Brewers offense remains stuck in neutral

The starting pitching has been spotty. The bullpen has begun leaking oil.

But the main culprit in the Milwaukee Brewers' season-high, seven-game losing streak as manager Craig Counsell sees it has been an inconsistent and largely impotent offense.

It was on display again on Friday night when Milwaukee's hitters were limited to one run on five hits over six innings by veteran left-hander Rich Hill, then failed to deliver a couple key hits late in an eventual 6-4 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers at Miller Park.

It's been nearly three years since the Brewers have been in the throes of such a lengthy losing streak, and two weeks since they've been able to string together consecutive victories.

As a result they've gone from 2 1/2 games ahead of the Chicago Cubs in the National League Central to three games back with the second half just beginning.

They failed to land baseball's biggest trade target in Manny Machado, who just so happened to get on base in each of his first four plate appearances for the Dodgers, but other, potentially less impactful moves could be in the offing.

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In the meantime the Brewers will have to figure out a way to get the bats going once again.

"We've got to score more runs," Counsell said. "The bottom line is we're not scoring enough runs. We're playing often behind through this stretch. We haven't been able to play with a lead much. Early in the games, very rarely have we played with a lead in this stretch.

"We can point to a lot of things right now when you're in a losing streak like this. There's a lot of things that can get a little bit better."

Milwaukee is averaging just 3.3 runs per game during its current losing streak.

Injuries to Eric Thames, Ryan Braun and Jonathan Villar haven't helped. Neither has the continued ineffectiveness from spots 6-9 in the lineup, which has more often than not served as an offensive black hole.

"I think it's just been a little bit of everything," is how Christian Yelich – one of three all-star position players who has been contributing more than his fair share at the top of the lineup along with Lorenzo Cain and Jesús Aguilar.

"I think we've scored runs in a loss, we haven't scored runs in a loss, had leads in a loss. It's been tough for us, but you're going to go through these stretches, like we were saying in Pittsburgh.

"Obviously we didn't get off to the start we wanted in the second half, but you've just got to keep grinding, keep plugging away and it will turn for us eventually."

Making multiple errors on the base paths in the same inning certainly isn't the way to jump-start a struggling offense, yet that was the case for the Brewers in the fifth on Friday.

Manny Piña singled to open the inning and Keon Broxton walked to bring up starting pitcher Wade Miley, who slashed a single to center against a drawn-in infield.

Third-base coach Ed Sedar held Piña up at third but Broxton didn't realize it until it was too late, and he was quickly tagged out after he was caught too far off second base.

Then two batters later Yelich ripped a double to right that could have given the Brewers the lead, but Miley was thrown out by a half-step at home thanks to a terrific relay by the Dodgers.

Inning over, and the Brewers had to settle for a 1-1 game rather than having the bases loaded with nobody out and their top three hitters in Cain, Yelich and Aguilar coming up.

"We're missing some guys but I also think that can't be the excuse to not score runs," Counsell said. "We have to find a way to have good at-bats and to limit our mistakes. When you have a little less margin for error, the mistakes get highlighted a little bit. They did tonight.

"That inning was bases-loaded with nobody out and it turns into different inning. Those are the kind of mistakes that are haunting us right now."

The Dodgers opened their lead up to 3-1 in the seventh, then Aguilar hit a solo homer in the eighth to cut it to 3-2.

A three-run homer for Los Angeles in the ninth made it a 6-2 game. A two-out triple to right in the bottom of the frame drew the Brewers to within 6-4 and brought the tying run to the plate in the form of Aguilar, but he struck out against Kenley Jansen.

Things don't figure to get any easier for the Brewers' offense, either, with Clayton Kershaw taking the mound for the Dodgers on Saturday.

"There’s a little sense of urgency," said Miley, who aside from being thrown out at home didn't allow an earned run in six innings. "It’s not like we’re just flat-out playing bad baseball. Rich Hill threw the ball great tonight. He throws the curveball and mixes speeds.

"This game’s hard. We just have to keep grinding away, chipping away, and things will turn around."