Playoff-hopeful Brewers have to navigate history-seeking sluggers

ST. LOUIS -- After keeping Albert Pujols in the ballpark for two days as the Hall of Fame-bound slugger quests for 700 career home runs, the Brewers are about to partake in another home run hunt as Aaron Judge and the Yankees visit Milwaukee for the first time in eight years.

No, there are no breaks in this portion of the schedule.

A 4-1 loss to Pujols and the Cardinals on Wednesday night at Busch Stadium meant a split of Milwaukee’s quick, two-game road trip. The Brewers return home Friday through Sunday to face the Yankees and Judge, who this week became the first player since Babe Ruth at the end of the 1928 season to finish a day of the Major League season with 20 more home runs than any of his peers. Judge comes to Milwaukee with 57 homers, three shy of being the first player since Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa in 2001 to reach the 60-homer plateau, and four shy of Roger Maris’ American League record.

“Hopefully he has a nice, cold series against us so we can go out and win some baseball games,” said Brewers ace Corbin Burnes.

Judge will be playing the first games of his career at American Family Field, home of a Brewers team sitting two games out of the National League Wild Card picture amid a spate of games against contenders. First were the Cardinals, who beat Burnes on a night he paid a heavy price for two misplaced cutters and got little run support. With Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina making their 325th start together, most of any battery in AL/NL history, Brewers hitters tallied 10 hits on the night, but they were all singles. They finished 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, stranded 12 men on base and fell eight games behind the Cardinals, who are 25 games over .500 and marching toward the NL Central title.

It doesn’t get easier. Next, the Brewers host their “New York, New York” homestand with a pair of three-game series against the Yankees and Mets. Like the Cardinals, they both led their divisions as of Wednesday night.

Judge is the headliner for the opening act.

“He’s a specimen above all else,” said Brewers second baseman Kolten Wong, who at 5-foot-7 stands a foot shorter than Judge. “I think anybody in this room would love to be Aaron Judge with that size and mobility.”

Judge has never homered off any of the pitchers currently on the Brewers’ roster, but it’s a small sample of 12 at-bats, led by four at-bats against reliever Taylor Rogers.

“I faced him one time in the Cape Cod League,” said Brewers starter Brandon Woodruff, who is scheduled to pitch Saturday night after Adrian Houser works Friday’s series opener. “I remember people saying, ‘There’s this dude who’s a 6-foot-8 center fielder!’ I didn’t believe it. Then we went and played, and sure enough, he was out there in center field at 6-foot-8. I was like, ‘Holy cow, that’s the biggest dude I’ve ever seen in my life playing center field.’ I’m pretty sure I faced him once and I don’t remember what happened. That was in 2012. Shoot, that was 10 years ago now.”

Burnes will miss the Yankees series and catch the Mets next week instead after taking the loss to the Cardinals in his 19th quality start of the season on Wednesday night. He surrendered three earned runs on seven hits with one walk and five strikeouts in seven innings, including five hitless innings.

In the innings Burnes did surrender a hit, he gave up a solo home run on a center-cut cutter. Nolan Arenado hit one leading off a two-run second inning as St. Louis erased the Brewers’ lead from Tyrone Taylor’s sacrifice fly, and Lars Nootbaar provided insurance with a homer off Burnes leading off the bottom of the fifth.

Burnes acknowledged that “the schedule is getting tight on us” as the Brewers try to catch the Phillies and Padres in the Wild Card standings, and that this stretch against playoff-bound teams makes the degree of difficulty even higher.

“I think today was a gettable game for us,” Burnes said. “We got to Wainwright early and we just couldn’t get those big hits to push some runs across. The Yankees have been scuffling a little bit, so they’re a team we can go out and get after it with. And we played a good series against the Mets early in the year. It’s two series, and obviously they’re first-place teams, but I think we can go out and win some baseball games.”

“We’re two games out of the Wild Card,” Wong said. “If you can sneak your way into the playoffs, anything can happen.”