TORONTO -- Who said these Brewers can’t slug?
The “little things” team has another dimension to its offense these days, blending small ball with power to put pressure on opposing pitching in different ways. It wasn’t enough in Sunday’s 8-4 loss to the Blue Jays, thanks in part to a slew of uncharacteristic fielding and baserunning mistakes, but the benefits of that added pop were on display throughout the series at Rogers Centre.
“We all have the power to do it,” said Brice Turang, who joined in on the fun with a solo homer off Max Scherzer. “Sometimes it’s just happening, or we’re having a good month. I don’t really look too much into it. I just try to stay consistent in my routine and batting practice and stuff like that.”
Maybe not looking too much into it is part of what’s working.
The Brewers hit 45 home runs in August, by far the biggest single-month mark of their season (they combined for 27 between March and April). That was instrumental in a 21-9 run that tied a franchise record for the most wins in a month.
Since the All-Star break, Milwaukee ranks fifth in MLB in slugging (.462) and first in runs scored (242). That’s a massive improvement from a .383 slugging (22nd in MLB) ahead of the break. This club has been great at finding ways to put runs on the board all season, but there’s no easier way to put a game out of reach than with one swift blow.
What’s fueling the power surge?
“It’s just experience,” said Turang. “Getting experience, being able to make in-game adjustments, learning how to do that stuff.”
So this isn’t a complete overhaul of identity -- the Brewers still rank 19th in home runs on the season -- but another tool in the repertoire of a dynamic offense.
“Home runs are thrown,” said manager Pat Murphy. “You’ve got to get pitches to hit and be ready to hit those pitches, and usually you've worked yourself into a count or had yourself ready for that pitch. So I think that they're capable. Sometimes, [opponents] don't give you a pitch to hit out, so you have to do what you do in that pitch to win that pitch, to get the next pitch.”
Milwaukee has been winning a lot of pitches lately.
Take the first two games of this series. On Friday, Andruw Monasterio opened the scoring with a solo homer in the sixth, paving the way for a five-run inning that continued in more traditional Crew fashion. Saturday’s ninth inning was powered by back-to-back solo blasts from Jackson Chourio and Christian Yelich.
The bats stayed hot in the finale. William Contreras’ ninth homer of August was a two-run blast in the first inning, after Chourio legged out an infield single. Then came Turang with a solo shot in the second. Neither of those was a no-doubter, but they were hit just well enough to go over the fence. Put the ball in play and good things happen.
“I didn't know if I got it fully, didn't know if it was going to hit the wall,” said Turang. “So I was just running hard, and I didn't really watch it. I just hit it and started running. It just happened to go over the wall.”
But the Blue Jays put the ball in play, too, and the Brewers couldn’t stay true to their identity on the other side of the ball. The box score shows just one error, but fielding was a problem in Sunday’s loss. There was miscommunication in the middle infield, extra bases given away and misplays all around.
The same goes for their baserunning, such a strength overall, but a clear issue in this one. First it was Contreras, tagged out trying to advance from second on a flyout. Then it was Monasterio, caught stealing home as Turang stole second. Not to mention the back-to-back errors by the Blue Jays in the fifth that resulted in zero runs scored despite a bases-loaded, no-out situation.
“You can't play defense like that and baserun like that -- we can't play like that and win, especially against a team as good as the Blue Jays,” said Murphy. “ … We haven't played like that in a while. Very uncharacteristic. Certainly unacceptable. That's not us, but it was today.”
One bad game won’t define them, though. The Brewers have the formula to keep taking games from tough opponents. They trust they can keep doing it.