Braun still Brewers’ Mr. September
ST. LOUIS – Unlike last September, when he put together his best offensive stretch of the season to help the Milwaukee Brewers capture the NL Central crown, Ryan Braun had been struggling recently while battling lower-back issues.
Braun finally made an impact Thursday afternoon in Miami with a two-run homer that sent the Brewers to a 3-2 victory and four-game sweep of the Marlins. But what he did to the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday afternoon at Busch Stadium was truly a blast from the past.
With the Brewers one strike away from a frustrating defeat that would have damaged their playoff hopes, Braun delivered in the biggest way imaginable. He slugged a grand slam on a 3-2 slider from rookie Junior Fernandez to erase the Cardinals’ 4-3 lead and pave the way for a huge 7-6 victory.
Instead of being two games behind the Chicago Cubs in the race for the second wild-card berth in the National League and all but out of the division race, the Brewers kept two paths open with 13 games to go. They remained a game behind the Cubs, who embarrassed Pittsburgh with 47 runs in a three-game sweep, while pulling within three of the Cardinals, who now face a tough three-game series against Washington.
And, recent struggles or not, no one who knows Braun’s playoff-push history should have been surprised.
“I’m definitely not as good as I was, but in big moments, I’m the guy, still,” Braun said with a big smile in the postgame clubhouse. “I still want that opportunity. I still believe in myself. I’ve had a lot of success in those moments and I think I’m able to ‘lock it in’ a little bit more.
“Obviously, I’d like to be more consistent and swing the bat better more often, but these guys pitched me really well. Jack Flaherty threw the ball great last night. I thought Michael Wacha threw the ball great today. Sometimes, you don’t get a lot of pitches to hit. The few you do get to hit, you have to take advantage of it.”
Craig Counsell played for the Brewers in 2008 and 2011, when Braun did one special thing after another with the team closing in on playoff berths. So, the Brewers manager was not completely stunned when his former teammate came through again but had to admit a grand slam was a bit much to expect in that situation.
“There’s been some memorable Ryan Braun home runs, at-bats, everything, but that’s right up there, there’s no question about it,” Counsell said.
The game was emblematic of the way baseball is played these days, with home runs on both sides resulting in punches and counter-punches over the final endings. The Brewers went ahead in the top of the seventh, 2-1, on a tworun homer by Cory Spangenberg, only to watch the Cards take a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the inning on home runs by Paul DeJong and Harrison Bader (his second) off reliever Ray Black.
The Brewers trailed, 4-3, when John Gant came on to pitch in place of usual closer Carlos Martinez, sidelined by a respiratory illness. Pinch-hitters Ben Gamel and Travis Shaw worked Gant for walks, and Yasmani Grandal drew another with one down to load the bases.
Lefty Tyler Webb was summoned to face Mike Moustakas, who lifted a fly ball to shallow center. As tempted as third base coach Ed Sedar might have been to send the speedy Gamel home in an attempt to tie the game, he held him as Bader made a strong throw that would have nabbed him.
“I was just chatting with Eddie and told him, ‘That might have been your best no-send of the year,’” Counsell said. “It’s so tempting. We’re asking the next guy to get a hit. Bader made a great throw. I don’t think there’s any question he would have been out.”
Braun made that decision the correct one with his grand slam, the Brewers’ first since Jason Rogers slugged a pinchhit slam off Trevor Rosenthal at Busch Stadium on Sept. 27, 2015 to stun the Cardinals, 8-4.
So, after treading water for five months, the Brewers continued to swim like Michael Phelps in September. By going 11-3 this month, they moved a season-best 11 games over .500 (80-69) and remained in the thick of the playoff hunt.
If this feels a bit like last September to the fans, know that it has that same feel for the players.
“As a group, it feels similar to what we went through last year,” Braun said. “So many guys stepping up, so many guys contributing. Just this relentless belief that we’re going to find a way to win.”
And the Brewers are doing it without their best player, Christian Yelich, lost in the second game in Miami with a broken knee cap. That season-ending injury made the playoff quest infinitely more difficult but you wouldn’t know it after the game Sunday.
“It felt like our season was on the line,” Braun said. “That’s kind of the approach we try to take every day. Once we got into that Cubs series (last weekend) and lost the first one, we’ve approached every game like it’s a must-win.
“Obviously, the first game here didn’t go well (a 10-0 loss) but we’ve been pretty good at turning the page. We’ve been very resilient, just the belief that, up and down the roster, somebody’s going to come through.”
In September, with the Brewers pushing for the playoffs, that somebody often has been Ryan Braun.