LOS ANGELES – Every day, Brewers manager Pat Murphy scratches out a batting order on a napkin or a scrap of paper, takes a picture and texts it to a member of the coaching staff, Evan Martin, whose title is game preparation specialist.
The names Christian Yelich and William Contreras are almost always there. Murphy writes them in the hope this is the day one of those Brewers stars breaks out. That day has not come yet.
“It sucks, for sure,” Yelich said after going 0-for-3 with a couple of strikeouts in Friday’s 3-1 loss to Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. “This is definitely one of the tougher ones, but there’s nothing you can do except going out there and trying to get it to turn.”
Yelich has found nothing but frustration so far, and he’s not alone. After going 15-for-38 with a 1.018 OPS during a 10-game tear to start the season, Yelich is hitting .207 with a .636 OPS in his last 74 games. Contreras, a National League All-Star this season, is hitting .159 with a .506 OPS since the start of July, including a drought that reached 0-for-20 when he flied out in his final at-bat of Friday’s loss.
The Brewers have dropped both of those formerly middle-of-the-order mainstays in the lineup, but Murphy is a little confounded about what to try next.
He asked some rhetorical questions Friday afternoon:
How many line drives to center field or right-center has Contreras hit at 100 mph? (Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel looked it up; Contreras entered the night 24th in baseball and tops on the Brewers in batted balls with that profile, and he added another in the seventh inning when his 100.9 mph fly ball went for a 377-foot flyout).
And how many home runs has Yelich had taken away? (Yelich talked about this before the game, and guessed four or five.)
“It’s a results-based game, right?” Yelich said. “You can only trust the process for so long. Eventually, you’ve got to start having things go right and start producing. Hopefully, that’s around the corner. I don’t know what else to do but keep working.”
Yelich has shown some signs on this road trip, but Contreras is really struggling. The deep flyout in the seventh was one of his best results lately, and his reward was an 0-for-20. He did contribute one more productive plate appearance in the ninth when he walked against Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz to put the tying runner on base, but unlike the night before, the Brewers couldn’t continue the rally. Joey Ortiz bounced out to shortstop with the bases loaded to end the game.
When does a manager know it’s time to give a player a day or two off?
"He gets days,” Murphy said of Contreras. “It's just -- I don't think William is going to get out of it just by sitting on the bench. But, maybe. It might be something I try if it doesn't."
That’s not an easy thing to do, either. The Brewers are already without second baseman Brice Turang (day to day with left knee pain), rookie shortstop Cooper Pratt (right hamstring) and Sal Frelick (right shoulder).
Here’s another thing to think about: Bo Naylor, the catcher acquired from the Guardians at the Trade Deadline, hit a pair of home runs for Triple-A Nashville on Friday night. If the Brewers do find a way to give Contreras a break, they could use the opportunity to introduce Naylor to the big league pitching staff ahead of the postseason.
But that was the furthest thing from Murphy’s mind as he assessed Yelich, Contreras and the rest of an offense that has produced 13 runs and two home runs in the first five games of this road trip. The Brewers have lost four of the five games.
“That’s part of baseball,” Murphy said. “You can go through stages like this, and you’ve got to credit the pitching we’re seeing. That kid that pitched today [Yamamoto], he’s awful good. The variety he has, the movement on his pitches, his command. That kid is one of the best in the game.”
That’s the big leagues.
“Everything is about results,” Murphy said. “Everything in our lives – especially young people that care so much – when you don’t get results, that’s really hard.”
Said Yelich: “You just have to keep going and keep working. It’s the only way it gets better.”