After Their Two Greatest Strengths Cracked Under Pressure, Brewers Must Respond Better

[Jack Stern]

An untimely and uncharacteristic showing on multiple fronts has the Brewers staring down a repeat of failed postseasons of the past.

Image courtesy of © Benny Sieu-Imagn Images

There is never a singular reason for a win or a loss in baseball. One can point to several shortcomings that contributed to the Brewers falling to the Mets in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series on Tuesday night. Freddy Peralta immediately gave away an early 2-0 lead, instead of responding with a shutdown inning. Rhys Hoskins bounced into a rally-killing double play with runners on the corners in the bottom of the third. Willy Adames went 0-for-3 with three infield popouts, seemingly trying to hit a statement home run with every swing after an on-field argument with Jesse Winker.

A disastrous top of the fifth inning was the headliner, though. The energy evaporated from American Family Field as more than 40,000 onlookers watched two of the home club’s greatest strengths crumble at the worst possible moment.

Run prevention has been the Brewers’ specialty for years. While more than just pitching and defense carried this team through a successful regular season, the two attributes were arguably its most consistent.

The Brewers’ second opportunity for a shutdown inning began with Jackson Chourio robbing Starling Marte of extra bases with a leaping grab at the left-field wall. After that, the pitching and defense melted down.

Joel Payamps, summoned for the inning in relief of Peralta, surrendered a second straight hard-hit ball to the next batter, ex-Brewer Tyrone Taylor. Chourio misplayed this one into a double. Payamps recorded the second out, but continued to labor, walking Francisco Lindor on five pitches, four of which weren't even in the neighborhood of the strike zone.

Despite his rough performance, though, Payamps still had a chance to log a scoreless inning when José Iglesias hit a ground ball to first base. Hoskins smothered it, but Payamps watched him make the stop before breaking to cover the bag. Iglesias beat him there for a game-tying infield hit.

That mistake opened the floodgates. Aaron Ashby entered to face Brandon Nimmo, who reached on an infield single to load the bases. Adames, who was shaded toward second base, ranged to his right and gloved the ball as he slid to his knees, but could not transfer it to his throwing hand. It wasn’t an easy play, but it’s likely converted by past versions of Adames, who has played the worst defense of his career this year.

Ashby would not retire a batter, allowing two more hits, throwing a wild pitch, and issuing one unintentional walk. He threw just eight of his 18 pitches for strikes.

When Nick Mears entered as the third reliever of the inning, the Brewers trailed 8-4. The score held there, as Milwaukee dropped its sixth straight playoff game and the 10th of its last 11. For the second consecutive year, they entered the Wild Card Series as the No. 3 seed and were promptly sucker punched to the brink of elimination.

It happened for numerous reasons, the most prominent being the implosion of the roster’s greatest aptitudes. Still, many fingers pointed to Murphy as a catalyst for pulling Peralta – who retired each of the final nine batters he faced – after four innings.

That’s redirecting blame from where the brunt of it belongs. Murphy’s bullpen management at times warranted valid criticism throughout the regular season, but he governed the staff correctly in Game 1.

Peralta tossed a pair of quick innings, but was not in his best form. Inconsistent command produced several unintentionally low fastballs, and the hesitancy of Peralta and William Contreras to throw his breaking stuff as often as usual against a heavily right-handed lineup hinted he lacked feel for those pitches. He was also approaching a point in the start where he has historically struggled.

“It had been an emotional 70 pitches,” Murphy explained. “What’s he got, 20 left? He’s usually between 83 and 90 when he kind of loses a little bit on his fastball. I didn’t want him to face those guys three times around.”

The Brewers had just reclaimed the lead in the middle innings, and needed a shutdown frame to launch themselves toward the win for which they had positioned themselves well. Peralta had already failed to deliver one, was a coin flip to have his best stuff, and had a third trip through the top of the Mets order looming if anyone reached base. Giving a clean inning to Payamps (with Ashby waiting in the wings) was the sensible decision for holding the lead. The former allowed earned runs in just two of his final 30 regular-season outings, and the latter posted a 1.37 ERA and 0.78 FIP in 19 ⅔ relief innings after a late-August promotion.

Murphy knows Peralta’s shortcomings as a starting pitcher. He knows that his bullpen is a strength. He rightfully had a quick hook and was unafraid to enforce it.

Unfortunately, his players failed to execute the blueprint that was incredibly successful in the regular season. Moreover, they did so while exhibiting a glaring absence of an attribute Murphy deemed necessary for his team to succeed in the playoffs.

During the final weekend of the regular season, Murphy spoke about the need to respond “immediately” and “meet the game halfway.” Players will make mistakes, he said. It’s part of the game. The key is being ready for the next pitch and the next play.

Isolated mistakes can be more costly in the postseason, but no World Series winner plays perfect baseball throughout the entirety of October. Case in point: even after Chourio’s misplay and multiple well-struck balls against Payamps, he would have escaped with a scoreless inning had he simply broken for first on contact. Things went south for the Brewers when the mistakes snowballed.

No one could see inside the minds of the players after each mistake. Everyone could see what outwardly transpired on the field. Whether the Brewers let the failure of the previous play and the previous pitch bleed into the next, the bottom line is that they did not meet the next opportunity.

The rest of the team could have picked up Chourio after his misplay. Instead, Payamps was late in covering first base. Ashby could have responded to Nimmo’s infield hit by bearing down with more competitive pitches. Instead, his control worsened, and the bleeding continued.

“What I think happened is the game sped up on him a little bit,” Murphy said.

The Brewers then failed to rise to the occasion on the other side of the ball. An offense that prides itself on sound swing decisions drew just two walks and chased 30% of pitches it saw outside the strike zone – the antithesis of how Murphy preaches "meeting the game halfway" to hitters. Seventeen straight Milwaukee hitters were retired to end the game, allowing Luis Severino to complete six innings despite his early struggles and preventing the Brewers from pouncing on an overworked Mets bullpen.

Teams can have uncharacteristic showings in the regular season with less consequence. There’s more time to respond during a 162-game schedule. It must be immediate in a short playoff series.

It was not on Tuesday, and the result was another postseason loss. Now the Brewers must answer back in Game 2. If they don’t, it will be another early and demoralizing playoff exit for an organization that speaks frequently of its greater aspirations of a World Series championship.

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[Kripes - Brewers]

Well, it's not like we didn't see this one coming. The staff on this site had me well-prepared for what Freddy should've been doing, which was throwing heat up at the top and above the zone. That did not happen. He played around in the lower third of the plate much too often. He probably should've been pulled early in the 2nd inning, before surrendering the early 2 run lead. Civale could've come in right there, as it was pretty clear Freddy was having one of his "off" starts by that point already.

And exactly why was Frelick playing darn near in center when Winker came up? Dude is a lefty pull hitter and he hit one right down the line for a triple. Sorry, just frustrated man. That was tough to watch.