Baseball’s best pitcher in 2020 was on the mound. But his pitch count was nearing 100 in the fifth inning, with the bases loaded, one out and Milwaukee’s No. 2 and 3 hitters due up.

The Brewers had done the hard thing -- making Shane Bieber sweat. But they weren’t able to do the hardest thing -- making him pay.

When Keston Hiura and Christian Yelich both struck out swinging to end that hard-earned threat, it was the monumental moment of a 4-1 loss to Cleveland in the finale of a frustrating weekend of abandoned baserunners at Progressive Field.

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“That,” manager Craig Counsell said afterward, “was our big offensive chance.”

Having dropped the final two of three against the Indians, the Brewers are three games under .500, in third place in the National League Central and just outside the current National League Wild Card pecking order.

The Brewers have gotten to this mediocre standing in the muddled NL playoff picture in large part because they haven’t capitalized on chances such as the ones they squandered Saturday, when they stranded 11 runners, and Sunday, when they stranded eight. The Brewers entered Sunday in the lower third in MLB in batting average (.243) and OPS (.752) with runners in scoring position.

“The story of this series was we just missed our opportunities,” Counsell said. “We put pressure in some innings. but we just didn’t cash in on opportunities.”

The benefit of striking out 10 times in five innings against Bieber is that the Brewers worked up the pitch count of the American League Cy Young Award favorite. He needed 103 pitches to get through his shortest start of the season.

“That was one of his ‘worst’ -- quote, unquote -- starts because he didn’t go deep into the game,” said Brewers starter Brett Anderson, who allowed four runs in five-plus innings. “But he still struck out 10.”

The Brewers, though, also managed to notch a combined five base hits and a walk off Bieber in the fourth and fifth innings. That they brought six batters to the plate with a runner in scoring position was itself a monumental achievement, as Bieber had only had 19 opponent plate appearances with a runner in scoring position in seven previous starts this season.

Alas, Orlando Arcia grounded into an inning-ending forceout with runners on the corners in the fourth. And in the fifth, after Jacob Nottingham brought a run home with a ground-ball single over the second-base bag and Ben Gamel singled to load the bases, Hiura and Yelich weren’t able to come through.

While Anderson wasn’t pleased with certain aspects of his performance -- most notably the leadoff walk he allowed to José Ramírez in what turned out to be the Tribe’s two-run sixth -- it hardly mattered in light of the Brewers’ inability to put a big inning together at the plate.

It should go without saying that Yelich’s dramatic departure from his MVP-level production of 2018-19 has had a dramatic impact on the Brewers’ output as a group. Each time he appears on the cusp of recapturing that familiar form, he has a day like Sunday, when he went 0-for-3 with a walk and four runners left on base.

“Teams know he’s still dangerous,” hitting coach Andy Haines said before Sunday’s game. “They pitch him very carefully. He’s the 1 percent, so he gets everybody’s absolute best. He’s aware of that. … He’s going to be ready for his pitch and aware of how careful they are with him.”

The Brewers have shown a careful approach at the plate this season, with the ninth-highest rate of pitches per plate appearance (4.03) in MLB. But as was the case against Bieber, it hasn’t resulted in sufficient run production. And even though the Crew forced Cleveland to go to its bullpen early Sunday, the opportunities were few and fleeting in the late innings. Ryan Braun hit a leadoff single off Indians closer Brad Hand in the ninth, but it was later erased when Nottingham grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Another missed opportunity. That was the story of the day, story of the weekend, and perhaps, the story of the Brewers’ season, to date.

Up next
For the second time in as many weeks, the Brewers have a two-game series with the Tigers on the docket -- this time in Motown. Adrian Houser (1-3, 4.97 ERA) gets the ball in Tuesday's 6:10 p.m. CT opener at Comerica Park, opposite Spencer Turnbull. Houser was roughed up for five runs over five innings against the Tigers last week -- part of a difficult stretch in which he's posted a 6.92 ERA across five starts. Catch the game live on MLB.TV.