Milwaukee Brewers gut Phillies in early series between contenders

The Series Rolls Downhill for the Phillies

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Starting the evening of May 14, the Milwaukee Brewers piled up 22 runs to the Phillies’ six, hitting six home runs, and batting .292 with runners in scoring position. For the entire series, those figures were seven and .315. (Putative ace Nola lasted only three innings in the opener May 13.)

Christian Yelich hit .375 for the series, with two home runs on the 16th; Ryan Braun hit .538 in the four games. Mike Moustakas and Yasmani Grandal each had two homers in the series. In contrast, the Phillies figures in the series were three home runs and .185 with runners in scoring position. Two of their homers were hit by singles expert Jean Segura.

We don’t even want to get into a general pitching comparison, except to say the Phillies, in this series, lost to Gio Gonzalez, who has mysteriously managed to win 129 MLB games. Oh, and Zach Eflin, the Phillies most consistently effective pitcher this season, gave up four earned runs Thursday afternoon, raising his ERA to 2.89.

After the loss on May 16, Phillies manager Gabe Kapler pushed back on a reporter’s question that suggested the Milwaukee Brewers are a better team “on paper,” but he may have fallen into a trap there. “On paper” doesn’t count except in the box scores.