BruisedCrew

The Brewers may not have entirely given it away, but they certainly opened the door and let the Cardinals walk in. On June 30 they had a record of 57-44 and had a 4 game lead in the division. Yes, the Cardinals got hot, but the Brewers lost 15 of 23 to fall 6 games behind. The Brewers record now is 57-43, almost identical to 2 years ago when it was thought that at least making the playoffs was a near certainty. Hopefully this team can avoid the fate of that one.

I agree that frequent batting order shuffling isn't likely to be productive. When 6 or 7 of your regulars are slumping, it's going to be difficult to string together hits and score runs regardless of what order they hit in. There's no way to know which hitter is going to hit a home run in the middle of a 3 for 30 stretch or who's going to be at the plate when you get runners on base. As for the order that scored 25 runs the last 3 games (now 17 runs in the 3 games after the break) I would note this. On Saturday, the batting order produced 1 run on something like 4 hits through 10 innings, including failing to advance the ghost runner in the 10th. They took advantage of the ghost runners, the bottom of the Twins bullpen, and a horrific misplay of a popped up sacrifice bunt attempt to score 7 runs in the last two extra innings. The Sunday order had Yelich on the bench while the runs were produced mainly by Chourio and Haase (hitting out of the 8th and 9th positions) and Hoskins hitting a HR (something he does once a week or so even when he's slumping. Maybe that would be a good order on a regular basis, but I wouldn't bank on it. Last night the order produced 1 run on only 5 hits. Since June 2., over 41 games (about a quarter of a season) the Brewers offense has produced 179 runs. That rate of 4.31 per game is 10th among the 15 NL teams, so these scoring struggles have been going on for some time. It remains to be seen if this is just a blip (albeit a fairly long one) or a result of a lineup with several players wearing down or regressing to their norms.

I guess the fact that I have lived through several seasons in which the Brewers led the division after the All Star Break and surrendered more than 6 games in the standings the rest of the way has made me think it isn’t THAT hard. As recently as 2022 the Brewers led the division by 4 games on July 30 and within 3 weeks they were 5 games behind and never got closer the rest of the way. So, I’m not going to apologize for declining to write teams off in mid July. Since July 1, the Pirates have erased 4 games off a 10 game deficit, so I’m not writing them off yet either.

False. This isn’t a two team race.

I am officially worried about the Brewers offense. Despite yesterday’s outburst there are way too many hitters in extended slumps, and if Yelich’s back problem turns him into a slap hitter again things could get even worse.

According to the box on the MLB app that was a strike, so definitely too close to take. The home plate app has nothing to do with the ineptitude of the Brewers lineup tonight.

This came up the last time the Brewers played the Cubs. Happ has had significantly less success in his career against the Brewers than against the other 3 division teams.

He can only fill,one spot.

8 men LOB total in innings 1, 3,and 4.

Considering how Murphy usually tries to avoid consecutive LH hitters it’s strange that he would bat Mitchell and Turang 9-1.

Maybe because there are precious few Brewers who have been hitting well since early June.

Two failures from the #5 hitter who doesn’t belong there.

First things first. Brewers need 1 win in this series to take the season series from the Cubs. Would be nice to get that out of the way tonight.

I wouldn't call last night's game a slugfest. 1-1 after 10 innings with very few hits and scoring chances. It took ghost runners, the dregs of the bullpens,, and some bad defense to get runs on the board.

I think concerns being expressed about the bullpen, especially the late inning reliever, are legitimate. Season long ERA becomes much less relevant when several of the pitchers who contributed to that ERA are showing signs of wear. Putting lots runners on base and giving up HRs is not a recipe for success, even though they got away with it today. Hopefully Williams can come back and be effective right away after finishing his rehab.

Had company over today so I was just following the game and not watching it. Quite a roller coaster ride but in the end a big win.

The Sunday games on Roku have also been available through MLB TV. And because this is a free weekend for MLB TV, and the game isn’t on Bally, I expect to be able to see it there. If not I expect to be able to see it through the Roku device I use to access some streaming channels.

Me either. The Twins fans who come here are much more civil than Cubs or Cardinals fans. I think it’s people who live in the areas with more heavily mixed fanbases who root strongly against the other team.

If Yelich s back is bothering him after the relatively light workload of All Star Week you have to wonder if another IL stint is coming. Now we get to see power hitting Frelick in the cleanup spot.

I think it’s fun to see the posters who contribute nothing to the game thread except to come on after the fact and go after posters who are just venting their frustration during the game. They think they are showing how they are superior to other fans, but are in fact revealing something else about themselves.

That bungled bunt play really turned this game around.

I think he was coming in for the last of the 12th regardless. Not many other options.

Is Mitchell hurt again?

Another failure to score in the top of the 10th all but guarantees another walk off loss.

There’s one for people who hate the contact play. This one might have won the game for the Twins.