PHILADELPHIA -- No Christian Yelich? No problem for the Brewers.
Milwaukee lost its No. 3 hitter after his first plate appearance, but a late rally -- keyed by a clutch hit out of that same spot in the lineup -- helped the Brewers complete a three-game sweep at Citizens Bank Park with a 5-2 victory over the Phillies on Sunday.
Jose Quintana allowed two runs over five innings in his first start since May 9, showing no signs of the left shoulder impingement that shelved him for the past three weeks.
It’s the first sweep in Philly by the Brewers in nearly a decade, the last coming in a four-game series from June 29-July 2, 2015.
“If you want to be a good team, you’ve got to stay relentless throughout the game and look for opportunities; every pitch counts,” manager Pat Murphy said. “This is a really good team, best record in the National League. It was really a nice series.”
The day didn’t start out well for the Crew, as Yelich was hit by Ranger Suárez in the first inning, forcing him from the game before his next at-bat with a right hand contusion.
Eric Haase took over for Yelich, but Murphy sent Jake Bauers to the plate as a pinch-hitter for Haase in the seventh after Milwaukee had tied the game on an error by Trea Turner. Bauers delivered a two-run double that gave the Crew its first lead of the day, setting up the sweep.
"That’s a really good team over there,” Turner said. “They swung the bats great all series, they always have a good pitching staff. So if you’re going to beat teams like that, you can’t give them outs, you’ve got to put up a few more runs and play a little better.”
The Brewers’ winning streak now stands at seven games, the longest for Milwaukee since a nine-game streak in August 2023. At 32-28, the Brewers are four games over .500 for the first time this season.
Sunday’s late-inning surge gave the Brewers 48 runs during the seven-game winning streak, an average of 6.86 runs per game. In their 22 games in May prior to this streak, Milwaukee scored 67 runs, averaging 3.05 runs during that 9-13 stretch that included six shutout losses.
“It definitely gives you a little bit more confidence moving forward,” Bauers said. “It shows you that we can play with anybody. When we do things the right way and we do things how we're trying to do them, it shows up.”
“We had a little spell early in the season where we were decent, and then we were just kind of flat,” Murphy said. “This seems like we got a little bit of our edge back.”
It was nearly one year ago that the Brewers brought a five-game winning streak to Citizens Bank Park, only to suffer a sweep at the hands of the Phillies in three tightly contested games.
Murphy stated the obvious when he said this year’s results were “nicer,” but the manager also believes his club learned a lot from those close losses last season.
He’s also hopeful that this weekend’s sweep will prove to be an important measuring stick for the Brewers.
“I think this is a really good marker for us, saying, ‘Hey, you went and played the Phillies, as good a team as there is in baseball, if not the best,’” Murphy said.
Not only did the Brewers sweep the series, but they won each game in a different fashion. Friday night saw Yelich hit two homers while DL Hall and Quinn Priester combined for nine strong innings. Saturday was an offensive explosion, with Milwaukee jumping out to a 12-0 lead in the fourth inning. Sunday, the lineup struggled to figure out Suárez, but they remained resolute and scored three times in the seventh to overcome a 2-1 deficit.
“Anytime you can sweep a series against those guys -- especially here -- it's a great sign,” Yelich said. “We still have to play well the rest of the year. It’s just good that you know that you can come in and play good, clean baseball and match up with a team like that, but it doesn’t mean anything if we don't play well the next four months. We’ve got to keep doing that and see what happens for us.”