Brewers Still Showing 'Resiliency' Amid Marathon Stretch of Games

The second half of August has been a grind for the Brewers. Amid a stretch of 19 games in 18 days, they’ve looked recently like a team running on fumes. Their defense hasn’t been nearly as sharp as it usually is. Their bullpen is stretched thin. On top of it all, the luck-based regression that loomed as nearly everything went right during a 14-game winning streak has started to hit.

“Guys are tired and banged up,” Pat Murphy said on Tuesday night.

For the second straight night, the Brewers jumped out to an early 6-0 lead against the Arizona Diamondbacks Tuesday, only for shaky defense and pitching to cede much of that breathing room and create late-inning drama.

An Andrew Vaughn misplay in the fourth inning contributed to an eventual Gabriel Moreno three-run home run off Jacob Misiorowski. Tobias Myers and Jared Koenig, thrust into multi-inning duty with Trevor Megill, Abner Uribe, and Nick Mears off-limits, combined to allow five runs without much help in the field.

And yet, as they have throughout most of the year, the Brewers made it out with a win by refusing to quit. Andruw Monasterio, filling in at shortstop for the injured Joey Ortiz, made a clunky-looking but pivotal diving stop in the top of the ninth to help Shelby Miller through a scoreless inning. William Contreras led off the bottom half with a single, and Christian Yelich and Vaughn worked walks to load the bases.

That set the stage for Isaac Collins, who misplayed a Corbin Carroll would-be flyout into a double with Koenig on the mound an inning prior, to drive in the winning run with a walk-off sacrifice fly.

“I thought we showed tremendous poise and resiliency,” Murphy said. “I'm going to hand it to the guys, man, the at-bats in the last inning.”

“Resiliency is the best way to describe it,” Collins said. “We're on a stretch here of [19] games in [18] days, whatever it is. So to be able to get a win like tonight in the middle of that stretch is just a testament to the type of guys we have here.”

Those guys have been a mix of younger players who have grown from experience and outcasts who have taken advantage of opportunities. Murphy noted pregame on Tuesday that Sal Frelick and Brice Turang, who continued his August power binge with another home run, are transitioning from inexperienced players to veterans, an observation he revisited hours later.

“You look at the guys that do have some veteran status in Frelick, Yelich, Contreras, Turang—those guys have stepped up, and the other guys are scrapping. They're doing whatever.”

It’s not the first time a Murphy team has refused to back down from challenges. It was a theme last year. Now it’s helped the Brewers go 7-6 so far in this stretch, and a palatable 5-6 since their franchise-record 14 straight wins ending on August 16.

“I can't tell you how proud I am of the way they compete,” Murphy said. “That's all they can do. They can't make plays that they can't make. They can't be expected to never make a mistake.”

“There’s no quit at all. They don't take plays off,” Miller said. “It's like that every day. I think the guys come in ready to play, so it's a fun group to be a part of, for sure.”

The Brewers are not out of the woods yet. A marathon August continues. After a close loss Wednesday night, they have one more game against the Diamondbacks and three games in Toronto against the Blue Jays, who boast the second-best record in the American League. Until a much-needed off day, all they can do is remain resilient.