Brewers’ offense continues to stall
Craig Counsell insists that every time he fills out his lineup card, he expects good things offensively.
“Right now, I think the lineup we’re putting out there is a good lineup,” the Milwaukee Brewers manager said Monday afternoon. “I think it’s going to score more runs. It’s a tough lineup. I think it’s a lineup that can score a lot of runs and will score a lot of runs.”
The sagging Brewers then went out and lost to the Atlanta Braves, 4-2, at Miller Park.
Yes, the bullpen was a mess in the previous three-game series against the San Francisco Giants, surrendering 17 runs in 11 innings. And the starting pitching has been in flux all season, leading to many ups and downs.
But, if you’re looking for the biggest culprit on the verge of sinking the team into also-ran status, it has to be the Brewers’ offense. This team was built to score runs, supposedly enough runs to overcome shaky pitching often enough to stay in contention.
Major league baseball has devolved into a sport of offensive bludgeoning, with lively baseballs and lineups full of sluggers, competing in nightly contests of Home Run Derby. And the Brewers bop with the best of them, leading the National League with 158 home runs.
When they don’t hit home runs, however, the Brewers struggle to score. Struggle badly, in fact. They don’t know how to manufacture runs and have been awful at delivering base hits with runners in scoring position.
In losing for the 18th time in 27 games in the series opener against Atlanta, the Brewers went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position. In those situations, the Brewers are batting .237 for the season as a team, by far the lowest average in the league.
The fifth inning was a perfect example of how inept the Brewers have become at delivering hits in the clutch. Trailing, 3-0, they put a runner on third base with no outs when Keston Hiura led off with a double and stole third base without a throw against lefty Max Fried.
But Orlando Arcia, mired in another of his offensive skids, couldn’t get the ball past the pitcher and Hiura got overeager, coming down the line and getting tagged out by Fried.
“It was a tough play because it was on the other side of the pitcher and if it gets by him, you want to get a jump,” Counsell said. “He just got a little over-aggressive.”
The Brewers’ only two runs came in the sixth off reliever Josh Tomlin, with Ryan Braun greeting him with a home run and Hiura later tripling in a run, barely missing a homer of his own.
And, so, the losing continued. A halfgame behind the first-place Cubs when the second half began Friday night, the Brewers fell into third place in the NL Central, a half-game behind St. Louis and 2 1⁄2 behind Chicago.
The Braves have no such troubles scoring runs. They entered the night sixth in the majors with 507 runs because they have been able to manufacture runs when they aren’t bopping homers.
On this night, a home run was the big blow for Atlanta, with Freddy Freeman jumping on a first-pitch curveball down in the zone for a three-run homer to center off Adrian Houser in the fourth.
“He’s a great hitter,” Counsell said. “He put a good swing on a decent pitch.”
Asked what it’s going to take to get his team out of this month-long slide before it’s too late to salvage the season, Counsell said, “Just, in general, we’ve got to make more plays. That’s what it comes down to, whether it’s better atbats or making a play defensively, making a big pitch when it counts.
“Offensively, there are certainly moments we’ve got to capitalize on. We’re not hitting into the best luck right now. We’ve got to find a way to make plays. That’s how we break through this. Just make more plays. That’s the only way to do it.”
And the Brewers need to do it soon. Very soon. They have their hands full with the Braves, who are soaring in the other direction with a 4-0 record on the road coming out of the all-star break. The Brewers put themselves in a bad spot by losing series after series to sub.-500 teams, and now they are one loss away from being a .500 team themselves.
“I wish I had a secret potion but I don’t,” said catcher Yasmani Grandal, who admittedly let his frustrations get the best of him by getting ejected after a called third strike in the sixth inning.
“I just think the harder you try, the worse it gets. So, don’t try. Just play. We’ve just got to take it a day at a time.
“Obviously, we can get better in different situations we just can’t be trying too hard. We’re just putting more pressure on ourselves when we try to do something instead of just letting it happen. That’s pretty much what baseball’s all about – just reacting.”
Reacting properly, to be exact.