Milwaukee reaches 100 homers faster than any previous Brewers team

With 101 home runs through 70 games, the 2017 Milwaukee Brewers have reached some rarified air.

Never before has a Brewers team reached the century mark faster than this current group, which has been led by the surging Eric Thames. "Harvey's Wallbangers" reached 100 homers in 72 games in 1980 and '82 with lineups that featured the likes of sluggers Gorman Thomas and Ben Oglivie and Hall of Famers Robin Yount and Paul Molitor.

Thames' 20 homers – tops in the National League and second in the major leagues behind only New York Yankees prodigy Aaron Judge and his 23 heading into Saturday night – are far and away tops for Milwaukee to this point.

But there have been plenty other contributors to the cause behind him.

New third baseman Travis Shaw has 12. Domingo Santana has rebounded from a slow start to hit 11. The streaky Keon Broxton has 11 as well. Hernán Pérez is on the precipice of hitting double digits with nine.

Jesús Aguilar has hit six in very sporadic playing time. Part-time catcher Jett Bandy has six as well.

BOX SCORE: Padres 7, Brewers 5 (11 innings)

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Even more impressive, the Brewers have hit the century mark with Ryan Braun being limited to just 30 games and contributing just seven homers. Jonathan Villar, who never really got going at the plate before getting hurt and going to the disabled list, has six a year after hitting a career-high 19. 

Milwaukee's 101 homers rank fifth in the majors and second in the NL behind only the Washington Nationals. The Brewers have also hit 59 in 38 games at home, which tied them for second in the majors with the Oakland A's.

By comparison, they hit 102 in 81 games last year at Miller Park.

"I thought we'd be a good offensive team," manager Craig Counsell said. "I thought we had potential for damage throughout the lineup. That was the big thing I thought was a strength – down through the bottom of the lineup, we still had chances to do damage.

"That's kind of what's played out a little bit and we've done a good job scoring runs. When it's via the home run, that's good by me."

There have been plenty of home runs so far in the Brewers' series with the San Diego Padres. They used Thames' walk-off shot to win in 10 innings Friday, then hit three more Saturday in an 11-inning losing effort.

Milwaukee has scored each of its last 13 runs via the long ball. The club record is 14 straight, achieved three times, including most recently from Aug. 11-15, 2007.

Thames hit a two-run shot in the third inning Saturday and has homered in four consecutive games for the second time this season. He was the story in baseball in April, then suffered through a prolonged dry spell before finally getting back on track last week in St. Louis.

With a .269 average, the 20 homers, 38 runs batted in and an OPS of 1.017, Thames admitted he's feeling much better about things at the plate than he was even a week ago. That's good news for a team that continues to await Braun's return.

"For me, the last week I had been meditating and telling myself, 'Results don't matter. There is no failure. Go out there, work hard and do your best on the field and after that, you can't control it,' " he said.

"You get in moments or weeks or months where you're like, 2 for 30, and you're thinking, 'I have to get a hit or I'll be on the bench,' and stuff like that, and then it gets even worse. It's like you stop caring and say, 'I'm just going to play hard and whatever happens, happens.'

"So far, so good."

Orlando Arcia was the first to homer in Saturday's game, and his fifth of the season wound up being of the rare, inside-the-park variety three batters before Thames.

Broxton has been just as hot as Thames, homering in a career-high three straight games and in five of his last seven games. It was his two-run homer to right-center in the 10th Saturday that gave Milwaukee extra life.

Thames actually referenced "Harvey's Wallbangers" when discussing the Brewers' affinity for the long ball. But when asked if he'd envisioned this group hitting this many, this soon, he didn't pull any punches.

"No chance," he said. "Braun for sure. But for myself, I had no idea. All these guys, I didn’t really know them. But the way guys are swinging it – I had no idea. I thought we’d be, like, a gap-to-gap team. Something like that.

"But the way we’re swinging it, if we can keep it up, we can keep ourselves in ballgames throughout the whole year."