Brewers Drop Series In Awkward Look Ahead Spot

The Milwaukee Brewers are comfortably sitting in first place in the NL Central with their sights set on coasting through the rest of the regular season and earning the top seed in the National League.

They have some inferior opponents in the latter part of September, but to get to them, Milwaukee has to go through the Chicago Cubs.

And to get to Chicago, Pat Murphy’s Brewers had to go through the Cincinnati Reds. And therein lies the problem.

The Reds caught the Brewers in a very sleepy spot. After a four-game, up-and-down road trip in the Windy City, the Brew Crew stayed on the road and hightailed it over to Ohio for their final series in Cincinnati this season.

The Brewers were somehow able to pull out a win in the opening game of the series despite starting pitcher Shane Drohan giving up at least one run in each of his first three innings on the mound. This included a three-run, 408-foot blast from Eugenio Suarez.

After the Brewers' bats exploded for five runs in the top of the fifth inning, Murphy was not going to risk sending Drohan back out there. The skipper let the bullpen take it from there, and Milwaukee was able to hold on for a high-flying 10-7 victory.

The Brewers' uncharacteristic struggles with their starting pitching continued in Game 2 on Saturday, with the help of a little bad luck.

Dustin May got the start, and after giving up a 438-foot moon shot to Elly De La Cruz in the first inning, he was nails on the mound. He retired the next nine batters and carried a lead into the fourth inning.

Then the rain began to fall.

May gave up a pair of singles before the delay was called. The rain delay lasted all of two hours and 22 minutes. By the time the teams returned to the diamond, Pat Murphy had long decided that May’s day would be over.

The relief pitcher allowed one of May’s runners to score, and Milwaukee never took the lead back.

After a 5-3 loss and a very long night, the rubber match took place Sunday afternoon.

Murphy gave the ball to Kyle Harrison, and the starting pitching woes continued. Harrison couldn’t keep it in the strike zone. He walked a batter in each of the four innings he pitched.

In total, the 25-year-old gave up six runs, four earned, on nine hits and four walks in just 3.2 innings pitched. The Brewers' bats were alive, but the pitching staff surrendering 12 runs was too much to overcome, and Milwaukee fell 12-8.

The Brewers will bring a two-game losing streak back home to host Chicago in what should be the final high-leverage series of the regular season.

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