Craig Counsell becomes all-time wins leader as Brewers hammer the Mets

June 15, 2022
|In Brewers
|By Zach Heilprin

Milwaukee busted out of a prolonged offensive slump to beat the New York Mets 10-2 Wednesday night and in the process made Craig Counsell the all-time winningest manager in team history.

“It’s humbling for sure. What I told the players is I feel a lot of gratitude for everything that they’ve contributed. They do the heavy lifting,” Counsell said. “It’s been fun to watch a great kind of era of Brewer baseball players go out there and do great things and provide a great product for our fans. It’s not that easy and they’re doing the heavy lifting every day. I’m blessed to be a part of it.”

Big games and moments usually result in a post-game Gatorade bath for players while doing interviews on the field, and Counsell was treated no differently as he got drenched courtesy of first baseman Rowdy Tellez.

“Celebrations are good,” Counsell told Bally Sports Wisconsin. “We grind through the game and they grind through days. A celebration is always good when wins aren’t easy, so we’ll take.”

The feat took much longer than expected for Counsell and his club. He sat at 561 wins entering the month of June, but it took until this past Sunday to tie Phil Garner for the record and another couple days to break it and get to 564.

They got Counsell there with an unlikely offensive explosion. The team was averaging three runs per game in its 10 losses this month and had been shut out four times. But the bats came alive against New York starter David Peterson and reliever Jake Reed. The Brewers tagged Peterson for four runs and forced him from the game before recording an out in the fifth inning. Then they jumped on Reed to the tune of five runs before he got pulled after securing just two outs.

The damage came up and down the Brewers order with all but two players having at least one hit. Willy Adames led the way with three hits and two RBI. Luis Urias and Jace Peterson each had a couple RBI for Milwaukee, which scored its most runs since May 11.

After a couple abnormal outings for Corbin Burnes, the reigning Cy Young Award winner pitched like it. He went six innings, allowed two runs on five hits and struck out eight. The righty improved to 4-4 on the year.

It was just the third win in the last 13 games for the Brewers and it saw them move to with 1 1/2 games of St. Louis in the NL Central.

Milwaukee will look to take the series against the Mets Thursday night at Citi Field.