Trending in the wrong direction as races heat up, the Brewers need to draw a line in the sand soon
ATLANTA – There are still 43 games remaining in the Milwaukee Brewers’ season, about one-quarter of their schedule.
But it’s starting to feel as if they'll need to draw a line in the sand soon, doesn’t it?
The Brewers’ long, slow hemorrhage continued Friday night with a 10-1 thumping by the Atlanta Braves, a young, exciting club with more staying power than folks projected this season. Since July 8, when the Brewers were a season-high 18 games over .500 (54-36), they have gone 12-17, a woeful .414 “winning” percentage.
That’s a month of sub-par play, and it has eroded too much of the good work the Brewers did over the first three months of the season. The lopsided loss to the Braves dropped the Brewers three games behind the first-place Chicago Cubs, who have the talent to put their collective feet on the gas at any time.
The Brewers also allowed Atlanta to join them atop the NL wild-card race, with several other clubs nipping at their heels. Yes, Milwaukee remains right in the thick of the playoff race, but it most definitely is trending in the wrong direction.
THE GAME: Five takeaways | Box score
RELATED: Soria goes on DL with groin strain
RELATED: In wild-card game, who would start for Brewers?
MLB: Live scoreboard, box scores, standings, statistics
This was the last thing the Brewers needed after the debacle at home the previous day, when closer Corey Knebel walked the bases loaded, Joakim Soria surrendered a grand slam, then headed for the disabled list, and a 4-2 lead became a heinous 8-4 loss to the last-place San Diego Padres.
The Brewers already had played one bad game in that series, turning leads of 4-0 and 5-2 into an 11-5 loss in the opener against the Padres. Had the Brewers swept that series, as they should have, this dud against the Braves would have been a mere blip on the radar screen of a long season.
But, in combination with those poorly played games at home, and the long, slow trickle of losing that began the week before the all-star break, the time has come for the Brewers to make a statement to show they’re going to remain a force until the very end.
This one became a simple exercise in baseball math. Brewers rookie Freddy Peralta couldn’t throw enough quality pitches, and the Braves teed off on him as no other team had done in his previous 10 starts.
“It was a kind of a ‘normal’ first inning in that he had to struggle through it to get his delivery going,” said manager Craig Counsell, referring to Peralta’s penchant for scuffling at the outset. “He just didn’t get the swing and miss tonight that we’re accustomed to seeing.
“Whether that was them getting to see him (for a second time this season), having a bunch of lefties in the lineup or what, he just didn’t get the swing-and-miss we’re used to seeing from him. He just faced Colorado for the second time and pitched well. It was more, to me, the action on the pitches wasn’t quite what we’ve been seeing. The swings kind of told you that.”
On the flip side, Braves starter Kevin Gausman pounded the zone, throwing 71 of 94 pitches for strikes. He kept Milwaukee’s hitters on the defensive for eight innings, holding them to one run while issuing no walks and logging eight strikeouts.
The Brewers were known to have been in on Gausman before the July 31 trade deadline, only to see him go to the Braves, who did not surrender any of their top 10 prospects to get him. So, this was one of those games certain to feed critics who wanted to know why the guy wasn’t wearing a visitor’s uniform in this game. And why the Brewers think they have enough pitching to see this thing through.
“I thought we had some good swings the first time through the lineup,” Counsell said. “As the game went on, we were 0-2 a lot in the count, because he was getting ahead, and they were 2-0, 2-1 a lot, in counts. As the game went on, his split-finger got going pretty good, and he just threw a ton of strikes.”
Peralta recorded only nine outs, forcing relievers Jordan Lyles and Adrian Houser to cover the rest of the game. Houser, who came up earlier in the day when Soria went on the DL, pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings but likely will go back down Saturday to get another fresh arm up as the Brewers continue to rotate the last spot in the bullpen.
Meanwhile, the Brewers need to stop giving back the winning margin they built over the first three months. With so many teams in the playoff hunt, you cannot assume that some won’t get hot over the final seven weeks and take charge.
As for this game, Counsell said, “There wasn’t much to write home about, really.”
A trend that can’t go on if the Brewers want to end their seven-year playoff drought.