After hovering at .500 much of year, Brewers need burst to make playoffs
LOS ANGELES – With the exception of a winning burst just before the All-Star Game and a four-week slide coming out of that break, the Milwaukee Brewers have been more consistent than anticipated for a rebuilding club.
Consider the Brewers’ monthly records as of Saturday:
April: 13-13, May: 15-12, June: 1514, July: 12-13, August: 11-11.
Pretty consistent, right? Month by month, the Brewers have played right around the .500 mark, give or take a game or two.
“We’ve been largely in this spot most of the season,” said manager Craig Counsell, referring to the Brewers’ 66-62 record entering the weekend series against the runaway Los Angeles Dodgers.
“We had a little run that put us above this spot, but we’ve been actually pretty consistently in this area, record-wise.”
The “little run” to which Counsell referred started with an 11-3 victory in Cincinnati on June 29. The Brewers returned home and went 5-1 against Miami and Baltimore, including a
sweep of the Orioles.
The Brewers went to Chicago for a makeup of an earlier rainout on what originally was a scheduled off day and pummeled the Cubs, 11-2. They finished the first half by going to New York and taking two of three from the Yankees in a series they would have swept if not for closer Corey Knebel allowing a game-winning homer to rookie Clint Frazier.
That 9-2 closing burst into the break left the Brewers with a 50-41 record and 51⁄2-game lead in the division. Suddenly, folks wondered out loud if the club’s rebuilding plan was far enough ahead of schedule to allow for postseason plans.
The Brewers began the second half by winning two of three from lastplace Philadelphia at Miller Park. That series left them with a season-best 52-42 record and 41⁄2-game lead over the Chicago Cubs, who finally awakened and broke fast out of the break. Then came the big skid. With the offense suddenly drying up as if a faucet had been turned off, the Brewers were swept in a four-game series in Pittsburgh, scoring only nine runs. It was on to Philadelphia, where they lost two of three, and then on to Washington for two more losses in a three-game set.
That 2-8 trip set the tone for more struggles to come. The Brewers briefly stabilized things with a 3-3 home stand against the Cubs and Cardinals, and won two of three in Tampa Bay, but then lost four in a row in the home-and-home interleague series against Minnesota.
When the Brewers dropped an 11-10 shootout the next day at home against Cincinnati, they were back to .500 (59-59), having gone 9-18 since the all-star break. Over that span, they lost 81⁄2 games in the standings to the Cubs, going from 51⁄2 on top to three behind, in a tie for third-place with Pittsburgh.
The offense finally exhaled in that loss to the Reds, however, and the Brewers went on to win four in a row. They went to Colorado and took two of three, climbing back to five games above .500 (6560).
When the three-city, nine-game journey shifted to California, however, the offense went flat again. The Brewers scored only six runs in San Francisco, losing two of three, then fell Friday night to the crazy-good Dodgers, 3-1, collecting just one hit – a home run by Domingo Santana.
That roller-coaster journey put the secondplace Brewers at 66-63 entering play Saturday night, three games behind the Cubs in the NL Central and 31⁄2 games behind the Rockies for the second wild-card spot, with Miami closing from behind.
Looking back to that spurt before the all-star break, Counsell said, “It’s going to take a run to get to the playoffs. We’re going to need another one. That’s the challenge for us over the next (33) games.”