MILWAUKEE -- It’s 81 games down, 81 to go for the Brewers, who reached the mathematical midpoint of their regular season schedule Thursday with something they will need more of in the second half: A well-pitched win.

Chase Anderson worked into the sixth inning and snapped a scoreless tie with a suicide squeeze bunt in the 4th, and Orlando Arcia followed with a three-run homer in Milwaukee’s 4-2 victory over the Mariners at Miller Park. When Josh Hader locked down a two-inning save, the Brewers avoided being swept for the second time in 10 days with their fourth win in their last 13 games, a slide reminiscent of a fade just before last year’s All-Star break.

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“We needed it,” said Christian Yelich, who has 999 career hits after collecting a pair of singles. “That's the kind of game we're accustomed to playing.” 

And the likes of which they have played fewer this season than last. The mathematical midpoint arrived with the Brewers in second place in the National League Central at 43-38, one game behind the Cubs, who held on to beat the Braves on Thursday with new closer Craig Kimbrel on the mound. That’s a step back for the Brewers from last year, when they were 15 games over .500 after 81 games, ranked eighth in the National League with a 3.93 starters’ ERA and owned the second-best bullpen ERA, with an offense led by soon-to-be All-Stars Jesus Aguilar, Lorenzo Cain and Yelich. 

Flash forward to Thursday, and the Brewers were 13th in starters’ ERA (5.06), seventh in bullpen ERA, and have an offense with Yelich still performing at an MVP level but Aguilar, Cain and Travis Shaw in deep slumps. 

“It’s not going to be smooth sailing all the time,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “We’ve got to withstand that, we’ve got to fight through that, we’ve got to still find a way to win. That means it’s the whole 25-man roster. A bunch of guys have to do something to help us win. 

“Orlando did something to help us win today, and of course Chase did. Those are the kind of performances you need. That’s how good teams win games.”

Among the key questions facing the Brewers as they hit the halfway point:

1. Will Keston Hiura be a difference-maker?

The Brewers’ top prospect performed in a three-week stint in the Majors before the Brewers sent him down in a controversial move on June 3. Then they went 9-12, neither Aguilar nor Shaw capitalized on opportunities, and the Brewers decided to bring Hiura back up. They reportedly will call up Hiura and Tyler Saladino on Friday, while optioning Shaw to Triple-A and designating Hernan Perez for assignment.

What took so long?

“The answer is, we’re trying to get players that have had a major impact on our team going,” Counsell said Wednesday afternoon. “I think we’re getting there -- these guys have got to get going, there’s no question about it. But we’re trying to get a player going who was an All-Star last year with 35 home runs and drove in 108 runs, a player who has hit 30 home runs two years in a row. Those are impact, impact players. Players that we need. All the answers are not outside; the answers have to be found within us. We always have to think like that. It’s important that we think like that. Those are players who helped us win a lot of games the last two years, and I want them to be the ones who do it.

“But there is a certain point you do have to produce. That’s for sure.”

On Thursday, after Shaw went 0-for-2 with an intentional walk, the Brewers decided that they had reached that point.

2. Are the starters good enough?

Anderson carried a shutout into the sixth inning in exactly the sort of performance that the Brewers were looking for to snap a streak of subpar starts. On this homestand alone, Brewers starters surrendered multiple runs in the first inning in four of the first six games going into Thursday, leaving the hitters under constant pressure to start a comeback.

As Anderson took the mound, the ERA of Brewers starters in June was 6.81.

“Look, that’s what we have to focus on, for sure,” Counsell said. “[Those are] the guys that we have here. That’s who we’ve got. Freddy [Peralta] can factor into that. Those are probably the six right now; the five [Anderson, Jhoulys Chacin, Brandon Woodruff, Zach Davies and Adrian Houser], plus Freddy. But those are our guys, and we have to be better. We need Jhoulys to be better, and I think he would say the same thing. That’s a big one.”

Chacin starts Friday against the Pirates. 

3. Will the staff look different by the end of July?

Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns said on the homestand that it’s too early to know whether he will be able to acquire an impact starting pitcher for the stretch run. Opposing teams would surely start with Hiura in negotiations, and that would be a very tough sell in spite of Milwaukee’s need in the rotation. Stearns has shown a knack for acquiring relief help before the Trade Deadline on July 31, getting Anthony Swarzak and Jeremy Jeffress in 2017 when the Brewers were surprise competitors, and Joakim Soria in ‘18. 

“Our backs are kind of against the wall right now as a starting rotation, as a team,” Anderson said. “You hear about it in the media, but we know what we have in this clubhouse. To go out there and pitch into the sixth inning and give our team a chance to win is hopefully the start of a good run for us as a team.”