Notes: Hitting coach Darnell Coles says hitters have not lost focus during Brewers' slump

There are few things more frustrating for a team than a prolonged offensive funk that makes scoring runs a huge challenge. The Milwaukee Brewers have been mired in one for nearly a month, but hitting coach Darnell Coles says he has not seen players losing focus or showing signs of significant stress.

“The guys are still working," Coles said Thursday. "I don’t think anybody’s running from what it is. Most importantly, we understand as a group we’ve got to stay together, stay connected.

“Each individual guy is giving a great effort. It’s just a matter of getting a couple hits in key situations to feel good about yourself again. And keep the ball going.”

The Brewers had little trouble scoring runs in the first half and roared into the break with a 50-41 record and 5½ game lead over the defending champion Chicago Cubs in the NL Central. But, since beating Philadelphia, 9-6, in the first game after the break, the offense has gone stone cold, scoring three or fewer runs 18 times in 24 games entering Thursday.

As a result, the Brewers fell 1½ games back and into a second-place tie with St. Louis before their series finale against Minnesota at Miller Park. And it would have been worse if not for a recent slide by the Cubs, losers of six of eight games.

The Brewers were greatly reliant on home runs to score in the first half, and one of the issues is that the home-run rate slowed significantly. And, as often happens during team slumps, Coles said the hitters haven’t had a ton of luck when they did square up the ball.

BOX SCORE: Twins 7, Brewers 2

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“There’s a lot of luck involved; there’s a lot of work involved,” he said. “When you’re swinging the bats as well as we were earlier, that’s a byproduct of the same work they’re putting in now. Just not having as many balls fall in.”

Coles said he doesn’t think the pressure of unexpectedly being in the playoff race ahead of schedule has gotten to the players.

“We have struggled the last three weeks but that hasn’t been a byproduct of guys not working hard or things changing, or guys deciding it’s less important,” he said. “There have been some surprises as far as expectations outside of our locker room. But, at the end of the day, the expectation and the bar that counts is the one we’ve set.

“We’re raising the standard. There’s no ceiling on the standard. We’ve just got to continue to work hard and get through what we’re going through now. It’s been a struggle but we’ve got to continue to battle. That struggle will make you better in the long run.”

As for the team’s relative inexperience, Coles said, “I’m not even playing that card. This is the big leagues. These guys understand the magnitude of playing in major-league games. The games we play in April are just as important as games we’re playing in September.

“You win together; you stay connected. That’s what we’ve done. When you’re losing, it’s just finding a way to win the next game. At the end of the day, I’m big on accountability, so it falls on me. We’ve just got to figure out a way to get it done.”

Trying everything: Manager Craig Counsell has tried many changes in his lineup in hopes of getting things turned around. He made another change when he elevated shortstop Orlando Arcia, one of his few hot hitters, from the bottom third of the batting order to second.

“One of the things we’ve struggled with is at second base, obviously, and first base. The production has dropped there as well,” Counsell said. “Those guys have been hitting atop the lineup for a big chunk of the season.

“(Ryan Braun) has been in a little bit of a hot streak but we haven’t got a lot of guys on base for him, unfortunately. We’re just trying to find some base runners for Braunie and Travis (Shaw), really.

“We’ve got to get through this. You try some little tweaks here and there, but these are the guys. These are the position players that scored a whole bunch of runs earlier in the season. We’ve switched the lineup around a little bit but they’re all going to have to score runs, collectively. We need to put good at-bats together on the same night.”

The Brewers hit a new low Wednesday when they were shut out by 44-year-old Bartolo Colón, who entered the game with a 7.32 ERA.

“When you get shut out, that’s frustrating,” Counsell said. “Everybody is frustrated by that. But the nature of this is you get to attack it the next day, and it’s one swing away. You always feel it’s one swing away. That’s how they treat it, and I think that’s the right way to treat it.”