Schwellenbach becomes 1st 20-game winner since 2022

Green Lake rookie Spencer Schwellenbach became the DMBL's first 20-game winner in three years after a 7-4 win over Blue Ridge on Friday night.

Schwellenbach (20-4) had been spectacular for a stretch this summer but settled for solid on Friday night, scattering 8 hits and 3 runs over 6 2/3 innings. He struck out 5 and walked 2. The Gators, who currently hold the No. 1 seed (87-53) with about two dozen games remaining, went "Big Willy style," getting homers from their 3-4-5 hitters, Willson Contreras, Wilyer Abreu, and Willy Adames. 

The current ERA leader (2.36) has seemingly put himself in the driver's seat for the McDonald Award and possibly the Listach Award. He also tops the DMBL by a wide margin with 4 shutouts and 7 complete games as he approaches 200 innings (he's now 2nd to Philly's Logan Webb, 204 2/3 with 198 1/3). In July, Schwellenbach threw back-to-back complete games, including a 4-hit shutout and a 3-hitter in which he yielded just one run. In June, he won 5 straight games, going from 9-2 to 14-3.

Odds are that Schwellenbach will be the lone 20-game winner in 2025. Vancouver's Logan Gilbert notched his 15th win (15-5) on Wednesday but likely has only 4 starts remaining on the season, though he would be in line to start a one-game playoff should there be a tie that somehow doesn't get resolved via tiebreaker. Three others rank 3rd in DMBL with 14 wins: Vancouver teammate Seth Lugo (14-6), Framber Valdez of Sardine City (14-7), and San Francisco's Kevin Gausman (14-7).

The No. 2 overall pick in this year's draft, after Garrett Crochet, Schwellenach is the DMBL's first 20-game winner since 2022 when eventual McDonald Award winner Jacob deGrom of Livingston (21-4) and El Paso's Walker Buehler (21-7) both hit the mark. He's got a shot to reach a historic win total.

Only 6 pitchers, and only 4 who did not pitch for Vancouver, have won at least 23 games in a season. Vancouver legend Greg Maddux did it twice with a league-record 26 in 1998 and 23 in 1996 and Jake Peavy won 24 in 2008.

Non-Vancouver pitchers include Lance Lynn, who won 24 for Sardine City on his way to the McDonald Award in 2020, and Trevor Cahill, who went 24-4 for Philly in 2013. Sonny Gray set the rookie DMBL mark (23-6) in 2014 with Durham and most recently, Merrill Kelly went 23-9 in 2021 for San Francisco. 

Should he take home the Ben McDonald Award as the league's top pitcher, Schwellenbach would be the 2nd rookie in a row to do it after Cole Ragans won it last year with Poovey Farms.