Brewers add familiar arm
Pitching solutions key to their playoff fate
For the second straight season, Jordan Lyles joins the Milwaukee pitching staff.
It has been something of a miracle that the Milwaukee Brewers have remained in playoff contention this season with one of the worst pitching staffs in the National League.
Teams ranked 13th in their league in pitching generally aren’t in a contending position with two months to go in the season. Yet, that’s exactly where the Brewers found themselves Monday on an off-day on the schedule.
Despite a 4.68 team earned run aver
age and minus-16 run differential, the Brewers (56-51) were a game behind coleaders Chicago and St. Louis in the NL Central. They also trailed by one game in the NL wild-card standings, though in a much more tightly bunched and larger group of contenders.
“We haven't had the smoothest of sailing; that's pretty well-documented,” rightfielder Christian Yelich said over the weekend, during which the Brewers took two of three from the Cubs to stay firmly in the mix.
“But we still have a long way to go and nobody's quitting.”
The Brewers indeed have shown some fight of late after a long slide made some wonder if they truly were contenders. But they are facing a pitching crisis this week that likely will determine whether they are able to stay in the hunt for October baseball.
Entering a crucial and difficult ninegame trip to Oakland, Chicago and Pittsburgh, the Brewers were down to 21⁄2 healthy starting pitchers. How do you have half of a starting pitcher, you ask? Well, the status of veteran left-hander Gio Gonzalez remained in question as he and the team's decision makers waited to see if shoulder tightness would nix his next scheduled start.
The Brewers took one step, albeit it smaller than most fans would have liked, toward addressing that situation Monday with the acquisition of righthander Jordan Lyles from Pittsburgh. Acquired last August from San Diego on waivers to pitch in Milwaukee's bullpen, Lyles will be a starter this time around and likely pitch Wednesday or Thursday in Oakland.
Right-hander Adrian Houser, who has shuttled back and forth from bullpen to rotation this season, is the likely starter Tuesday in the series opener against the Athletics. But moving Houser back to a starting role could prove to be a switch that only hurts the bullpen. In six starts this season, Houser is 0-4 with a 7.83 ERA. Pitching in relief, he is 4-0 with a 1.47 ERA in 17 outings.
If Gonzalez is able to make his next start, his regular day would be Wednesday in Oakland. But Counsell suggested over the weekend that Gonzalez might be pushed back a day or two if necessary without missing a full turn in the rotation.
“He'll play catch on Tuesday and we'll get some answers then,” Counsell said.
With Brandon Woodruff (strained left oblique) and Jhoulys Chacín (strained right latissimus dorsi muscle) on the injured list, the Brewers suddenly didn't have enough healthy bodies to fill the rotation. Woodruff had emerged as the Brewers' best starting pitcher, as evidenced by the team's 16-4 record in his 20 outings.
Making the situation more dicey for the Brewers is that right-hander Zach Davies has pitched poorly in his last two starts, allowing seven runs in a 14-6 rout by Cincinnati and seven more Sunday in an 11-4 romp by the Cubs. The team can ill afford a continuance of that kind of pitching with so many injury issues to address.
There has been speculation that the Brewers have entertained the thought of trading either third baseman Mike Moustakas or catcher Yasmani Grandal, both of whom are free agents after the season, to acquire an established starter. They do have an extra bat after recalling infielder Travis Shaw from the minors, but trading an all-star position player, especially at the catching position, would be a curious way to try to stay in contention for the postseason.
The Brewers have made it through four months with questionable pitching, but what happens to fill the rotation over the next few days likely will determine their fate in the final two months. Their starters are ranked 13th in the NL with a 4.84 ERA, the worst of any team still in solid contention for a playoff berth.
Asked about being caught short of pitching at this critical juncture, president of baseball operations David Stearns said, "Every season takes its own twists and turns, and every season comes up with unexpected situations and circumstances. We went into the season with what we thought was a very deep pitching staff, with numbers we thought could help us get through the rigors of a major-league season.
"We know every single year you're going to go through 10-12 starting pitchers. To some extent, we worked through that depth, for a variety of different reasons, faster than I would have anticipated. But the unexpected happens every year. It just so happened that this year it seems to have occurred in this realm."