BruisedCrew

True enough, but they have been playing pretty well recently, including winning series against some playoff contenders (Braves, Reds, Orioles). they seem to be enjoying their spoiler role, and they have some hitters who can spoil things.

It will be interesting to see what the Brewers have planned for their SP in this series and the remainder of the season. Will they stick with the current 6 man rotation this week but then use the off day next Monday to skip the 6th man? Or will they start pitching the starters on 4 days rest like many other teams do routinely? Sticking with the 6 day rotation would produce the following starters: @SL- Peralta, TBD, Houser, Miley @Mia- Burnes, Woodruff, Peralta SL- Houser, Miley, Burnes Cubs- Woodruff, Peralta, Houser (or TBD or bullpen) The thing I like about this approach is that it keeps the starters on 5 days rest, and would set up Burnes, Woodruff, and Peralta to be the starters in the playoff games on 4 days rest. If the Brewers could clinch the division quickly enough, those last starts could be shortened to keep the pitchers in rhythm without overtaxing them. The only downsides to this would be (1) using a 6th starter for one of the games in this Cardinal series, and (2) having Houser or Miley or a combination of the 2 in the final game of the season if it becomes a winner take all battle for the division. With the lead the Brewers currently have, if the division race comes down to the last day the Brewers would be on the verge of a monumental (though not historically unprecedented) collapse. It doesn't make sense to me to tinker with things now to prepare for that possibility. If the Brewers do have the division clinched before the last game I would expect that game to be used to give several pitchers who might need it an inning or two of work.

When Wainright was getting batted around this season, I had a feeling he would be going for number 200 against the Brewers in this series. What could be more appropriate than going against a team that has been one of his favorite victims over the years (21-14 with an ERA of 2.74). Peralta is going to have his work cut out for him tonight. The Cardinals offense (which has been pretty good recently) is going to be focused on scoring enough runs to get Wainwright the win, even if he doesn’t baffle the Brewers for the needed 5 innings. Even though he’s had a couple of decent outings recently, anything less than 3 or 4 runs off of Wainwright and his ERA near 8 has to be considered a failure.

Rea was optioned to Nashville so unless they can cook up a fake injury I don’t think he can be back for this series.

I realize that the team is playing well. I also realize more than a lot of posters seem to that you can’t use the same relievers every game or even every other game. But when you are facing a pitcher with an ERA, over 5 and the relievers at the bottom of the bullpen pecking order do the job, that is a very disappointing loss. Especially this late in the season with an opportunity to wrap up the division with time to spare to set up the team for the playoffs. I’m not comforted by “you can’t win them all” or “they won the series” when playing against a relatively weak team.

Why? Teams do put together winning streaks of 10 games and longer. It really hurts to lose two games on consecutive Sundays where they wasted exceptional pitching performances because they can’t scratch out a run here or there, even when gifted a runner in second base to start the innings. And there was no Cole on the mound today.

When I saw Perkins in the lineup on another site I wondered if Yelich was going on the IL. With Yelich and Anderson that’s two guys who aren’t likely to be used for anything today. Hard to argue with Wiemer being sent down.

Great moment. Especially the way the momentum of the game had swung against them.

Bullpen has been used heavily the last couple of days. Burnes struggling in the sixth is not what they needed.

How many of those rookies made their only appearances in September when rosters expanded to 40, which doesn’t happen anymore? I honestly have never heard of, or at least don’t remember several of them as Brewers Also, rookies playing on teams with no playoff aspirations is less notable. Except for Jones, all of the rookies this year had significant roles.

I didn’t hear anything. It might just have been a defensive replacement because he has had the back soreness. But seeing the way he swung the bat tonight it’s hard to believe that he’s feeling great. It hurts me watching some of those swings he took tonight. I love Yelich but he isn’t helping the team much right now. I keep looking for signs that good Yelich might come back again this season, but time is running short. Taylor has contributed a lot more the last few weeks.

Yelich swings like he still has a sore back.

Not looking like the start of a Brewers sweep.

It seems like they are trying to give him a chance to show that he can be a significant contributor, but he really hasn’t done that yet.

It’s not a hallucination. Since the ASB the Nats are 29-28, which is better than all of the 4 teams fighting for the last wild card spot. But, after winning 25 of their first 40 games after the break (very competent) they have now lost 13 of 17. Without being greedy, looking at the state of the teams and the pitching matchups, this looks like a golden opportunity for a sweep. Anything less than 2 of 3 would be a major disappointment. It would be helpful to get Yelich and Canha back and producing ASAP. I was at yesterday’s game and that lineup (missing what should be their 1, 3, and 4 hitters) was not too encouraging. Yelich, Santana, and Canha replacing Wiemer, Tellez, and Turang (at least against LHP) would look a lot better. I would be looking for a way to keep Taylor in the lineup in the short term. Has anyone had more big hits than he has this month?

OK, make it 3 out of 4 and one game where the SP started handing out walks like Trick or Treat candy.

I wonder if they will just use 5 starters over the next 10 games before the off day or if they will still go with 6. If they go with 5 and then use the off day they would have some options of how to handle the last 6 games depending on how the standings look.

When you look at the games the Brewers have lost since they left LA, they have been in all of them. They are 16-7 in that stretch and the scores of the games they’ve lost have been 1-0, 3-2, 4-2, 4-2, 5-4, 4-3, and 2-0. So, in those 7 games they have given up only 23 runs, but have scored only 13, an average of just under 2 a game. And the 3 runs in extra innings on Sunday with the free runner come with an asterisk, especially because they failed to score in two innings even with the runner in second to start. In the 16 wins they have scored 117 runs or 7.3 per game. Until Tuesday’s 3-1 game they had not scored fewer than 5 runs in any win. Because of this pattern, whenever I sit down to watch a Brewer game these days (as I will be at the stadium this afternoon) my first question is “will the Brewers score more than a run or two today” It’s also why some Brewers fans get a little antsy when they show signs of a hitting slump like they have in their last 3 games against major league caliber SP.

I’ll probably be accused of being a Cardinal lover or something else, but the Cardinals have been looking better recently, winning 7 of their last 10 including series wins over the Braves, Reds, and Orioles, all on the road. Can’t take anything for granted.

While the end was glorious, it was one of the most stressful games ever watched. I don’t want to think about what would have happened if Ben Oglivie hasn’t come up with that sliding catch to protect the 5-2 lead in the last of the 8th. The 5 runs the Brewers added in the top of the ninth were truly glorious.

As was covered in yesterday’s game thread, though a 4 game lead with 17 games left is a nice spot to be in, that lead can be more perilous because of the final 3 game series against the Cubs. From the Cubs’ perspective all they have to do is gain one game in the next two weeks and they will then control their own destiny in the final series. Brewers fans who were around in 1982 know how stressful those final weekends can be when a 4 game lead with 5 games to play turns into a winner take all struggle on the last day.

I did not go back and look at the game by game results, so wasn’t referring specifically to September 13. One big difference between this year and 2018 was that the Brewers were done playing the Cubs by mid September so they needed more help to make up ground. I did go back and look at the results now, and am reminded that the Brewers followed up their final series against the Cubs by losing 3 of 5 to fall 3.5 games back with just 10 games to play and no head to head games to help. I know that at that time the focus was much more on the wild card spots.

It’s hard to say what Mitchell would be like after almost 5 months of inactivity.

Maybe at this precise time, but I remember them being a little farther back at other times in the month and the focus was much more on getting a wild card spot than winning the division. Especially once the Brewers had no games left against the Cubs.

But he won’t be solving any problems coming in that late.