All-Star break coming at right time for Harrison as he deals with sore elbow

ST LOUIS -- The All-Star break is coming at the right time for Brewers left-hander Kyle Harrison.

After grinding through a fourth inning of Wednesday’s 5-1 loss to the Cardinals at Busch Stadium, Harrison informed the club of some soreness on the outside of his left elbow that was affecting his ability to finish pitches. It has probably contributed to the pair of lackluster starts in Arizona and St. Louis on this long road trip, during which he has allowed six runs on nine hits and one walk in just 6 2/3 innings.

“I’ve been better,” Harrison said. “It’s something that I’ve been battling the past couple of weeks. Just a good time for a break, right? That’s the best way to look at it.”

Harrison isn’t scheduled to pitch again until after the All-Star Game.

The consensus is that a break is what’s needed.

“I’m confident in that and so are the trainers, so is everyone,” he said. “It should be something that’s just a little something.”

“It’s obvious he’s fatigued, and we’ve got to help him on that,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “We could have left him in there, but we’re thinking about his future.”

From his first pitch, Harrison called it a “grindy” day. He was being kind about that. Cardinals leadoff man Masyn Winn hit a fly ball to rookie right fielder Luis Lara that glanced off Lara’s glove, hit him in the face and then appeared to hit his chest as well before falling for a double. Two batters later, Cards All-Star Jordan Walker hit another double to the right-center-field gap that was just out of reach for Brewers center fielder Garrett Mitchell, who, like Lara, appeared to be battling the sun.

And two batters after that, Alec Burleson hit another double to make it a 2-0 Cardinals lead before Harrison could secure his third out.

“The sun’s a factor when you play Major League Baseball, or any baseball, actually,” Murphy said. “But you’re in the big leagues because you can catch it. The first one, I feel sorry for the kid [Lara], but you have to catch that ball. It hit your glove. He just missed it.

“And center field, we have to catch that ball. That’s not a great route, and then it’s not making full extension and closing on it. … Mitchell did the hard part, now he’s got to finish the job and catch those balls. Both of those balls can be caught, and great teams catch those balls. We didn’t tonight, and that was the difference.”

It was the difference because the Brewers, coming off victories in four straight games including both ends of a doubleheader against the Cardinals on Tuesday, were stymied by St. Louis starter Michael McGreevy for 6 1/3 quality innings.

Milwaukee’s only run scored in the seventh inning on Cooper Pratt’s sacrifice fly before Joey Ortiz hit a double that gave the Brewers second and third with two outs. With right-handed reliever Luis Gastelum in the game for his Major League debut, Murphy pinch-hit for second baseman Greg Jones not with lefty-hitting Brice Turang (who had the day off), but righty-hitting Andrew Vaughn, who was out on an infield tapper to end the threat. Murphy explained that he wanted to give the hard-worked Turang a full day of rest unless he was needed to hit in a situation that could have tied the game or given the Brewers the lead.

Yes, rest is valuable at this time of year. The Brewers are 92 games into their 162-game regular season marathon, with hopes to play more.

Harrison will do everything he can to be part of that. His early sense is that his soreness stems from the extensor muscles in his elbow, which he believes have been stressed by the wide grip he uses to throw his new changeup this season. That pitch has helped fuel a terrific start to his Brewers career -- even with back-to-back duds, Harrison has a 3.01 ERA and the Brewers are 12-5 in his starts.

But it has come with some challenges. During Spring Training, Harrison dealt with a blister from where his nail grazed his left index finger on follow-through. Now, it’s the elbow.

He said “it hurt me personally” to have to tell coaches and athletic trainers he was hurting.

He also knows it’s best to play the long game.

“It’s hard to feel [good] about that first half, but I have to look back and say, ‘Yeah, it was a good first half,’” Harrison said. “At the same time, I could have finished a lot better. I’ll take it into the second half and use that as fuel, and be pissed off at these last couple of starts. That’s all you can do. Get better.”