Wednesday, August 26

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Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, a weekday newsletter that gets you up to speed on everything you need to know for today’s games, while catching you up on fun and interesting stories you might have missed. Today’s edition is brought to you by David Adler.

Here are three numbers that are pretty important for the best team in baseball: 

• 81: That’s the number of wins the Brewers have. The most of any team. 
• 652: That’s their runs scored. The 5th-most of any team. 
• 120: That’s their total home runs. The fewest of any team.

That sums up the Brewers’ brand of baseball as well as anything. They don’t hit home runs, but they still score a ton, and they win a ton of games. 

Watching the Brew Crew, you can’t help but think: Small ball is back! And it is. But there’s more to it than that. 

Mike Petriello has quite the interesting breakdown on what makes the 2026 Brewers offense tick. It comes down to three things: 

1) They go oppo in a pull world 

Basically every team in baseball chases pull power these days. If you can pull the ball in the air, you can do damage. Easier said than done, but that’s the goal. 

Twenty-nine of the 30 MLB teams this season, as a whole, angle their swings to the pull side. And then there’s the one exception. Guess who? 

So what’s the point of going oppo when every other team pulls the ball? It all has to do with making the Brewers hitters harder to defend. 

2) They make every swing count 

The Brewers are extremely patient. They’re not just the most patient lineup in baseball this year, they’re one of the most patient lineups of the last decade. 

Milwaukee, as a team, swings less than 44% of the time. That would be the lowest full-season swing rate of any team since 2019, and the third-lowest of the last 10 seasons.

There’s clearly a method to their madness. This is about making the best swing decisions, not the most swing decisions. 

3) They hit situational home runs 

The Brewers might hit the fewest homers in baseball, but here’s the interesting twist: Once they have runners in scoring position, they actually hit a ton of homers. 

See, Milwaukee ranks last in the Majors in solo homers, with just 59, but they rank tied for fourth in the Majors in home runs with runners in scoring position, with 39. That’s one great way to bring all those runners home.

Forget a “situational hitting” team, the Brewers are a “situational home run-hitting” team. 

Read the whole story here >> 

 

GAMES OF THE NIGHT

Here are three games to keep an eye on tonight:

Rockies at Nationals (6:45 p.m. ET, MLB.TV) 

There’s a knuckleballer on the mound tonight, and that’s all we really need to hear. Matt Waldron, who’s the only knuckleballer in the big leagues right now, makes his first start for the Nationals after being claimed off waiversfrom the Blue Jays. Waldron has 13 strikeouts on his knuckleball this season, which you can see here.

Dodgers at Braves (7:15 p.m. ET, MLB Network Showcase / MLB.TV) 

The Braves took Round 1 of this heavyweight matchup, winning last night’s series opener in Atlanta on Ozzie Albies’ clutch single in the eighth. Can the Dodgers even the series behind the resurgent Roki Sasaki? He has a 2.31 ERA over his last six starts, with no more than two runs allowed in any of them.

Orioles at Cardinals (7:45 p.m. ET, MLB.TV) 

No hitter is hotter than Pete Alonso. The Polar Bear is batting .500 with eight home runs, 18 RBIs and a 1.502 OPS over his last 15 games. That includes a 4-for-4 performance with a homer in yesterday’s win over St. Louis, which Pete eloquently called: “a super sick W.” 

KYLE SCHWARBER, HOLLYWOOD STAR

This is what we call “method acting.” 

Kyle Schwarber’s performance — on field and screen — just helped the TV show “Abbott Elementary” earn an Emmy nomination. 

See, “Abbott Elementary” was filming an episode at Citizens Bank Park on Aug. 28, 2025, with Schwarber as a guest star. And the timing was one in a million. 

Schwarber played the part of “superstar slugger” like only he can. With the cameras rolling during the game, Schwarber hit FOUR home runs — the 21st four-homer game in MLB history.

That helped make for one incredible episode of the show, titled “Ballgame.” And now, the director of the episode Randall Einhorn, is nominated for an Emmy for his work. 

“Abbott Elementary” even got a postgame cameo from Schwarber on the heels of his historic performance. The director’s cue for Actor Schwarbs was simple: “Do what Kyle Schwarber would do.”

“It was a great night for baseball, and I think it was certainly a great night for Kyle Schwarber,” Einhorn told MLB.com’s Aiden Stepansky. “But it’s also a great night for us on ‘Abbott Elementary.'”

Go behind the scenes on Schwarber’s big role here >> 

DYLAN CEASE, GALLERY ARTIST

While we’re on the subject of “star baseball players with a blossoming second career” … exciting news from the art world.

Dylan Cease, as you may know, has taken up painting. And his main masterpiece now has a home in the Art Gallery of Toronto.

Cease’s “Eve of Toronto” painting — a mix of flowers and the word “Toronto” sprawled out in every direction across the canvas, which Cease painted just before he started his first season with the Jays — was just put on display at the Toronto gallery.

As Cease has built his American League Cy Young case, that painting has hung in manager John Schneider’s office for most of the season. But this week, it mysteriously disappeared, replaced by a meme from the movie “Wedding Crashers” (about a painting stolen from Vince Vaughn’s character, naturally). 

Now we know where it went. 

This is all for a good cause — Cease’s painting going on display was part of an event to help support the local gallery, and earlier this year he sold a different one at auction for $16,000to support the Jays Care charity. 

250 FOR 250: NASTIEST PITCHES

Today’s edition of our 250 for 250 series should make for some fun highlights to watch. It’s the top 10 nastiest pitches of all time. 

We could watch the clips of these pitches all day. We’ve got overpowering heaters, devastating breaking balls, fall-off-the-table offspeed pitches. 

Mo’s cutter — Maybe the most famous single pitch of all time. Mariano Rivera didn’t need anything else to be the greatest closer ever. 

Pedro’s changeup — Pedro Martinez at his peak might have been the most dominant pitcher ever. And this was his signature pitch. 

Kershaw’s Public Enemy No. 1 — Clayton Kershaw inherited his curveball in spirit from Sandy Koufax. Vin Scully saw ’em both, and bestowed Kershaw’s curve with its famous moniker. 

 

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