ST. LOUIS – For the first time since the year they changed leagues in 1998, the Brewers are back to .500 as a National League franchise.
All it took was winning records in eight of the last nine seasons, qualifying for the playoffs in seven of the last eight seasons and a climb to 23 games over .500 this season with Monday’s come-from-behind, 4-3 win over the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. With that, the Brewers were 2,261-2,261-1 as an NL club – back to even for the first time since going 57-57 to start their inaugural season in the Senior Circuit.
The ‘98 Brewers lost the next game to the Reds, 17-0, and hadn’t sniffed .500 since. But that changed Monday, when starter Shane Drohan delivered a quality start and David Hamilton and Brice Turang delivered two-run hits in a go-ahead seventh inning to give the Brewers an opening victory in this five-game, four-day marathon series against rival St. Louis.
Does .500 matter in the grand scheme of things for a club with postseason ambitions once again? Probably not. But it’s yet another good sign for a franchise that didn’t manage a winning record for 14 consecutive seasons from 1993-2006, and was still as many as 196 games under .500 as an NL club in 2016 during a quick rebuild.
Since then, they’ve completely changed the culture, winning ballgames more often than not because of nights like Monday, when an untimely injury to Cardinals reliever Justin Bruihl in the seventh while fielding Garrett Mitchell’s infield hit set the wheels in motion for Milwaukee’s go-ahead rally.
Bruihl’s exit forced a move to righty reliever Ryan Fernandez to face Sal Frelick, who capitalized with a ground-rule double. Fernandez then bobbled Cooper Pratt’s dribbler in front of home plate for an error that loaded the bases for Hamilton’s two-run double, during which the speedster developed left hamstring tightness and had to leave the game.
Three batters later, Turang delivered a go-ahead, two-run single. With Drohan’s six innings of three-run ball, Chad Patrick’s two perfect innings and Trevor Megill’s 14th save, the Brewers won for the 43rd time in 63 games since April 26.
It’s the best record in the Majors over that span, and just what Milwaukee needed to get back to the break-even point as an NL club.