BALTIMORE -- Pat Murphy and his pitching gurus met for more than an hour Saturday afternoon to strategize how to make the most of the week-plus that remains of the regular season.
Among the topics on the table: Why don’t Dustin May's recent results match his high-quality stuff? Can anything else be done to reel Kyle Harrison back into contention for the postseason roster? Which of the team’s young starters can contribute in October relief? And more.
Even though the regular season is coming to an end, there remains much work to do.
“We’re throwing things out there, checking on things, trying to find solutions for little nuances,” Murphy said.
The Brewers haven’t yet announced probable starting pitchers for the final road series of the regular season, a three-game set in Philadelphia beginning Tuesday night. Logan Henderson isn’t scheduled to start until Wednesday, Murphy said, so one option is bringing back May on short rest to start the first game against the Phillies after he threw 70 pitches for seven outs against the Orioles on Friday, including 37 pitches for one out in a tough third inning.
It’s a different kind of puzzle than solving Harrison, whose velocity has returned but whose pitch properties are not as sharp now as they were during the first half of the season. Now he’s slumping so severely (21 earned runs on 27 hits over seven innings in his last four appearances) that his confidence is shaken.
May’s issue is a different matter, probably more related to pitch selection.
Asked on Friday night whether he believes he’s close to where he needs to be, May said, “I’d like to say so. … I feel like the stuff’s coming out good. I’m not closing the door late [in counts].”
“You’re not going to just give Harrison another pitch, whereas May has some pitches that he’s maybe not going to them, or maybe the sequencing is not matching up,” Murphy said.
The conversations continue. While Brewers relievers went through their pregame throwing program on Saturday afternoon, May and pitching coach Chris Hook were engaged off to the side for about half an hour.
“It’s incredibly frustrating knowing that I feel good, I feel like my stuff's in a really good spot. I’m just not executing or throwing the right pitch in the right situation," May said. "I know I have the tools in the box to be able to do it. Now it’s just a matter of doing it in a game situation.”
May will continue to work through it.
So will the Brewers, who, for all their youth, went into Saturday’s game against the Orioles with Major League Baseball’s second-best ERA (3.59, trailing only the Yankees).
At the moment, they appear to be leaning toward a 12-pitcher, 14-position player roster for the NLDS, just like last year against the Cubs. So the task is to choose the right 12 pitchers.
“I told this to the pitching coaches,” Murphy said. “It’s incredible what this young pitching staff -- you throw away [Quinn] Priester, Freddy [Peralta], ‘Woody’ [Brandon Woodruff], and it’s amazing what this young pitching staff has achieved. And it looks like there’s some flat tires, but it’s amazing.
“It’s, ‘How are we going to get through the rest of it?’ And the mentality going through the rest of it to win. Why not win? We know come playoff time, a lot of things are thrown out the window. The whole body of work is thrown out the window in a lot of ways. … You have to somehow reinvent yourselves.”