PHILADELPHIA – Dustin May still doesn’t have any answers. But now he and the Brewers have a firm deadline to figure something out.
After May struggled again through what was hoped to be a two-inning tune-up against the Phillies, and a Brewers comeback against Zack Wheeler went for naught in a 6-4 loss to the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park, the Braves’ loss to the Reds meant Milwaukee can finish no lower than the No. 2 seed in the National League playoff picture, and will get a first-round bye.
So, you can mark your calendars. Game 1 of the NL Division Series will be Saturday, Oct. 3, at American Family Field. Time and opponent to be determined.
That buys May, the veteran right-hander acquired from the Cardinals at the Trade Deadline with October in mind, some extra time to figure things out.
“I’m just going to do what I’m told at this point,” he said. “I don’t feel like I’ve pitched my way into having a say into anything, so I’m just going to do what they tell me.”
Here’s how Tuesday unfolded:
Pecking away
Wheeler dominated the early innings. He struck out the Brewers’ first seven hitters of the game to set a Phillies franchise record, and retired the first nine in a row before Garrett Mitchell’s flare clanked off third baseman Alec Bohm’s glove for a hit. Mitchell eventually scored on William Contreras’ sacrifice fly, but Wheeler went into the sixth inning with 10 strikeouts and a two-run lead.
Then the Brewers started pecking away. David Hamilton singled from the nine-hole to lead off the sixth inning and stole second with one out. Jackson Chourio walked. Hamilton and Chourio pulled off a double steal on Brice Turang’s strikeout to set up Contreras for a two-run single. The game was tied, 3-3. One batter later, Wheeler was done.
Perhaps that rally will pay some dividends in October. At this point, the Phillies are one of the Brewers’ possible opponents in the NLDS.
May’s day
After getting knocked out of his last start after 2 1/3 innings of six-hit, three-run ball on Friday in Baltimore, May came back on short rest Tuesday against the Phillies so he could pitch once more during the final series of the regular season against the Cardinals. The Brewers and May figure that the more chances he gets to touch the mound, the better, as May tries to work through a slump he attributes mostly to pitch selection and sequencing.
“We want to give him as many outings as we can,” Murphy said before the game. “It probably won’t be an extended outing, but it’s still a chance to go back out there and pitch, and just kind of solidify how he wants to do things.”
The results were not what May and the Brewers wanted. He issued a two-out walk in a scoreless first inning, then a one-out walk in the second ahead of Brandon Marsh’s two-run homer on a 1-2 sinker. The pitch was where he wanted, May later said. That only made it more frustrating.
May tilted back his head and spun around. His reaction said it all. His day was done after two innings and 36 pitches.
“I thought everything was coming out well. It’s just unfortunate,” May said. “I would say it’s even more frustrating, knowing I had only six outs to get and I couldn’t even come out of that clean.”
What is a pitcher to do when the stuff is there but results are not?
“I don’t know,” May said, shaking his head.
Gordon debuts
Kyle Harrison’s postseason hopes continued to slip away with another tough inning in the third, but the Brewers finally quieted the Phillies with left-hander Colton Gordon, acquired with Lance McCullers Jr. in a July trade with the Astros. He gave the Brewers a chance to climb back into the game by opening his Milwaukee tenure with four scoreless, hitless innings, and was back on the mound in the eighth for a fifth inning of work.
That’s where Gordon and the Brewers found trouble. After Luis Arraez and Bohm extended the inning with two-out singles, Bryson Stott singled to center field. Mitchell conceded the run and threw towards third, where Bohm was slowing down to give Arraez time to score the go-ahead run. He would have been out by a wide margin had the baseball not hit his foot and caromed away.
The umpires converged at Murphy’s urging, but two runs scored on the play in what became a three-run inning.
“Maybe another umpire comes to the rescue and says, ‘Hey, he purposely did that,’” Murphy said. “I don’t know if it’s the right call or not, but it probably was. I don’t think [Bohm] stuck his leg out or anything, but it was a smart play. He was slowing down to not get tagged so the run could score.”
Until then, Gordon was excellent. He might not be part of the Brewers’ postseason plans, but he has a chance to be Milwaukee’s next Brent Suter beginning in 2027.
“He can pitch,” Murphy said. “I’m very impressed.”