To say the D-backs are reeling doesn’t quite capture the situation for a club on a 17-game losing streak, and lost one of their most productive players in catcher Carson Kelly to a fractured wrist over the weekend.

But the Brewers insist they won’t take anything lightly when they begin a three-game series at Chase Field in Arizona on Monday.

“They’re having a tough year but it’s still Major League caliber players. Their lineup is tough,” said left-hander Brett Anderson, who is set to start the opening game. “I’ve grinded out some games against them before at home. As soon as you take somebody lightly, they can pounce.”

Arizona has an incredible 31 losses in their last 33 games, including four straight losses to the Brewers in Milwaukee from June 3-6. The closest the D-backs came in that series was in the third game, when they led the Brewers 2-0 and pulled into a 5-5 tie in the seventh before Christian Yelich homered in the eighth to give Milwaukee the lead for good.

The D-backs haven’t won a game since then.

“It is amazing. It’s scary, almost, you know?” manager Craig Counsell said. “I think you find yourself thinking about them, really, as a team, because it can’t be fun. It’s got to be rough. Having said that, when we get to Monday, we’re going to try to win the baseball game and they’re going to try to beat us. Ketel Marte is a really good baseball player and [Eduardo] Escobar is a really good baseball player and they have weapons to do so.

“But all around baseball, it’s not that you feel sorry for them, but your empathetic about what they’re going through. It’s not normal. It’s a bad stretch.”

Anderson went through some tough years during his tenure with the A’s, so he knows the feeling of a losing streak.

“It’s not fun being on losing teams,” he said. “The season’s a grind as it is with how many games we play. To be on a losing team, you come to the ballpark and it’s a grind, even more so. It’s always better to be on a winning team. You have more things to play for. You feel you’re playing as a team when you’re winning. When you’re not, you’re kind of chasing the numbers a little bit. That’s the nature of the beast. I’ve been on playoff teams and it’s a lot more fun to have something to play for.”

Last call
• Willy Adames was the hero of Saturday’s comeback win, but don’t forget the other player the Brewers received in a trade with the Rays last month. Right-hander Trevor Richards has ascended to a rather prominent role in the bullpen, allowing no runs (or inherited runners to score) during his first seven appearances in June through a scoreless eighth inning on Saturday.

“He’s pitched really big in close spots, there’s no question,” Counsell said. “He’s been a very effective member of this 'pen and a very welcomed addition. He’s filling a role for us, and a valuable role.”

• The All-Star Game logos on the Rockies’ uniforms are a reminder to the Brewers that the Midsummer Classic was moved to Coors Field next month. Has closer Josh Hader, already a two-time All-Star and a string candidate to make it again, given any thought to that?

“I think that'd be pretty awesome,” Hader said. “I don't really think about that. I kind of stay within myself, don't think about too much of the future and just do what I do. If give me a call and say I'm an All-Star, I'm going to be ecstatic for it, but right now that's not what's on my mind. I'm really trying to just stay at work and continue to win ballgames.”

• Catcher Omar Narváez battled Rockies closer Daniel Bard for 14 pitches in the ninth inning of the Brewers’ 7-6 win on Sunday, including seven consecutive full-count foul balls before grounding out to third base. It was the Brewers’ longest at-bat since another catcher, Manny Piña, went 15 pitches in a called strikeout against Detroit’s Zach McAllister on May 8, 2018. Since pitch counts were first tracked in 1988, the Brewers’ longest plate appearance was Pat Listach’s 17-pitch walk against Oakland’s Ron Darling on Sept. 26, 1992.