MILWAUKEE – Mathematically, it was the best first half in Brewers history.
Sunday offered reminders that there is still a long way to go.
Brandon Woodruff delivered another scoreless start and relievers Abner Uribe and Trevor Megill gave their team plenty of chances to break through in the late innings, but those performances went by the wayside at sold-out American Family Field in a 10-inning, 4-3 Brewers loss to the Cubs on Sunday that capped a dreadful week of clutch hitting.
The Brewers were 2-for-12 hitting with runners in scoring position on Sunday, 5-for-28 while dropping two of three games in the series to the injury-ravaged Cubs and 6-for-51 in the last two series against Cincinnati and Chicago. The only reason Milwaukee went 4-2 in that span to reach the midpoint at 51-30 – the most wins in franchise history through 81 games – was an historically stingy stretch of pitching.
Including Woodruff’s six innings on Sunday, Brewers starters have a 0.82 ERA over the last six games while striking out 48 and allowing 13 hits. According to OptaStats, no other team's starters have had a sub-1.00 ERA with as many strikeouts and as few hits allowed over any six-game span of any season since ERA became an official stat in 1913.
Hitting, however, has been a different matter.
“When you’re in the middle of it,” said Christian Yelich, the Brewers’ unofficial captain and provider of perspective in times like these, “it’s really frustrating and it seems, like, a lot worse than it is. Obviously, it’s not ideal. You feel like you left one out there today.”
The Brewers were in a 4-1 hole to start the bottom of the 10th after reliever Joel Kuhnel, who was one out away from a scoreless inning, issued an intentional walk to Pete Crow-Armstrong, hit Alex Bregman with a 3-0 pitch and then walked Michael Busch on four pitches to force in a run. Seiya Suzuki gave the Cubs some breathing room with a two-run single that loomed very large, given what followed.
In the bottom of the 10th, Yelich singled home a run to snap Milwaukee’s 0-for-8 start to the day with runners in scoring position against a Cubs pitching staff that has been stretched to the breaking point by injuries. The rally continued through Garrett Mitchell’s pinch-hit, run-scoring walk, making it a one-run game with the bases loaded and still nobody out.
The Brewers were a productive plate appearance or two from a series victory.
Instead, the rally died there. Jake Bauers popped out to left field on the first pitch and Gary Sánchez grounded into a game-ending double play.
“I think sometimes guys maybe try to do too much,” said Brewers offense and strategy coordinator Jason Lane, who subbed for manager Pat Murphy while Murphy continues his recovery from back surgery. “That’s where we try to preach, ‘You’ve got to take what the game gives you.’ That might be taking pitches and handing it to the next guy.”
The Brewers did a poor job of that in big spots against a vulnerable Chicago staff. After putting runners at the corners with one out in the third inning, Jackson Chourio and Brice Turang struck out on pitches from Bryse Wilson at the top of the zone. In the fourth, Bauers, Sánchez and Sal Frelick all had unproductive at-bats after Andrew Vaughn led off the inning with a rare triple. And in the ninth, with the winning run at second base and one out, Cooper Pratt and Joey Ortiz each swung and missed at multiple pitches well out of the zone on the way to back-to-back strikeouts.
“Trying harder and wanting it more isn’t going to make it happen,” Yelich said. “Everybody wants to get the job done. There’s no right answer for how to do that. It’s just, oftentimes you have to slow that down and try to focus. The other team knows what they have to do to execute in that situation, too, right? We’re just going through a rough stretch of it.”
Yelich noted that the Brewers have gone through much better stretches of clutch hitting this season, and he’s right. For all their recent struggles, they are fifth in the Majors with a .270 batting average with runners in scoring position. But they are hitting .240 in the clutch in June, .206 since their slugfest series against the A’s in Las Vegas and .118 over the past week.
Still, Woodruff likes where the team stands at the midpoint.
“This is a good team,” Woodruff said. “A lot of positional guys that were young a couple of years ago are now getting older and understanding themselves really well. The pitching staff, we’ve got some big-time arms. We’ve played some good baseball. We’ve got to keep steady, keep staying positive and be consistent. I think we’ll be OK at the end.”
Yelich offered the same prescription for the recent hitting woes: Keep going.
“We’ve been really good at it at times,” he said. “Right now is one of those times we’re really bad at it. We’ll come through on the other side.”