From start to finish, it was an ugly afternoon for the Brewers in nearly every area

Sometimes, baseball games are just ugly.

That’s how it went for the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday in their 4-1 loss to Philadelphia at Miller Park. The euphoria of a 13-2 romp over the Phillies the night before quickly evaporated, in large part because of right-hander Zach Eflin, who for the second consecutive weekend had his way with Milwaukee’s hitters.

“He’s a good pitcher,” said Travis Shaw, who knocked in the Brewers’ only run with a single in the first inning when Eflin left a 0-2 changeup in the hitting zone. “He locates well, pretty good changeup. His fastball plays to both sides of the plate. He goes right after hitters and gets ahead (in the count).

“He’s pitched good against us twice now (including a 4-3 victory the previous Sunday).”

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The Brewers, who managed only five hits, were fortunate this one didn’t get more lopsided. They walked 10 hitters, their highest total in over two years, and combined with nine hits, Philly should have put more runs across the plate. Going 2 or 14 with runners in scoring position was basically the only thing the visitors did wrong.

There’s always one pitcher in the rotation who gets little offensive support and this year that pitcher has been Junior Guerra for the Brewers. Other than surrendering two bases-empty home runs, he deserved a better fate in dropping to 3-5 despite a 2.89 earned run average.

Down, 2-1, Guerra wanted to stay in after issuing a one-out walk to Scott Kingery in the sixth but manager Craig Counsell had other ideas. He summoned left-hander Boone Logan, insisting it was the right move despite Logan scuffling badly (2.032 WHIP) since missing the first six weeks of the season with a triceps strain.

“It’s a left-handed hitter (Nick Williams), a switch-hitter (Andrew Knapp) who you want hitting right-handed, the pitcher’s spot and a left-hander (J.P. Crawford, batting ninth),” Counsell explained of the move.

“That’s a spot where we are down one (run) in the game and that’s the spot Boone has got to get outs in.”

The only problem with that logic is that Logan’s splits have been completely reversed thus far this season. Left-handed hitters are batting .409 (9 for 22) against him and righties .250 (6 for 24). Yes, that’s a relatively small sample size but it is the way things have gone over Logan’s 16 outings.

“It’s against everything he’s done in his career,” Counsell said of those splits. “So far, it has been that way. He’s gotten some right-handers out a bit.”

Logan got off on the wrong foot when Williams sent a 1-1 slider the other way and into left-center for a double, putting runners on second and third. After Logan struck out the switch-hitting Knapp, the Brewers opted to walk pinch-hitter Maikel Franco, a right-handed hitter, to load the bases.

Logan had to throw strikes to Crawford, a .195 hitter, but walked him on a 3-2 slider that was low to force in a run. César Hernández followed with an infield hit that scored another run to make it 4-1, and that was all for Logan.

The first run was charged to Guerra so Logan was left with a 5.91 ERA. He has allowed 15  hits and 10 walks in only 10 2/3 innings, and just has not been able to get going since opening on the DL despite logging 14 strikeouts.

“He’s got 10 innings, so we don’t have a big sample but these are the outs that we need him to get,” Counsell said. “No question. This is his job and it has to be his role to get these outs. We are down and it’s a heavy left-handed section of the lineup, and it’s got to set up good for him.”

Asked if he should give Logan less stressful situations until he gets going in the right direction, such as Friday night when he entered in the ninth inning with a 13-1 lead and surrendered a home run to the first batter he faced, Counsell said, “No, I don’t think we can have less tight spots. If you function as a member (of the bullpen), you’ve got to be able to pitch in those spots.”

Asked if that meant he would continue to use Logan in tight situations, Counsell gave what seemed an ambiguous answer.

“I think we’ve got to get outs in those situations, yeah," he said.

With only one run on the board, even had Logan been perfect, it wouldn’t have been enough for the Brewers. He has a long track record in the majors, which normally gives players a longer leash, so we’ll see how things play out with the veteran reliever.

As little as the Brewers did right in this one, thanks to the Phillies leaving a small village of 15 on the bases, the home team had a chance for some drama in the eighth when they put two on with one out. But Seranthony Dominguez, a young pitcher with a great name and a great arm, struck out Eric Thames and Christian Yelich on nasty sliders, and that was that.

For the Brewers, this one stayed ugly until the end.