MILWAUKEE (AP) — Brewers manager Pat Murphy thinks something is missing from his team’s usual identity as Milwaukee staggers through the first quarter of the season.
“It seems like we’ve misplaced our edge a little bit,” Murphy said after a 6-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Saturday that dropped the Brewers two games below .500.
The Brewers have lost three straight by a combined score of 24-2, a stretch that started with an 8-0 road loss to the Chicago White Sox and continued with a 10-0 drubbing against the Cubs on Friday.
Milwaukee went 21 innings without scoring before finally breaking through in the third Saturday. The back-to-back home losses to Chicago have dropped the Brewers five games behind the first-place Cubs in the NL Central standings.
“They’re tremendous,” Murphy said of the Cubs. “Look at what they did against some of the best teams in the league, and how they manhandled us both games. Even though tonight was a little closer, it was still never in doubt. We didn’t put pressure on them.”
The slow start follows a 2024 season in which Milwaukee took over first place for good by the end of April to win its second straight division title. That Brewers team prided itself on rarely getting blown out, as most of its losses went down to the wire.
Milwaukee already has lost seven games this season by at least five runs. The Brewers are 0-12 when their opponent scores first, making them the only major league without a win in such situations. And the last two nights have shown how far the Brewers are from the Cubs, at least at this early stage of the season.
Injuries to the pitching staff have caused many of Milwaukee's issues so far.
The Brewers knew they’d be opening the season without two-time All-Star Brandon Woodruff and Robert Gasser, but Aaron Civale, Aaron Ashby, DL Hall and Nestor Cortes also are on the injured list. Tobias Myers, who went 9-6 with a 3.00 ERA as a rookie last year, just came off the IL on April 24.
Woodruff is expected to return after making a couple more rehabilitation appearances in the minors.
All those injuries to starters have taxed Milwaukee’s relievers. The Brewers entered Saturday with a 5.14 bullpen ERA that ranked 28th in the majors, ahead of only the Los Angeles Angels and Washington. Last year, Milwaukee had a 3.11 bullpen ERA that ranked second in the majors behind Cleveland.
The lineup also has struggled. Christian Yelich has a .673 OPS, down from .910 last year when he earned his third All-Star selection. Two-time All-Star catcher William Contreras, who has posted an OPS of .824 or better each of the last three seasons, is at .692. Starting shortstop Joey Ortiz is hitting .186 with a .464 OPS.
Milwaukee remains confident it will come around.
“Luckily, this is early still,” first baseman Rhys Hoskins said. “I don’t want to just fall into that because at some point it’s not early. But we have a lot of baseball to be played, and I think because of the talent in this room, there’s no reason why we won’t find ourselves where we want to be come the end of summer.”
Murphy remains confident as well and says he still has high hopes for this team. He said teams do lose their edge at some point in every season and noted that even happened late last year during the Brewers’ run to a division title.
“I’m not losing hope,” Murphy said. “I’m not worried about it. I know who these people are, so I’m confident they will find it. I’m just a little shocked that we’ve misplaced that edge a little bit.”
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Steve Megargee, The Associated Press
