginning in 1961) to throw a one-hitter in a nine-inning game on opening day when Freddy Peralta handled the New York Mets, and they became the first team to win that game since 2015. The others to turn the feat were Seattle (which lost in 2016), Oakland (2015), Montreal (1991) and the California Angels (1964).

The Brewers have thrown at least one one-hitter in six consecutive seasons.

Peralta joined Yovani Gallardo, Corbin Burnes and Teddy Higuera as the only pitchers in Brewers history to have two or more 200-strikeout seasons. He had 200 even, getting the final one against Pittsburgh on Sept. 25, after notching 210 last year.

BONUS NUGGET: Assuming Peralta pitches in the postseason, he'll become only the second Brewers player to appear in five postseasons, joining Ryan Braun.

Willy Adames and his three-run homer bonanza

You already know that Willy Adames tied the record set by Ken Griffey Jr. for the most three-run homers in a season, with 13. But there's more:

• Adames homered in five straight games, tying the Brewers franchise record with Eric Thames (2017) and Jeromy Burnitz (1997). He topped it off on his birthday, Sept. 2. It tied for the most consecutive games with a home run by a big-league shortstop since 1900.
• With his 32nd home run, he surpassed the 31 he had two years ago for the most in franchise history by a shortstop.

BONUS NUGGET: Adames is the third National League shortstop with 30 homers and 100 RBIs in a season, joining Ernie Banks (who accomplished the feat five times with the Chicago Cubs) and Troy Tulowitzki (2011 with the Colorado Rockies). A couple of players reached that threshold splitting time in a season between two leagues, including Manny Machado (2018 with the Baltimore Orioles and Los Angeles Dodgers) and Tony Batista (1999 with the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Toronto Blue Jays).

The Brewers stole 10 home runs

According to Sports Info Solutions Baseball, which has been tracking such data for 21 years, the Brewers' 10 home-run thefts are the most for any team in the past two decades. Shall we re-live them?

Speaking of steals, the Brewers grabbed a lot of bases, too

The Brewers finished second in baseball in stolen bases with 217, trailing only the Washington Nationals (223). But the distribution of those swipes created something we haven't seen this century.

The Brewers became the first Major League Baseball team since 1996 to have five or more players with 20 or more stolen bases, and it's the first time in franchise history they've done that. That includes Turang (50), Blake Perkins (23), Chourio (23), Christian Yelich (21) and Adames (21). Sal Frelick (18) finished just two shy of 20.

Turang's total is the fifth-best in franchise history.

Team achievements for the 2024 Milwaukee Brewers

• The Brewers became the first team chronologically in 2024 to clinch a playoff berth, securing it Sept. 18, just hours ahead of the New York Yankees. It tied for the earliest clinch (by calendar) in franchise history.
• The team's comeback from an 8-0 deficit against Arizona on Sept. 22 was tied for the second-largest comeback in franchise history, behind the 9-0 comeback on April 28, 2004.
• The Brewers became the first team since 2017 to score 10 runs in the ninth inning when they turned that feat Aug. 30 against the Cincinnati Reds.
• The Brewers tied a franchise record with six straight games of seven or more runs scored, matching the runs in 1982 and 1989. Milwaukee achieved the run April 7-13.
• The Brewers beat every team in Major League Baseball for the first time in franchise history (and second year of the balanced schedule in which every team plays all of the others). The Dodgers, Padres, Orioles and Blue Jays all turned the feat last year. This year, the Dodgers and Atlanta Braves also accomplished the feat.
• The Brewers were the only team in baseball not to lose four games in a row. No other team in baseball accomplished that this year or last year.
• The Brewers won at least 90 games for the second year in a row, the second time that's happened (1978-79).

The weird quirks from the 2024 Brewers season

Joey Ortiz played the whole game but only had two plate appearances on Aug. 10

In a 1-0 win over the Reds, third baseman Joey Ortiz experienced something unusual — he only had two official plate appearances despite playing an entire game that went nine innings. How is that possible?

The Brewers only sent two batters over the minimum to the plate against the Reds (two hits, no walks); it just so happened that one was a home run by Rhys Hoskins with two outs in the eighth. But when Garrett Mitchell made the next out, the Brewers had a 1-0 lead through eight complete and hadn't yet used its No. 9 hitter (Ortiz) for a third plate appearance. And when Devin Williams struck out all three Reds to lock down the save, Milwaukee didn't need to bat in the ninth.

The Reds, for what it's worth, had only three baserunners in the game, too (all singles), and didn't get a walk, though another runner reached via error.

Jared Koenig started back-to-back games … twice

It's not quite as cool as Zack Greinke starting three straight games in 2011 — he was ejected in the first inning of his first start, came back for the next game's start, then ran into the all-star break and started the first game after the week off — but Jared Koenig started back-to-back games for the Brewers this season, and he did it twice.

As the concept of the "opener" becomes more widespread, it's perhaps not as unusual as it once was. Koenig started against Boston on May 24 (getting two outs) and again May 25 (getting four), with the Brewers winning both games. Koenig allowed one hit and one walk over the two appearances, with four strikeouts.

The Brewers tried it again in Philadelphia, with Koenig working the first inning June 3 and getting four outs June 4. Although the Brewers lost both games, Koenig allowed just one hit with two strikeouts.

It's all the more impressive that Koenig leads the Brewers' relief corps with nine wins, given that he wouldn't have been eligible to win any of those four games, without going the requisite five innings for a start. He finished the year with six starts, all short stints.

Jakob Junis started the home opener and then never started again

Newcomer Jakob Junis made the start for the Brewers in the home opener at American Family Field and then didn't make another start with the franchise.

He made his Brewers debut against the Minnesota Twins on April 2 in the 3-2 win, lasting four innings, but he immediately went on the injured list with a shoulder issue, a stay lengthened when he was struck by a fly ball during batting practice in Pittsburgh. He returned June 22 but worked exclusively out of the bullpen and was traded to the Reds at the deadline. In all, he appeared in 10 games for the Brewers.

Sal Frelick drove in a run that lessened Milwaukee's chances of winning ... but still won the game

Frelick drove in the game-winning run in extras but actually lessened Milwaukee's chances of winning by more than 6%, at least according to the statistic of "win probability added."

On Aug. 30 against the Reds, Frelick grounded into a double play with runners at the corners and nobody out in the 10th, allowing the run to score (no RBI) but making it easier for the Reds to escape the inning. Still, it did end up being the winning run; the Brewers prevailed, 5-4, when Devin Williams negotiated the bottom of the 10th without allowing a run.

So what was the biggest WPA play of the year, you might wonder? That would be Willy Adames' home run in Kansas City with two outs in the ninth on May 7, raising Milwaukee's chances of winning by 73% and making some young fans in the KC stands happy.

BONUS NUGGET: In 524 plate appearances this year, Frelick had two home runs — on back-to-back days with four at-bats in between (May 14-15 vs. Pittsburgh).

Milwaukee Brewers closer nuggets

Trevor Megill, with 21 saves, became the second player in Brewers history to come into a year with zero career saves and emerge with 20 or more. Derrick Turnbow got 39 in 2005.

The Brewers had 12 players who had at least one save, tied with the Dodgers for second and one behind Tampa Bay for the most in baseball. They were Williams, Megill, Koenig, Junis, Kevin Herget, Hoby Milner, Enoli Paredes, Joel Payamps, Elvis Peguero, Colin Rea, Abner Uribe and Thyago Vieira.

Strange odds and ends

• Chris Roller joined Julio Mosquera and Carlos Corporan as the only non-pitchers in Brewers history with one at-bat and one at-bat only; Roller struck out May 15 against Pittsburgh.
• Relatedly, Bradley Blalock and James Meeker, neither of whom allowed a run, joined a list of 10 pitchers in Brewers history to throw one inning or less with the franchise. In 2021, Blaine Hardy, Sal Romano and Ryan Weber all pitched one inning or less and permitted a combined seven runs.
• In its season series with Arizona, Milwaukee played three games in which the losing team scored eight unanswered runs at some point. Milwaukee overcame an 8-0 deficit to win, 10-9, on Sept. 22. On Sept. 15, the Brewers scored eight straight after falling behind, 5-0, but still lost, 11-10. The day before, Milwaukee hopped out to a 13-0 lead, then allowed eight runs straight before prevailing, 15-8.
• Hoskins posted a box score Sept. 24 that's never been matched going back to 1901 when data became available, according to Baseball Reference. He reached base four times without an at-bat, reaching via two walks, a hit-by-pitch and catcher's interference. There are 13 examples of a player reaching by all three mechanisms in a single game since 1901, but Hoskins is the first to not pick up an at-bat in any other plate appearances.
• In 2023, Carlos Santana hit a walk-off homer for the Pirates against the Brewers, then had a walk-off hit for the Brewers after he was traded to Milwaukee at the deadline. In 2024, he had another big hit, tying the game for the Twins on July 20 with a home run after the Brewers were one out away from victory. The Brewers won anyway.
• The number of players on the year-end active roster who appeared in the 2023 postseason: 10. The number in the 2021 postseason: just three (Peralta, Adames and Aaron Ashby). It's only one (Peralta) from 2020.

One last note about Brewers attendance in 2024

The Brewers' attendance dropped slightly in 2024 compared to 2023, with an announced 31,293 per game, good for 15th in baseball. The Brewers drew 31,497 in 2023 (15th) after 30,155 in 2022 (14th).

In the five years pre-COVID, the Brewers drew 36,090 in 2019 (eighth), 35,195 in 2018 (10th), 31,589 in 2017 (10th), 28,575 in 2016 (16th) and 31,389 in 2015 (13th).

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: A litany of quirky stats and figures from the 2024 Milwaukee Brewers season