MILWAUKEE BREWERS

Vanishing offense slows down Brewers' final playoff push despite seemingly easy schedule

Tom Haudricourt

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

So much for the “easy” part of the Brewers’ finishing schedule.

When the Brewers took two of three games from the Cubs in Chicago last week to capture their seventh consecutive series, they were set up for a strong finish, possibly even an NL Central title. They were only a game back in the division and in complete control of the wild-card standings.

Better yet, the Brewers were headed home for six games against the two worst teams in the division, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. With a 45-27 record at Miller Park at the time, you couldn’t have asked for better positioning for the final 15 games.

Then came the magic-trick offense. Now you see it, now you don’t. The Brewers took the first game from the Pirates, 7-4, then lost the next two games by scores of 3-1 and 3-2.

Led by Christian Yelich’s second cycle in less than three weeks against Cincinnati, the Brewers appeared back on track Monday night with an 8-0 romp over the Reds. But they followed that with another vanishing act Tuesday night, managing a mere three hits in a 3-1 loss.

THE GAME: 5 takeaways | Box score

MLB: Live scoreboard, box scores, standings, statistics

Just like that, things aren’t so comfy in the playoff races anymore. The Cubs breezed over the badly fading Arizona Diamondbacks for the second consecutive night, all but wrapping up the division crown by going up 3 ½ games over the Brewers, four in the loss column.

And St. Louis closed the gap in the wild-card race by romping over Atlanta, a first-place team that has forgotten how to win at home. The Cardinals now trail by only two games for the top wild-card spot, with the safety net of having a three-game series at home against the Brewers in the final week.

It’s one thing to go silent against Pittsburgh’s pitching staff, which has some formidable arms. It’s another to no-show against Cincinnati, including pitchers the Brewers have had success against in the past, including Michael Lorenzen, Sal Romano and Amir Garrett.

“We’re going to have to do better than that,” manager Craig Counsell said. “More pressure has to be put on the other team. There was nothing really happening tonight. I don’t know if we really had a significant rally all night.”

Witnesses could confirm the Brewers had none. They put more than one runner on base just once, in the second inning, when it took a two-out hit by Jonathan Schoop and error on rightfielder Scott Schebler for the home team to plate its only run.

Starter Chase Anderson turned in another inconsistent start in what has been an inconsistent season, so that puzzle hasn’t been solved, either. But pitching has been the least of the Brewers’ problems on this home stand. If you give up three runs to lower-tier teams at home while in position to go to the playoffs, that should be enough to win.

With an upcoming road series against Pittsburgh, the team Milwaukee has trouble beating (5-11), and St. Louis, the Brewers better find some offense for the series finale Wednesday night, which they need to win merely to break even on the home stand. And they’ll have to do it against Cincinnati’s best starter at present, Matt Harvey, the pitcher they tried to acquire in late August without success.

The Brewers likely will have to face Harvey without one of their best offensive weapons. Center fielder Lorenzo Cain left the game with a sore right intercostal after grounding into a double play and striking out.

“It’s been bugging him a little bit,” Counsell said. “He took some swings tonight in his second at-bat that just didn’t look good, so I took him out of the game. We’ll see how it looks tomorrow. He’s pretty adamant about wanting to play but we have to be careful with this thing, too.”

Infielder Travis Shaw also exited early after getting drilled on the side of his right knee by a Lorenzen fastball in the second inning. So, he won’t know his availability to play Wednesday night until he sees how sore and stiff the knee is in the morning.

As for the offense’s here-today, gone-tomorrow home stand, Shaw said, “I mean, we scored eight runs (Monday) night. It’s going to happen. We’re not going to score eight runs every game the rest of the year. They pitched well tonight; we had a couple of hitters come out of the game early. It was just one of those nights.”

Only the Brewers’ hitters know if they thought the Pirates and Reds wouldn’t be competing this hard while out of the playoff race. Counsell insisted his club is well aware that every game is a battle.

“We know that,” he said. “That’s how it is. That’s how it’s going to be for the rest of the year. There’s never easy games on the schedule. You don’t look at it like that.

“We have to focus on how we’re playing and we have to do a little better.”