“It’s funny,” former Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Ben Sheets said in 2024. “When they hit it like that, nobody says nothing about them shadows.”
Sheets, speaking to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Curt Hogg, was referring to the infamous stadium shadows that often make day games a challenge for hitters at American Family Field, and potentially something that contributed to Sheets’ dominance on May 16, 2004. He was also talking about a pitch that new Baseball Hall of Famer Andruw Jones hit out of the park.
The Braves slugger was in the prime of his career in 2004, though it would be the only year in a run of five when he wasn’t named to the All-Star Game and finished with fewer than 30 home runs. Still, one of his 29 homers that year threw a small wrench into one of the greatest pitching performances in Brewers history, when Sheets struck out 18 batters in a game.
Jones, one of two players inducted for the Class of 2026 by the Baseball Writers Association of America, belted a home run against Sheets in the seventh inning that afternoon, accounting for the only Atlanta run in a 4-1 Brewers win. Sheets induced a Mark DeRosa lineout to end the inning, then recorded his final six outs via strikeout.
When Jones stepped to the plate with two outs that inning, Sheets had retired 20 of the last 21. Sheets himself said that it was a good pitch.
The homer spoiled the shutout and perhaps served as a small karmic kickback after Jones had swung through a curveball in the fifth for strikeout No. 8. “A really good hitter swung through a really crappy hanging breaking ball,” Sheets recalled.
“Dang. That was such a bad pitch. But sometimes pitches are so bad, they’re good. That’s what the fastball could do. He was probably just off time. I mean, hitting’s hard. Usually he rips that 450 feet.”
Jones hit 434 career home runs, including 51 the following season, though he was on the hook for two of Sheets’ franchise record-setting 18 strikeouts that day. Only two pitchers have reached that single-game strikeout mark in the years since: Corey Kluber for Cleveland in 2015 and Max Scherzer for Washington in 2016. Scherzer recorded 20 strikeouts in his game.
Sheets gave up a leadoff double to Dewayne Wise starting the game, so he wasn’t flirting with a no-hitter at any point. The Brewers scored three times in the bottom of the first to grab an early lead, and Bill Hall’s RBI groundout in the bottom of the seventh answered Jones’ solo home run.
Sheets was added to the Brewers Walk of Fame in 2024. No Brewers pitcher has truly threatened Sheets’ strikeout tally; Corbin Burnes got as close as 15 in a 2021 game.
Jones received 78.4% of the Hall of Fame vote, ahead of the 75% necessary for induction. The five-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove winner joined Carlos Beltrán in the modern-ballot Class of 2026.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Andruw Jones kept Ben Sheets’ epic 2004 game from being even better
Reporting by JR Radcliffe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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