Milwaukee Brewers take second in a row of four vital games
By Rick Soisson
In a crucial stretch of games, the Milwaukee Brewers have hit the right time to get hot.
With a largely friendly schedule after Sept. 12, and after taking the first two of three recent games against the San Francisco Giants, it became clear the Milwaukee Brewers fate for the post-season could depend on the finale with the Giants and the following three-game series with the Chicago Cubs.
Craig Counsell’s squad took the third game against the Giants’ Madison Bumgarner, 6-3, on Sept. 9. This was principally as a result of Jonathan Schoop’s grand slam following a stare-down contest between Frisco’s lefty and Ryan Braun, Braun’s being hit by a pitch, and about 40 people being ejected from game after a lot of yelling.
In Monday’s opener in Chicago, Wade Miley, one of those ejected Sunday, went out to face the Cubs’ Jon Lester. Sweeping San Francisco moved the Brewers to 20 games over .500 for the first time since 2011, but the team needed to win the series in Chicago to be in the best position possible for their soft concluding schedule.
Miley had beaten the Cubs Sept. 4, giving up only one run in six innings and getting ten outs on grounders. Going into Monday’s game, he had given up only three home runs in his 68 2/3 innings this season. Some considered this figure uncanny, and it certainly represented a better percentage (4.4) than he’d ever posted in his career. (In his age-25 season, he gave up homers in 7.2 percent of his innings for Arizona.)
Lester is Lester, a five-time All-Star, and runner-up for the Cy Young award two years ago.
But while Miley had missed a great deal of time this year, mostly with an oblique injury, his ERA, WHIP and FIP figures were superior to Lester’s before Monday night. Miley’s curve, change-up and, to an extent, cutter generate groundballs. Lester, despite a 15-5 record, is something of a fly ball pitcher.
Through six innings, things went reasonably well for the Brewers, but it was, as iGen says so frequently, “stressful.” Miley was getting ground balls early, but one turned into a 4-3 RBI out in Chicago’s first for Anthony Rizzo. Milwaukee scratched out two runs themselves on a sacrifice fly by Schoop and an RBI single by Orlando Arcia in the first and second, respectively; then Kris Bryant’s sac fly tied the game in the bottom of the fifth.
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In the sixth the Brewers scored on a wild pitch by reliever Carl Edwards, and Milwaukee turned to relievers to protect a 3-2 lead.
Corbin Burnes, Josh Hader, and Jeremy Jeffress did just that, dominating the Cubs over four scoreless innings. Burnes surrendered the lone hit over that stretch. Hader struck out all six batters he faced, and Jeffress struck out two of his four.
Most managers aren’t entirely pleased when they have to send out relievers after only five innings. Counsell, however, can run out three Milwaukee Brewers whose ERAs are now 2.79 or lower, including a closer whose ERA is 1.41, so he can be far less worried than most. Also, after his winning pitcher Monday threw 59.3 percent of his pitches for strikes, his relievers threw 67.7 percent. That sort of jump never hurts while batters trailing in a game are looking for that perfect pitch to hit.
Brewers players weekend nicknames explained. dark. Next
The Milwaukee Brewers moved to within a game of the Cubs with Monday’s win, and seem to be in an excellent position for the final 17 games of their NL Central pennant chase with a very strong pitching staff.