CINCINNATI -- Brewers manager Pat Murphy is convinced that his team’s brand of baseball can translate to success in the postseason and the way his team has gone about scoring runs is just another form of winning baseball.
Entering Saturday, the Brewers ranked last in the Major Leagues with 131 home runs while ranking second in on-base percentage (.339) and walks (584), tied for second in batting average (.257) and third in runs (715) and steals (139).
On Friday night, Milwaukee scored 10 runs without the benefit of a homer, although Sal Frelick was robbed of one by Reds center fielder Dane Myers. The Brewers left nine on base and went 5-for-18 with runners in scoring position. In short, they could have scored a lot more than 10.
Jake Bauers (23) and Jackson Chourio (21) lead the Brewers in home runs. Nobody else has more than 17.
Murphy admits manufacturing runs in this manner takes a lot more effort than getting two or three at a time via the long ball.
“We’re choosing hard,” Murphy said. “We’re certainly trying to hit home runs. We're not cutting our swing down to create ground balls. We're still putting our best foot forward when the pitch is thrown that we can homer on. We're trying to just do everything we can to keep our focus on the right things, and that's winning baseball.”
The Brewers (88-54) have the best record in baseball heading into the second game of the three-game series against the Reds on Saturday night at Great American Ball Park.
Last season, the Brewers finished 97-65 to achieve the best record in baseball for the first time since 1982, and they set an all-time franchise record for regular-season wins before losing to the Dodgers in the NLCS.
"It makes no sense to me that someone would say, ‘Well, they're built for the regular season,'" Murphy said. “Think about what you're really saying. They're built to win games. What's the difference?”
Milwaukee ranked 22nd with 166 homers last season, while ranking third in batting average (.258), second in on-base percentage (.332) and third in runs (806).
“Maybe we win the most games in baseball, like we did last year,” Murphy said. “[If] that doesn't translate to the World Series championship, what can we do to change it? Just start saying, ‘Go ahead and just try to hit homers?' The teams that hit homers, they're not doing that.”
Perhaps notably, the Brewers homered seven times during the NLDS against the Cubs last season, with Brice Turang, William Contreras and Andrew Vaughn going deep in their decisive Game 5 victory to clinch Milwaukee’s first postseason series win since 2018.
“Well, I flipped the button [in that series],” Murphy quipped.