11 in a row! Crew's 2nd-longest win streak

PITTSBURGH -- Not since Team Streak got off to a record-setting start in 1987 has a Brewers team gone on a run in the regular season like this one.

Omar Narváez became the third Brewers catcher to tally five hits in a game, Avisaíl García returned from a minor injury with four hits and five RBIs and “On-base” Jace Peterson delivered two more hits and four RBIs as Milwaukee rolled to an 11th consecutive victory on Saturday, 11-2 over the Pirates at PNC Park.

• Box score

“It’s not one or two or three guys. No, no,” García said. “It’s everybody.

But, he added, “We cannot sit and be comfortable. We just have to keep winning.”

The only Brewers team that can claim a longer winning streak in the regular season was the ‘87 Crew, which was dubbed “Team Streak” by Milwaukee Sentinel sports writer Tom Haudricourt after it set an American League record and matched the Major League record with a 13-0 start, had a 12-game losing streak not two weeks later, then saw Paul Molitor chase history during a 39-game hitting streak later in the summer.

And yes, the 2018 Brewers belong in the conversation as well after they won 12 consecutive games when they mattered most. That streak covered the final eight games of the regular season and the first four games of the postseason.

Aside from those winning sprees, there has not been anything like the Brewers’ current surge during a franchise history that goes back to 1969. The 11-game streak is part of a longer stretch in which the Brewers have won 30 of their last 40 games and soared to an eight-game lead atop the National League Central -- over a new second-place club, Cincinnati, as of Saturday. Credit goes to an offensive awakening to match Milwaukee’s solid pitching; the Brewers still entered play Saturday with the worst team batting average in the Major Leagues (.219), but that’s on the rise. They lead the NL with an average of 5.35 runs per game during their last 40 games, and 7.6 runs per game during the 11-game winning streak.

The Brewers have outscored opponents during the winning streak by an 84-28 margin, flipping their run differential for the season from minus-7 to plus-56.

“I think everybody started enjoying every hour we spent on the field,” Narváez said. “We like to be with each other and trying to compete, and it’s something we really take pride in.”

Said García: “It feels good, but at the same time, it’s a lot of responsibility. You want to keep it [going]. You’ve got to be focused every inning on defense, hitting. I think the most important thing is we’re together. We are like family here. We’re like brothers.”

Only one team in Brewers history can boast a better 40-game stretch: The “Beast Mode” Brewers of 2011, who had a couple of different 31-9 spans in July of that season.

If they can win one more game on Sunday, it will mean free hamburgers in Milwaukee thanks to the George Webb chain of diners, which has a long-standing promise back to the Minor League Milwaukee Brewers in the 1940s to serve fans any time the local team wins 12 in a row.

“For me, everybody on the team knows that we have good hitters, but it’s just about timing, you know?” said Brewers pitcher Freddy Peralta, who will be on the mound as the team goes for 12 in a row in Sunday’s series finale. “Right now, we’re having great moments in the dugout. We have good energy the whole game, from the first inning to the last. We’ve been positive the whole time. You can see Willy Adames and all those kind of guys all the time with that energy in the field and in the dugout.

“That helps a lot for me. That makes the games better for me, for us, for everybody.”

Peralta singled out veteran journeyman Peterson, who in many ways is the poster child for what’s gone right of late for Milwaukee. He was designated for assignment on May 24, wasn’t claimed off waivers, opted to stay with the Brewers organization and was called back up on June 8 to enjoy the most productive stretch of his career. Peterson is 15-for-33 with eight walks and 11 RBIs in his last 13 games, and he has been getting plenty of playing time while Kolten Wong has been sidelined by a left calf injury that eventually landed him on the 10-day injured list.

“It feels good” to contribute, Peterson said. “That’s my role and my job -- especially when Kolten’s down. He hates it [being on the IL] and wants to be out there as much as anybody. But right now he needs to get healthy, and for me it’s just, ‘Step up and be ready to play.’”

Peterson added, “We’re playing good baseball. It’s fun out there right now.”