The ability to dust themselves right off
PHOENIX – How many gut punches can a young, inexperienced team take in one season?
When it comes to the 2017 Milwaukee Brewers, apparently a lot.
When the Brewers hung on for an 8-6 victory over the tough Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on Friday night, it was the latest example of how resilient they have become. The previous day at home, they stranded the potential winning run at third base with no outs in the bottom of the ninth, then watched reliever Jacob Barnes get roughed up in a 9-5, 10-inning loss to San Francisco, not exactly an offensive powerhouse.
The Brewers had a long time to stew over that loss as they boarded a charter flight for the 3 1⁄2-hour trip here for their weekend series against the Diamondbacks, who were a major- Sunday: Brewers (Anderson, 5-1) at Diamondbacks (Ray, 6-3), 3:10 p.m. TV: FSWis. Radio: AM-620.
league best 24-8 at home. But they showed their pluck by rallying to win the series opener after starting pitcher Zach Davies blew a 3-0 lead in the first inning and a 4-3 advantage in the fifth.
To hear manager Craig Counsell tell it, he expected nothing less from his surprising club.
“We’ve bounced back pretty regularly from these things,” he said. “To me, we’re going to bounce back. There are going to be more tough games. We know that. But they’re resilient and that’s not going to change.”
Extra-inning losses can be particularly difficult to absorb and the Brewers have dropped six consecutive games that went into overtime. But they’ve been nearly immune to hangovers from those losses, posting a 5-1 record in games the next day.
The lone exception came on the Brewers’ last homestand, when they were victims of a particularly cruel 1-2 punch by the Los Angeles Dodgers. It started on Friday, June 2, when Jimmy Nelson outdueled Clayton Kershaw and the Brewers took a 1-0 lead into the ninth inning.
Corey Knebel, who became the closer when Neftali Feliz couldn’t keep the ball in the park, surrendered a game-tying home run to Yasmani Grandal that pushed the game into the extra innings. And, sure enough, Feliz surrendered yet another homer, this one by rookie Cody Bellinger that decided the game in the 12th.
As if that weren’t bad enough, the Brewers suffered a worse loss the next day. Sparked by Travis Shaw’s grand slam, they scored five runs in the seventh to take an 8-4 lead, and it was a seemingly comfortable 8-5 score in the ninth when Counsell summoned Carlos Torres (Knebel was unavailable due to a heavy workload).
After first baseman Jesús Aguilar committed a one-out error that left two men on base, Torres melted down and allowed five runs, including a grand slam by Chris Taylor. So, the Brewers suffered their most deflating consecutive losses of the season, which might have sent many clubs into a prolonged spin.
Instead, with Davies pitching six scoreless innings, the Brewers bounced back that Sunday to blank the Dodgers, 3-0, and avoid a three-game sweep at home. Turning the page on tough losses has become commonplace for a rebuilding team with little majorleague experience, something that cannot be considered normal.
How exactly have the first-place Brewers pulled this off?
“I said in spring training this team was going to surprise a lot of people,” Davies said. “It’s a team that’s going to battle. It’s a team that’s never going to give in. Nobody’s going to roll over. So, it’s always going to be a fight.
“I think a lot of it is the chemistry in this clubhouse. Everybody gets along with each other; everybody is meshing, both in the clubhouse and on the field. We play well together and we feed off each other. It’s contagious.
“Everybody knows the struggles of baseball. Everybody has been through it at some point, and everybody is going to go through it again. But there’s a good chemistry on this team and we have each other’s backs.”
There certainly have been plenty of opportunities for this team to roll over and play dead.
There’s still plenty of season left and anything can happen but the Brewers have shown they can absorb body blows with the best of them.
“The key is we never give up,” Hernán Pérez said. “We go out there and battle. If we fall behind, we try to come back and win the game. We battle all nine innings. We have a good team. We don’t depend on just one guy or two guys. Everybody can come through and do their job.”
No matter what happened the previous day.