MILWAUKEE -- Is it the pitching coach?
If that was the most-asked question in Brewers circles after the Rockies scored 11 runs for the second straight game on Thursday and raised Milwaukee’s ERA to a National League-worst 5.20, it was only fair to dole out some credit Friday after Brandon Woodruff continued his personal turnaround with five strong innings in a 3-1 win over the Mets at Miller Park.
It will take more than one game to correct the Brewers’ pitching problem, but Woodruff’s performance -- three hits, no walks and no runs in his final four innings of work after the Mets scored a run on a walk and three hits in the opening frame -- did brighten the outlook compared to Thursday night, when manager Craig Counsell suggested the Brewers might have to remove a second young starter from the rotation. First, they sent Corbin Burnes to the Minor Leagues. Now they may make a move with Freddy Peralta.
“It’s just a hard game,” said Ryan Braun, whose tiebreaking, two-run home run in the fifth came just in time to make a winner of Woodruff for the 26-year-old’s second straight start. “There’s ups and downs. There’s a lot of adversity. There’s a lot of failure. There’s a lot of negativity. That’s how this game works.
“For everybody, it’s about being able to deal with that failure. Have the aptitude to figure out what you’re doing wrong and be able to make adjustments. But I don’t think anybody expected it to be a seamless transition for all of those guys, to the extent that they would just immediately dominate. Obviously, we still believe in all of them. I think we’ve weathered the storm early in the season, and on top of that we recognize this was going to be the most challenging part of our schedule. … I think you have to take that into consideration as well.
“We haven’t lost faith in any of those guys.”
It’s been a different story so far in Cincinnati, where the Reds have one of baseball’s best staffs under new pitching coach Derek Johnson. Highly-regarded back to his days at Vanderbilt University, Johnson spent three seasons on the Brewers’ staff before signing closer to his Nashville home with the Reds, who are believed to have presented Johnson a financial package he couldn’t refuse.
The Brewers promoted Chris Hook from their Minor League system, believing his familiarity with pitchers like Burnes, Peralta and Woodruff would prove beneficial after all three cracked the Opening Day rotation. When all three struggled at the start, Hook was an easy target for criticism.
So, Counsell was asked the question Friday afternoon. Did the transition in pitching coaches have anything to do with the Brewers’ woes?
“I can’t answer that. I don’t know,” Counsell said. “I think Chris has done a really good job. I think he’s adapted really fast to hitters in the big leagues. I think he’s really on point with our scouting report. He’s familiar with a big group of our staff, and I think that’s helped him coming into this. That was part of the thing we thought was an advantage coming into this, and something we’ve leaned on heavily.
“We just haven’t pitched well enough. We really haven’t.”
But it’s fair to ask the questions, Counsell said.
“We all have to examine how we’re preparing these guys,” he said. “Making sure we’re covering everything, doing everything we can to not only allow them to perform that day, but make them better for the long-term. … We always have to keep our eye on that and check ourselves in that department and set up processes that continue to do that.”
So far, he is confident in those processes, and in Hook’s job performance.
“Yeah,” Counsell said. “I am.”
Ditto for Woodruff, who said recent results aren’t Hook’s fault.
“That doesn’t have anything to do [with it],” Woodruff said. “As pitchers, we’ve got to go out there and make pitches. That’s the biggest thing. Being able to put the ball in a good spot. Obviously, he can’t go out there and do it for us. He gives us all of the information we need to go out and be successful. We just have to go out and perform. Chris has been great.”