Brewers at Rangers; Wednesday, September 10 @ 1:35 p.m.: Freddy Peralta (2.50 ERA, 3.56 FIP) vs. Merrill Kelly (3.16 ERA, 3.77 FIP)

[HarryDoyle]

3 minutes ago, Underachiever said:

Was in a bad mood, so after the Brewers took a 2-0 lead, I went for a long walk and listened online. Now I'm in a worse mood.

I don't listen to the radio often, but golly, these unlucky Brewers are doing nothing but scorching line drives and getting nothing while Texas has hit a series of bloops that have found grass. They called Burger's second homer a wall-scraper. Any ball that leaves the bat at 112 has the pedigree of a home run, guys. He actually said that Kelly was lucky to get out with only three runs because he gave up ten hits. He also didn't walk 2 and balk a run home like Freddy. Is that lucky?

Ugh. 

EV is overrated.

[Sixtolezcano]

2 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

If there’s still a chance to have this game, need to take advantage of the leadoff single and get a couple runs home this inning.

That DP should just about do it.

[adambr2]

4 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

If there’s still a chance to have this game, need to take advantage of the leadoff single and get a couple runs home this inning.

Or Durbin can just hit into a tailor-made double play on an 0-2 right down the middle mistake, that’s fine too I guess. 

[HarryDoyle]

It sucks having a black hole at the bottom third of your lineup.

[adambr2]

2 minutes ago, HarryDoyle said:

It sucks having a black hole at the bottom third of your lineup.

Someone brought up a good point earlier in this thread that if Joey Ortiz and his .500ish OPS is basically breaking records for how many times he’s coming up with the bases loaded, then your lineup structure kind of sucks. 

[yfinn6]

This has been a really frustrating series. They basically have done anything right, and had no luck in doing it. Some bad at bats, and when they've had good at bats they've hit it right at a fielder. The pitches to Hellman that he went deep on both times were terribly executed or poorly thought out.

Flush the series and move on, but yeah this one really angers me. 

[willie key]

You can’t get swept.     

[adambr2]

It’s amazing to me that Seigler got opportunity after opportunity and did nothing with it, Monasterio was forced into action with the Ortiz injury and did a really good job, and the moment Ortiz walked back in the door Mona has been pretty much dead to Murphy. 

[trwi7]

20 minutes ago, HarryDoyle said:

EV is overrated.

Not really.

[willie key]

Just now, yfinn6 said:

This has been a really frustrating series. They basically have done anything right, and had no luck in doing it. Some bad at bats, and when they've had good at bats they've hit it right at a fielder. The pitches to Hellman that he went deep on both times were terribly executed or poorly thought out.

Flush the series and move on, but yeah this one really angers me. 

There isn’t much left to move on to.    You have to win games still.     

[adambr2]

Only chance is to get Yelich or Vaughn to the plate and hope they run into one.

[HarryDoyle]

6 minutes ago, willie key said:

You can’t get swept.     

Well, the last time we played down there we swept them, so I guess the Rangers are just returning the favor.

[adambr2]

The Brewers better decide soon whether winning enough games to hold onto the #1 seed, or rest is more important, or the Phillies will decide for them. 

[Bacher108]

Probably the most painful loss of the season. Just got swept by the rangers when the phillies look like they may not lose another game.... ugh. Baseball is more pain than fun sometimes. 

[Nola Beery]

OK. It's not the end of the world, and you can't win every game.  But sometimes there's a game that you NEED to win to prove something, to yourselves if no one else.  This was such a game.  And getting swept by the Rangers is bad any time, any year, any way. Bughghgh!!

EDIT: and now we have to soak in it for a day off,

 

[ReverendBrewmeister]

If the Mets could come through with a win tonight or tomorrow (or both), this sweep may be more a slight bump in the road toward securing the top record.

Other than possibly the Toronto series, it hasn't been great baseball recently when playing against teams around the .500 mark or in the playoff chase (CHC, SF, AZ, PHI, TEX). Don't need to get on an absolute heater going into the playoffs, but not limping into the playoffs would also be good. Hope the home series this weekend will start a syncing process rather than create a sinking feeling.

[BruisedCrew]

There have been a number of posts on this board that have started with “If the Brewers ONLY play .500 the rest of the way…” and went on to describe how commanding their position is. Some suggested that playing .500 was a “floor” for the Brewers performance.

Now that the Brewers have gone 11-14 since the end of the 14 game winning streak, and the offense has struggled to score runs in most games, those posts should probably start “If ONLY the Brewers COULD play .500 the rest of the way….”. 

The way they have played the last 3 1/2 weeks 7-8 is no guarantee. 
 

 

[HarryDoyle]

19 minutes ago, Bacher108 said:

Probably the most painful loss of the season. Just got swept by the rangers when the phillies look like they may not lose another game.... ugh. Baseball is more pain than fun sometimes. 

The Phillies being a better team than us is a fact that has been disguised because the Brewers went on an unbeliveable heater for two months. Honestly, they deserve to be the #1 seed. Looking back now, we haven't exactly taken advantage of HFA recently so maybe it's no big deal. When's the last time we won a playoff series where we had HFA, Colorado in 2018?

[BruisedCrew]

5 minutes ago, HarryDoyle said:

The Phillies being a better team than us is a fact that has been disguised because the Brewers went on an unbeliveable heater for two months. Honestly, they deserve to be the #1 seed. Looking back now, we haven't exactly taken advantage of HFA recently so maybe it's no big deal. When's the last time we won a playoff series where we had HFA, Colorado in 2018?

How about the last time the Brewers won a playoff series when they didn’t have home field advantage?

That would be never. 

[owbc]

The most painful part of the sweep is how much the Mariners fan half of me needed those wins. 

From the Brewers side, as long as they get a bye I don't really care, it's not surprising they slumped at some point and better they do it now than later. 

[willie key]

All that matters is the bye.   Period.  That’s it.   How are they going to **** this up

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I would agree that Philly does feel like a better team. The batting order in particular just not in the same strata. I still think we end up hanging on to #1. And I think it's a lot more important than people think.

They'll have a bye. Not having a bye would mean LAD passed them, and they still play Philly. Just not going to happen.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

12 minutes ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

I would agree that Philly does feel like a better team. The batting order in particular just not in the same strata. I still think we end up hanging on to #1. And I think it's a lot more important than people think.

They'll have a bye. Not having a bye would mean LAD passed them, and they still play Philly. Just not going to happen.

Yeah, you're getting your magic number down at least two on somebody that series. Tougher schedules for the Dodgers and Phils.

Not much to say other than we just need to take care of business at home. There are 15 games left. We will have at least a 5.5 game lead in the division and at least 6.5 on the bye (plus the relevant tiebreaker). Honestly, if the Braves win tonight, this whole series is really no big deal standings-wise. Even if the Cubs get 2 of 3, we're still in a commanding position. Take advantage of the off day, remind ourselves it isn't over, and put together a strong home stand.

[oldguy]

53 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

Only chance is to get Yelich or Vaughn to the plate and hope they run into one.

Yelly came back from his resting injury and has basically done nothing.  That first K was embarrassing for a veteran.  Why wold anyone not pitch him low and away..  He's going after them. hn has hit one Been a month since Vaughn has hit one.  Truth is no one is playing great.  Murphy's resting policy is not working as everyone looks out of rhythm.  lost what, 6 of the 7 last series.  Looking like the Crew of old.

[Jim French Stepstool]

This was the series of the one ugly inning. Today the bottom of the 3rd. Texas only scored two but it really set the tone for the rest of the game. Peralta gets the 1st out, then gives up what was at the time a 'no big deal' single to left. What made it a bigger deal was he follows it w/back-to-back walks, then later the balk. Some good takes mixed in with a few of the well-known uncompetitive pitches. The type of sequence you hoped was behind him for good, but not today.

Hard to find a lot of fault with the offense today & yesterday, save for a big hit or two at the right time. Can't complain too much with 22 hits or whatever it was the last two days. Yelich continues to amaze me though. Hits 3-4 balls hard yesterday, hits a screamer today in the 1st, then looks mostly lost in his final three ABs. Had an AB where he K'd on four pitches, none of them strikes. Just strange.

BP is in good shape, all things considered. It's to the point where you wanted Koenig & Uribe used today if there was a lead.

One last thing-----it would've been nice this week if Bochy had mentioned to us that he was going to have Willie Mays playing CF & hitting 9th.