Not Unlike Us: Series Against Mighty Dodgers Affirms Brewers as Pennant Contenders

[Matthew Trueblood]

It was a tough week out West for the NL Central leaders. Even in a series loss at Chavez Ravine, though, the Brewers showed that they're a very real threat to play deep into October--and gained a little more clarity about what it will take to do so.

Image courtesy of © Jason Parkhurst-USA TODAY Sports

Nowhere near full strength, the Brewers arrived in Los Angeles having split a series in the thin air of Denver and dropped two out of three to the behemoths of baseball. Even in doing so, though, they proved their mettle. The Dodgers are not a higher class of team than the Brewers. The latter just need a bit better pitching depth, to win the heavyweight fights that are games against the NL's daunting dynasty.

When Christian Yelich is hitting like this, he can make up for a lot of deficiencies. Still, there are a lot of deficiencies for which to make up right now, with Joey Ortiz and Gary Sánchez on the injured list and Willy Adames struggling. This weekend demonstrated the depth of options--the number of ways the Brewers can score, even without Yelich carrying them. Jackson Chourio appears to have figured things out at the plate, and is a force to be reckoned with. William Contreras pulled out of his June fugue with a terrific first week of July. Brice Turang is lightning on the bases. Rhys Hoskins provides thunder at the plate. Blake Perkins is improving as a right-handed hitter. Pat Murphy's favorite word is 'relentless,' and his lineup embodies that objective.

Holding the leads the relentless offense established proved to be beyond the ken of the team's depleted pitching staff. That's where their troubles lie, and how they'll need to get better this month in order to win another hard series at Dodger Stadium (if necessary) in October. We're starting to see (unsurprisingly) a bit of regression for Bryan Hudson, who is very good, because no one is as good as he was until his recent rough patch. Trying to buy back some of the bullets he spent early, Murphy was more cautious with some of his key arms this past week, but he used Hudson in back-to-back games, giving him a trial in that hard but important high-leverage reliever task. Hudson didn't pass that test, though.

Nor did Elvis Peguero or Joel Payamps look good. That's a more alarming fact than Hudson's struggles, because those two have trended in the wrong direction for much of this season. The team has enough relief pitching to get them safely through the All-Star break, but by the end of this month, they need some reinforcement. Maybe that will come when DL Hall returns from the injured list, pushing Tobias Myers into the bullpen. Maybe it will come when Devin Williams returns from the injured list later this summer. Maybe Jared Koenig will be back in the mix soon. Even given all those possibilities, though, an extra relief arm should be on Matt Arnold's shopping list--and one who can pitch in late innings with small leads, rather than another mix-and-match arm who merely soaks up lower-leverage frames.

They also need another starter, and it needs to be someone with frontline upside, rather than a Dallas Keuchel-like sponge. Aaron Civale acquitted himself nicely in his first start with a new team, facing perhaps the scariest lineup in baseball. If the Brewers see the Dodgers again in the playoffs, though, they have to tangle with that same crew, plus Mookie Betts (and, perhaps, Max Muncy). Freddy Peralta is good enough to match up with that group. Colin Rea and Civale can keep you in a game even against the full-strength Dodgers, with the Brewers' good gameplanning, great defense and a strong bullpen behind them, but you want them to appear in Games 3 and 4 in a series, rather than in Games 2 and 3. The plan should be to scour the landscape for a pitcher who slots into Game 2, or pushes Peralta there.

Sunday's resounding win was a final affirmation that the Brewers can beat the Dodgers. They're going to be better the next time they see Los Angeles, but the Dodgers will be, too. The series provided a nice distillation of the needs the Crew face, as well as some reassurance that they're capable of doing something special if they fill them.

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[Brock Beauchamp]

I had kind of lost track of what the Dodgers were doing and was surprised to see the Brewers aren't that far behind them in the standings, which means the second postseason seed (and a bye) are within reach. I wouldn't put the Brewers' odds of grabbing that spot as good but it's certainly possible.

[Jim French Stepstool]

When talking about the offense, "Blake Perkins improving as a right-handed hitter" might be under the radar, but could be extremely significant if that continues over the weeks to come. That, and Ortiz' neck issue not proving to be a chronic thing.

Hopefully he's a starter & a very good one in the future, but for the remainder of this year I see Hall as more of a LH version of Wilson or Junis out of the pen.

[Team Canada]

2 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

I had kind of lost track of what the Dodgers were doing and was surprised to see the Brewers aren't that far behind them in the standings, which means the second postseason seed (and a bye) are within reach. I wouldn't put the Brewers' odds of grabbing that spot as good but it's certainly possible.

Agreed, which is surprising because it felt noticeably different (more stressful) to me (not that I'm one of the pitchers facing them :)) trying to get through their lineup compared to other teams - reminiscent of Atlanta last year. Still, the pitching staff generally did a great job except for Will Smith, and much like the Philly series, it was encouraging in that we were right there for most of the series, even if we only won one of them.

Between Philly's pitching and LA's offense, they're both formidable teams, but you can certainly see a path toward an upset either way, or an outside chance we squeak past LA for the #2 seed.