Brewers Tested Immediately Amid Historically Rough Start

“A really long way to go,” Christian Yelich said of the Brewers’ season-opening sweep by the Yankees in New York. “Even if we were 3-0 right now, it wouldn’t really mean a whole lot. You’ve just got to keep going.”

Yelich was right. Performances in small samples do not elicit as many strong reactions during the middle of a season, but fall under the microscope at the start of the year. Either way, they are rarely worth fretting over.

However, after a third straight non-competitive blowout dropped the Brewers to 0-4, the club is already facing challenges that last year’s team did not—ones that could sink their season quickly, without a prompt and proper response.

The day began with the news that Aaron Civale will miss time due to a left hamstring strain, reducing what initially seemed like a durable and experienced rotation to just two established starters three games into the season. It ended with candid remarks by Pat Murphy on the state of his run-prevention unit, which has surrendered 43 runs in its last three games.

“We’re decimated on the mound,” he said. “I’ve made it clear who was going to be on the team, who’s injured, building up, et cetera. A number of guys who don’t have that much experience [now have to pitch].”

Even so, there’s no excuse for the results so far. Losing streaks and team-wide lulls are typical of a long season, even for great clubs. Repeated blowouts out of the gates are not.

“Losing’s not fun,” said spot starter Elvin Rodríguez, who allowed four runs in as many innings in his regular-season debut. “Nobody is happy we’ve been losing.”

A hallmark of last year’s team was its ability to respond quickly when health and performance began tipping in the wrong direction. That capability (along with some good fortune at the right moments) kept the Brewers from losing more than three games in a row at any point in 2024. This year’s group has already seen that streak end, and is facing an extreme test of its relentlessness.

It’s early, but it’s not overly dramatic to say the Brewers are in precarious territory, and their response this week could dictate the trajectory of their season. There is little room, if any, to let things snowball further and bounce back to meet their initial expectations.

According to Stathead, at -32 runs, Milwaukee just set a new MLB record for the worst run differential through the first four games of a season. The previous record holder, the 1978 Baltimore Orioles, finished with a 90-71 record, but only 10 of 37 teams with an initial run differential of -19 or worse finished above .500, and only three made the postseason.

Players may not admit it to the cameras, but starting so dreadfully brings with it a greater mental burden than non-competitive midseason performances. While not an unconquerable hurdle, rough starts can drag down stats and records for weeks, and seeing those numbers every night on a video board does not make the job easier on the field. Moving past them to focus on the process is mandatory, but difficult.

“You can point fingers and start blaming things, and it’s just not healthy,” Murphy said. “We’re all in kind of an ugly state when you don’t get the result you want. And you get so emotionally attached to that result, you get away from what you really should be attached to, which is the process.

“You talk about the pitching separately from the offense… it all affects each other,” he elaborated. “When you’re down, can you steal, can you put the ball on the ground, hit and run? Can you do those types of things that made us a strong offense? It’s kind of discouraging for [hitters], so it’s really hard. And then you play lackluster defense. All sorts of things are related to each other, so we’ve got to get off to a good start. We haven’t done that.”

Playing tense won’t turn things around, and it’s still too soon to press the panic button. That said, this team’s identity, good or bad, could solidify in the coming days.