As Jesús Aguilar looks for first home run, Brewers seek to get middle of batting order going

Tom Haudricourt
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Jesus Aguilar, right, reacts after being called out against the St. Louis Cardinals during the second inning of a baseball game Wednesday, April 17, 2019, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Darren Hauck) ORG XMIT: WIDH106

Is it as simple as Jesús Aguilar merely needing to hit a home run? Is that what it will take to get the Milwaukee Brewers’ first baseman going at the plate after starting the season in a miserable slump?

That question was asked Saturday because Aguilar, who hit 35 out of the park last season as a National League all-star, entered play against the Los Angeles Dodgers with none for the season in 70 plate appearances, which nobody saw coming. And the drought continued with a 0-for-3 game, with a walk and strikeout. 

“That’s a great question,” Brewers hitting coach Andy Haines said. “From my perspective, watching Jesús up close for the first time, you want to make sure something is not off (with his swing) that might be creating it, or if it’s just a slow start to a season.

“The reality is a lot of really good players are off to slow starts. Baseball is a funny game that way. But Jesús is such a talented hitter; he has a natural ability and feel to hit. Once he does click on a couple balls, he’s going to get that feel back and be fine.

“A lot of it now is just staying positive with him, and just watching closely to make sure we’re not missing something. We are walking a fine line because you don’t want to create a problem that’s not there. Sometimes, the game doesn’t cooperate. It’s baseball. It can be strange at times.”

BOX SCORE:Brewers 5, Dodgers 0

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Some critics have suggested that Aguilar’s drought was predictable because he fell off so much from the first half to the second half of last season. His slugging percentage did drop from .621 to .436 after the break, with his OPS falling from .995 to .760. But part of that was because he set such an incredible pace in the first half, which led to his all-star election.

But the first three weeks of this season have been much worse. Entering Saturday, he was batting .153 with a .186 slugging percentage. His hard-hit rate also was down, from 44% last season to 38.6%. Aguilar’s strikeouts also were down, an odd peripheral during his skid.

“He just hasn’t been on time as much,” Haines said of Aguilar’s mechanics from start to getting his bat through the hitting zone. “He’s usually a hitter who’s on time a lot, and now he hasn’t been. There’s a chain reaction to that. And that’s what happens when you’re scuffling.

“Once he clicks on a ball, he’s just too good a hitter to stay in this rut much longer.”

Not that Aguilar is the lone Brewers hitter struggling to get going. Third baseman Travis Shaw also has been missing his power stroke, with a .188 batting average, one homer (March 30) and five RBI. Shaw had hit in more hard luck than Aguilar, however, with a line-drive percentage of 23.8% and hard-hit percentage of 46%.

“Travis has hit some balls hard without results,” Haines said. “So, once again we’re trying to be patient and positive while making sure everything looks OK (mechanically). It can be frustrating, no question.”

Leftfielder Ryan Braun, after a fast start that included three early home runs, also had fallen into a deep slump, with only three hits in 35 at-bats entering play Saturday. That skid extended to 3-for-38 before he hit a huge three-run homer in the seventh inning after an intentional walk to Christian Yelich, sealing a 5-0 victory over the Dodgers.

Braun’s hard-hit percentage was good (45.8%) but his batting average was very low (.200) on balls put in play, suggesting some tough luck as well.

Often during periods when Braun is scuffling at the plate, it comes out that he was bothered by a physical issue. He did experience some back stiffness last weekend in Los Angeles, an ongoing problem after disc surgery a few years. Asked Saturday how he felt, Braun smiled and said, “Not as bad as I’ve looked.”

As might be expected with so many hitters in droughts, the Brewers have had trouble scoring runs of late. During the three-game losing streak that included the first two games against the Dodgers, they scored a total of only seven runs.

“There’s two ways to look at it,” manager Craig Counsell said. “Obviously, we want to get these guys going. I also feel really good that Ryan Braun, Travis Shaw and Jesús Aguilar are going to swing the bats. I feel like that’s a pretty safe place to be confident.

“When you’ve got a couple guys in the middle of your lineup struggling, it’s going to be tough to score. We’ve got to get those guys going if we want to put up big numbers.”

As for where the struggling hitters rank among the team’s current issues, Counsell said, “It’s all related. It’s never just pitching or just hitting. It’s all related.

"There was a game in Anaheim where we just flat-out didn’t do a good enough job pitching where we lost (11-8) and scored enough runs. There’s games like the last two nights where we have to score more runs.”