BALTIMORE -- Pat Murphy and his pitching gurus met for more than an hour Saturday afternoon to strategize how to make the most of the week-plus that remains of the regular season.
Among the topics on the table: Why don’t Dustin May's recent results match his high-quality stuff? Can anything else be done to reel Kyle Harrison back into contention for the postseason roster? Which of the team’s young starters can contribute in October relief? And more.
Even though the regular season is coming to an end, there remains much work to do.
“We’re throwing things out there, checking on things, trying to find solutions for little nuances,” Murphy said.
Here’s one pitcher who doesn’t need solving at the moment: Left-hander Robert Gasser, who threw a career-high 107 pitches while keeping a righty-heavy Orioles lineup at bay for seven scoreless innings of a 1-0 Brewers win at Camden Yards. The Brewers (97-58) matched their franchise record for victories with seven games to go, while creeping within any combination of two more victories or Braves losses of securing a first-round bye after Atlanta (91-64) defeated Houston, 6-3, Saturday evening.
It was exactly what the Brewers needed, both because the bullpen had covered 7 2/3 innings the night before, and because Orioles starter Trevor Rogers was just as stingy over eight innings. The only run of the game scored in the second inning after Baltimore right fielder Rece Hinds lost a Joey Ortiz fly ball in the sun. Ortiz’s routine fly turned into a triple, and he scored on Gary Sánchez’s groundout to give Gasser and relievers Abner Uribe and Aaron Ashby the only runs they’d require.
“I knew the bullpen needed some help,” Gasser said. “It’s not at the forefront of my mind, but at the end of the day, it’s, ‘Let’s get outs one pitch at a time.’ I’m glad it worked out that way.”
He escaped a bases-loaded jam in the sixth by getting a double play, then stranded the tying runner at second base in the seventh in yet another positive step for Gasser, whose 1.71 ERA over his last five outings (four starts) has thrust the 27-year-old into the conversation for a postseason start behind the Brewers’ two right-handers already locked in, Jacob Misiorowski and Logan Henderson.
“Well, he’ll definitely be on the postseason roster. You can bet on that,” said Murphy. “With his role and the way things are going on, he’s got a really good chance to pitch for us.”
The Brewers haven’t yet announced probable starting pitchers for the final road series of the regular season, a three-game set in Philadelphia beginning Tuesday night. Henderson isn’t scheduled to start until Wednesday, Murphy said, so one option is bringing back May on short rest to start the first game against the Phillies after he threw 70 pitches for seven outs against the Orioles on Friday, including 37 pitches for one out in a tough third inning.
It’s a different kind of puzzle than solving Harrison, whose velocity has returned but whose pitch properties are not as sharp now as they were during the first half of the season. Now he’s slumping so severely (21 earned runs on 27 hits over seven innings in his last four appearances) that his confidence is shaken.
May’s issue is a different matter, probably more related to pitch selection.
Asked on Friday night whether he believes he’s close to where he needs to be, May said, “I’d like to say so. … I feel like the stuff’s coming out good. I’m not closing the door late [in counts].”
“You’re not going to just give Harrison another pitch, whereas May has some pitches that he’s maybe not going to them, or maybe the sequencing is not matching up,” Murphy said.
The conversations continue. While Brewers relievers went through their pregame throwing program on Saturday afternoon, May and pitching coach Chris Hook were engaged off to the side for about half an hour.
“It’s incredibly frustrating knowing that I feel good, I feel like my stuff's in a really good spot. I’m just not executing or throwing the right pitch in the right situation," May said. "I know I have the tools in the box to be able to do it. Now it’s just a matter of doing it in a game situation.”
May will continue to work through it.
So will the Brewers, who, for all their youth, have Major League Baseball’s second-best ERA at 3.56, trailing only the Yankees.
At the moment, they appear to be leaning toward a 12-pitcher, 14-position player roster for the NLDS, just like last year against the Cubs. So the task is to choose the right 12 pitchers.
“I told this to the pitching coaches,” Murphy said. “It’s incredible what this young pitching staff -- you throw away [Quinn] Priester, Freddy [Peralta], ‘Woody’ [Brandon Woodruff], and it’s amazing what this young pitching staff has achieved. And it looks like there’s some flat tires, but it’s amazing.”
In Gasser’s case, the October aim will be more of the same.
“It’s not one game or one pitch that got me there, it’s an accumulation over time throughout the whole season,” he said. “I feel like I’m in a good spot now.”