MILWAUKEE -- The thing to remember about this Brewers season is the way it began. Before the Brewers locked up their seventh postseason berth in the last eight years with the Mets’ loss to the Rangers on Saturday, making a fourth NL Central title in the last five years next in their sights, it was still March and they found themselves sitting at 0-4.
They had the worst run differential in the Majors and a dubious place alongside the 1954 Cardinals for the most runs allowed (47) in the first four games of any season in the Modern Era. Six starting pitchers were on the injured list. Jose Quintana, who signed midway through Spring Training to help, wasn’t ready yet. Elvin Rodriguez, who wouldn’t last with the Brewers past the first week of May, started the home opener. And another pitcher, Nestor Cortes, whose Brewers tenure began at Yankee Stadium with three pitches, three home runs, was a week away from becoming yet another Milwaukee starter to land on the IL.
Pat Murphy had some tricks up his sleeve as the reigning National League Manager of the Year, the first skipper in franchise history to claim that distinction. But even he couldn’t press pause on the schedule.
The games kept coming.
“You just roll with it and learn something,” Murphy said as the Brewers sat at 0-4. “Now we have an opportunity to learn. We haven’t been smashed in the face like this in a long, long time.”
It took the Brewers some time to smash back, but they ultimately did, starting with a May 25 victory in Pittsburgh when rookie Caleb Durbin fouled off five consecutive two-out, two-strike pitches before hitting a tying, two-run double, then scored on Brice Turang’s double for two things the Brewers hadn’t done in any of their first 54 games of the season: They mounted a multi-run comeback to win, and they won a game they trailed after seven innings. They showed some fight.
And they didn’t stop. Starting that day, the Brewers won eight in a row and 53 of the next 69 to vault to the best record in baseball, with winning streaks of eight, 11 and a franchise-record 14 games along the way. They did it not with power but with speed, defense and terrific pitching despite all of those early-season injury woes.
“We’ve got a good team,” said Turang, who took arguably the biggest leap forward this season among Milwaukee’s budding position players. “It’s just putting the pieces together.”
The Brewers’ 16-9 June was the Month of Miz, as 6-foot-7 top Brewers pitching prospect Jacob Misiorowski arrived just as his team needed another jolt, and pitched his way to victories over Paul Skenes and Clayton Kershaw, and to the earliest All-Star Game invitation in Major League history. A 17-7 July was the month of Big Woo, as Brandon Woodruff returned from a multi-year shoulder rehab on July 6 to spark an 11-game winning streak. Then came an unforgettable, 21-9 month of August that began with 14 consecutive victories.
It was the longest winning streak in franchise history, and included moments like Blake Perkins’ game-saving throw home on Aug. 8 to exorcise the Brewers’ demons against the Mets and secure victory No. 7 of 14, a comeback from an early 5-0 deficit in victory 9 of 14 to finish a sweep of the Mets on Aug. 10, Christian Yelich’s two-homer night with his Bob Uecker tribute bat for a comeback from an 8-1 deficit in victory No. 13 on Aug. 15, and backup infielder Andruw Monasterio -- No. 14 for victory No. 14 -- coming off the bench to hit a go-ahead, three-run homer on on Aug. 16.
Along the way, they became only the latest Brewers team to leave their preseason projections in the dust.
“I think this one was probably written off more than any of the other ones,” Yelich said. “I know a lot of them have been written off, that's been a pretty common theme for us over the years. Like, being an afterthought for the rest of the league. But I think it was especially true this year going into Spring Training, and then obviously how the year started, we were kind of cast aside and told we were no good.
“We don't really care what people say. It doesn't matter whether they say good things or bad things about you, because you still have to play the games at the end of the day. So, even if they say you're great, it doesn't mean you are great. And if they say you're no good, it doesn't mean that's true, either. How you perform on the field is really the true indicator of what kind of team you are.”