Brewers' bats come up short in series finale with Nats

WASHINGTON -- The Brewers are in desperate need of some power. They’ve been getting by with their typical small ball so far, taking advantage of their opponents’ miscues -- it’s how they toppled the Nationals in the first two games of their three-game set in Washington over the weekend.

But when given a chance to find their homer power again, facing the pitcher who has given up the most home runs in the Majors this season in Zack Littell (13) for a second time in more than three weeks, they fell short.

The Brewers went homerless for a third straight game in the 3-2 loss to the Nats on Sunday at Nationals Park, marking their fourth three-game series without a home run this year. (They had just two such series last season, one in May vs. the Twins and one in July vs. the Mariners.)

“We were bad offensively all day,” manager Pat Murphy said. “We had opportunities at second and third and didn’t get it done. We weren’t efficient.”

Milwaukee entered the series finale with the fourth-lowest slugging percentage (.359) and tied for the second-fewest home runs (22) in the Majors this year. (For context, the Crew hit 166 homers in 2025, ranking 22nd in the Majors, with the 12th-highest slug rate at .403.)

The Crew had success vs. Littell when they saw him in Milwaukee previously on April 12, crushing a trio of homers off the righty. But on Sunday afternoon, the long balls weren’t coming. Even Littell noticed.

“Three less home runs,” Littell said.

“I only got one AB off him today; I feel like they had a pretty short leash with him,” said Brandon Lockridge, who had two hits for a second straight game, marking his first career back-to-back multi-hit games.

Of course, some of the offensive woes -- particularly with regard to power -- are due to the absences of Jackson Chourio (left hand fracture), Andrew Vaughn (broken left hand hamate bone) and Christian Yelich (groin). Vaughn is expected to return to the team on Monday, with Chourio likely just a few days behind him. And on Sunday, the club was also without Brice Turang, who was scratched barely a half-hour before first pitch with an illness.

“When you have four of your top five hitters out, you’re not going to hit a lot of homers,” Murphy said. “The guys we have out are all some of our best home run hitters. … You take the four top home run hitters off any team, you’re probably not going to hit a lot of homers necessarily that particular day. [And] the wind was blowing in by the way, too. So, [wind] in and across, not going to be a lot of homers hit today.”

Murphy is right, of course. And wind was a factor. The Brewers made a fair amount of hard contact, but all of those balls went for outs. There were two from William Contreras at 107.8 mph (a lineout) and 107.7 mph (a groundout). There was a groundout from Lockridge at 104.2 mph, and a sac fly at 102.6 mph from Joey Ortiz that Murphy thought could have been a home run, if not for the wind. Between the wind and general luck, the Crew’s hard-hit balls just weren’t dropping.

“I will say, we hit some balls really hard,” Lockridge said. “That’s kind of the game sometimes. Whether they fall or not, we can’t really control it. But I really liked some of the at-bats the guys had today. And you know, very easily could have been those balls falling and us blowing the game open early. … I think that’s just kind of the game of baseball. And I think, if we do that more times than not, we’re going to have a lot of success.”

While the offense went quiet, spot-starter and No. 6 prospect (per MLB Pipeline) Logan Henderson did exactly what he was recalled to do. Henderson delivered his second career quality start while throwing a season-high 76 pitches, allowing just two runs on three hits over six innings, striking out eight without issuing a walk.

“I felt good out there,” Henderson said. “Unfortunate to not get the win today, but I felt like myself out there, and it was good to not give up any free passes.”

As the Brewers head to St. Louis to take on the division-rival Cardinals, who are coming off a series win against the Dodgers, they'll be needing a little more pep in their step -- and a little more pop in their bats."