For Brewers shortstop Willy Adames and right fielder Hunter Renfroe, missing the post-season was not the only disappointment in their 2022 campaign; both players fell short of a hitting milestone… one that would/could have been met with one swing of the bat.

Let’s start with Adames. He became the eighth Brewers player in team history to fall one swing short of reaching 100 RBI for the season. He finished with 98 RBIs. For the record, Adames reached 90 RBI on September 17 (with a three-RBI game) and in the 16 games he played after that, he had only six RBI with one HR and a .243 average. He also struck out 23 times in those 16 contests.

Here’s a look at the eight players who had 96-99 RBI in a season for the Brewers:

99-Cecil Cooper, 1985
98-Willy Adames, 2022
98-Jeromy Burnitz, 2000
98-Greg Vaughn, 1991
97-Ryan Braun, 2007
97-Ted Simmons, 1982
97-Greg Vaughn, 1993
97-Christian Yelich, 2019

As you see above, Cooper was the only Brewer to fall one RBI short of a 100-RBI season. He did, however, have four seasons in his career with 100 or more RBI. There have been six players who have fallen short of 100 RBI in a season twice in a career. The six: Jay Bruce, Sean Casey, Kirby Puckett, Lee May, Bibb Falk and Ty Cobb. All of the six except Sean Casey did have a 100-RBI season in their career.

Now to Renfroe. He became the sixth Brewers player in team history to fall one swing short of 30 home runs for the season with 29. He started the month of August with 19 home runs and then hit four in August and six in September/October. He hit his 29^th on October 3 but did not get an at-bat in the team’s final 2022 game the following day.

Here are the six Brewers players who ended a season with 29 HRs:

2022-Hunter Renfroe
2021-Avisail Garcia
2021-Rickie Weeks
2002-Richie Sexson
1982-Robin Yount
1979-Ben Oglivie

Two other MLB players ended the 2022 season with 29 homers… CJ Cron (Colorado) and Jose Ramirez (Cleveland).

Since 1919, there have been 176 times (done by 151 players) when a player ended the year one home run short of the 30-HR milestone. The first to end a season with 29 home runs in a season was “The Bambino,” Babe Ruth. Two players, Joey Votto and Reggie Jackson, each had three seasons with 29 home runs, most in MLB history.