Milwaukee Brewers-Chicago Cubs, Round 2, is officially in the books.
And after taking the first four – including three straight at Wrigley Field last month – the Brewers find themselves on the defensive a little bit even though they’re still sporting a healthy 5 ½-game lead in the Central Division standings.
Two straight losses will do that to a team, and Sunday’s 4-3, 10-inning defeat at American Family Field was especially painful with a 10th-inning meltdown by Joel Kuhnel providing Chicago with just enough cushion to hand Milwaukee just its second series loss on its home turf in over a month.
“You know it’s going to be big games anytime we play each other,” said Christian Yelich. “It was a good series. We didn’t play our best, but credit to them.”
Indeed, Kuhnel’s inability to find the strike zone when it mattered most was tough to watch as he recorded the first two outs and then proceeded to throw 11 straight balls as the Cubs grabbed a 2-1 lead.
Seiya Suzuki’s two-run single shortly thereafter ended up being the clincher.
But Kuhnel was far from the lone villain in this one, as he was provided zero breathing room by an offense that has been sputtering for the better part of a week now.
The Brewers were 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and had stranded eight baserunners heading into the 10th, with Gary Sánchez’s solo home run in the second inning accounting for their lone run before things finally got interesting in Milwaukee’s final at-bat.
Yelich began by singling Joey Ortiz in to draw the Brewers to within 4-2. Jackson Chourio walked and Brice Turang singled to load the bases for pinch-hitter Garrett Mitchell, who then drew a walk from Jordan Wicks to make it 4-3.
Up next were a pair of veteran hitters in Jake Bauers and Sánchez. But Bauers fouled out to Ian Happ in left field on the first pitch he saw and then the slow-footed Sánchez did the absolute worst thing he could given the circumstances by hitting a sharp ground ball to Alex Bregman at third base for a tailor-made, game-ending double play.
The Brewers finished 5 for 28 with runners in scoring position in the series and stranded 21 total baserunners. Including the prior series – a sweep of the Cincinnati Reds on the road – they’re 6 for 51 with 42 runners stranded.
But for the season, Milwaukee ranks a more-than-solid fourth in the major leagues with a .270 average with runners in scoring position.
“You go through stretches like that throughout the season,” said Yeich. “You’re going to have times where things just aren’t going well for you. You’re not doing a good job with runners in scoring position, you’re not doing a good job with guys on third and less than two outs.
“Unfortunately, you’re going to have some rough spots like that and you’ve just got to get through them as a team. We’ll be all right. It’s part of a season. It’s rocky. It’s never smooth. There’s going to be some hard times and we’re in the middle of one of those right now.
“We’ve won some games while being bad (offensively) which is fortunate, because usually it doesn’t go that way. It’s part of the year. We’ll be fine coming out the other side, but obviously frustrating right now.”
What perhaps made Sunday’s loss that much more painful was the manner in which the Brewers failed in crucial situations.
In the third, David Hamilton and Yelich singled consecutively with one out only for Chourio and Brice Turang to follow with strikeouts against Brewers retread Bryse Wilson.
Andrew Vaughn led off the fourth with a triple into the right-field corner, then Bauers and Sal Frelick sandwiched groundouts around a Sánchez popout.
Milwaukee then had one last gasp in regulation in the ninth when Sánchez walked and Frelick singled. Rookie Cooper Pratt then struck out on four pitches from Jacob Webb and Ortiz on three, a particularly galling series of at-bats in a big moment.
“Trying harder and wanting it more isn’t going to make it happen,” said Yelich. “Obviously everybody wants to get the job done. There is no right answer for how to do that; often times you’ve got to slow that down and try to focus. The other teams knows what they have to do to execute in that situation too.
“We’re just going through a rough stretch of it. We’ve been really good at it at times. Right now we’re in one of those times where we’re really bad at it. We’ll come through the other side of it and things will start getting back to normal.
“But when you’re in the middle of it, it’s obviously much more frustrating. It seems a lot worse than it is. Obviously, it’s not ideal. You feel like you kind of left one out there today, but it is what it is.
“It’s part of a season and you’ve just got to keep grinding through it.”
All told, the Brewers out-hit the Cubs, 10-4, in the finale.
Brandon Woodruff carries over his success
Brandon Woodruff wasn’t as dominant as he was in shutting out the Reds over six innings his last time out.
But the right-hander still kept the Cubs off the board over his 5 ⅔-inning start and has allowed just two hits and two walks while striking out 16 since being reinstated from the injured list on June 22.
“Starting to get in a good spot mechanically and physically with the way I feel,” said Woodruff, who’s lowered his season ERA to 2.59. “It was good. Just trying to command the zone and change speeds. That’s a tough lineup, a veteran lineup, so anytime you face those guys you’ve got to be on your A game.
“But I feel like I’m getting in a good rhythm and now it’s just all about maintaining it.”
Woodruff allowed two baserunners over his first five innings with a Miguel Amaya double and Pete Crow-Armstrong walk both coming in the third. He walked Crow-Armstrong again with one out in the sixth and was pulled one batter before being able to complete the sixth with Aaron Ashby coming on to strike out Michael Busch.
Pull the lens back and Woodruff’s performance Sunday was just the latest in what’s been a tremendous run for Milwaukee’s rotation that’s seen it post a 1.87 ERA and 0.75 WHIP with 111 strikeouts while holding opposing batters to a collective .156 average over the last 16 games.
“They’ve been doing a great job,” said Yelich. “They’re the reason why we’ve won some of these games in this stretch. They’ve been great for us for years. Those guys have been stepping up. We’ve been asking a lot of them and asking a lot of the ‘pen.”
Statistical midway point
After 81 games the Brewers are 50-31, with the 50 wins their most ever at the midway point.
Shrugging off a run of early injuries and a lack of overall production at the bottom of the lineup, Milwaukee’s division lead is the second-largest in baseball behind only the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 10-game cushion in the NL West and its plus-120 run differential trails only the Dodgers’ mark of 152.
Veterans are delivering, young players are stepping up and all things considered there’s not much to quibble about to this point.
“I think we’ve done all right,” Yelich said. “Obviously we haven’t played bad, but I don’t think we’ve played to the level we’re capable of when we put it all together. We’ve kind of figured it out and found ways to win, but I wouldn’t say that we’ve done the best job that we could do or played the best that we can play.
“There’s room for a lot of us to do better, and we will. We’ve gotten ourselves a good opportunity but right now where we’re at means nothing. There’s so much season left you’ve just got to keep going and keep trying to get better every day.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Offensive struggles highlight Brewers’ series loss to the Cubs
Reporting by Todd Rosiak, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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By Todd Rosiak, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
