Brewers Stay Hot, Keep Padres At Bay For Series Win

And so soon after the last one? 

Okay. Of course, when the season's already been lost, the Brewers manage to come alive like they couldn't before. 

So to recap. The Brewers began the second half with two straight series wins. Then I went 3-9 over my next 4 series, and now I've won two straight series' again. I have no idea how this has happened. I also don't know how this has happened against two good teams, the Diamondbacks and the Padres. As you'll find in this writeup, Andy's Padres [not to be confused with Andy Pages, who is NOT on the Padres] do contain a lot of guys that drive me nuts. Yet I still managed to win 3, and with a good amount of injury shenanigans and offensive dropoffs. That part I'm really happy with.

Here now the writeup:

Game 1: Brewers 6, Padres 5

W: Zack Littell

L: Robert Garcia

SV: Lake Bachar

The last game before Jackson Chourio was activated from the IL resulted in 2 more injuries for the Brewers. Connor Norby, after making an error, got hurt and will miss 6 games [i was gonna demote him anyway], and Eli White got plunked and will miss two. Yet despite all of that, and despite the fact that this game was tied for most of its runtime, the Brewers still managed to pull this one out.

Some of the credit does go to Zack Littell for pitching 7 strong and only allowing 2 runs on an RBI double from Ty France in the third. Littell's been a surprisingly effective starting gun for me [considering he's most certainly a cut after this year], and only allowed 5 hits,

stranding 5 baserunners [including getting out of a bases-loaded jam. Luis Severino pitched similarly well, going 5 and only allowing runs on two RBI singles from Heliot Ramos [the RBI machine] and Liam Hicks ON A CLUTCH HIT. Everything else kept the Brewers down. 

It wasn't until the 8th that things got interesting again. With Robert Garcia on the mount, the Brewers loaded the bases, then two more RBI singles, one a pinch-hit Carlos Santana one and the other from Nacho Alvarez, plus a passed ball, brought 4 more runs in. Then the Padres struck back, with a solo shot from Ty France, a pinch hit RBI single from Mike Tauchman, and a sac fly from Lars Nootbaar. Despite Daniel Palencia's collapse, it was still only 6-5. And Lake Bachar was able to hold out for the 5-out save.

Game 2: Brewers 3, Padres 2

W: Sonny Gray

L: Miles Mikolas

SV: Daniel Palencia

The Brewers may have won this series, but let's be clear: it still took 4 innings to score anything off of that Miles Mikolas card. Which is kinda wild. Odd that we only got three, and, again, all from small ball. Two straight doubles in the fourth, the Bryan Reynolds one bringing in the run, and both an RBI double from Jackson Chourio and a sacfly from J.P. Crawford were really all we did against Mikolas. Somehow it was enough though.

Meanwhile, Sonny Gray was surprisingly dominant, only giving up 3 hits, including one of his usual homers to Kyle Schwarber, and striking out 4. 

This one got particularly sticky in the ninth, as Jarred Duran walked Schwarber, doubled Ty France on and hit Trent Grisham. A sac-fly by Rafael Marchan scored a run, and one more would tie the game in the bottom of the ninth. I had to throw Palencia out there, and thankfully in a spot appearance he got Matt Vierling [my enemy from last year] to ground out, ending the game right before it could get bad. 

Game 3: Padres 11, Brewers 1

W: Pablo Lopez

L: Matt Boyd

The Brewers went the entire first half without giving up more than 10 runs. It's happened 5 times in the second half, and three times in my last 12 games. The good news is this wasn't as bad as my 14-0 loss to the Phils, but it was close.

First of all, Pablo Lopez in this game was practically untouchable. In 8 innings, he allowed 7 hits, 2 walks and one earned run on a lone Brewers RBI but, who else, Heliot Ramos on a 2nd inning double, while striking out 6. 

Matt Boyd, however, was very touchable. The man gave up four home runs over the course of the 2nd and 3rd innings alone. The first one was a 2 RBI shot from Randal Grichuk. Then the third inning started and it went like this: Nico Hoerner solo shot. Paul Goldschmidt solo shot. Dansby Swanson flyout. Kyle Schwarber solo shot. Three more straight baserunners. I remarked that Andy's team really enjoys lefty pitchers apparently. Other than that, Boyd was fine, but that's 5 runs in 5 innings. 

Not helping matters was my bullpen, who took the game from a relatively close deficit to unreachable. Pierce Johnson first gave up a pair of doubles in the 6th, the run coming from Dansby Swanson. In the 7th, longman Hayden Birdsong gave up a 3 run bomb to the 9 man, Lars Nootbaar again, then Machado doubled 2 more guys home in the ninth. Andy hoped he wasn't wasting all of these home runs on the game that didn't especially need the help, and...well...those fears weren't exactly unwarranted..

Game 4: Brewers 7, Padres 5

W: Justin Verlander

L: Max Fried

SV: Jhoan Duran

Did not think I'd win this one, especially with Fried on the mound. Things definitely were on my side here though. First of all, in the second, and I know some of you were thinking this but here's the reveal...the Brewers finally hit a home run. It was Carlos Santana who hit it. Santana doesn't really hit home runs anymore, but every once in a while, when pressed, he'll manage. Then in the third, THREE DIFFERENT TIMES I rolled a 5-7 on Fried's card, which is 'double 1-4/single'. Meaning Chourio singled, Bogaerts singled, Baldwin doubled, Eli White singled and Bryan Reynolds singled in a pinch hit spot, meaning five runs scored ALL ON SMALL BALL. It also shortened Fried's day, which was great for me. 

As further proof that Andy was not getting the rolls this game, with a much-sturdier Justin Verlander on the mound, Kyle Schwarber got up in the third and rolled a 'homer 1 to 19' chance. And rolled a 20. That was Andy's luck this series.

JV, after two rough starts, bounced back, going 5 innings, and giving up 2 runs on some more Ty France contact stuff, as well as an RBI double from Swanson in the 4th. That was thankfully the extent of it though, though Pierce Johnson once again made things closer than they needed to be thanks to 2 RBI singles from the top of the lineup. There was also an Eli White insurance RBI in the 7th [meaning White, who famously struggles against lefties despite his card being loaded with lefty power chances, had 3 RBIs this game]. Brock Stewart and the bullpen cut it off there though. After that, Hayden Birdsong and Jhohan Duran closed it out pretty amicably, and the Brewers snuck out of there again.

A very well-played series from Andy, who I thank for hosting. Most games were tight, nothing was truly over, and everything was exciting and fun. It was a series that hopefully didn't completely ruin the Padres' playoff chances, as things still feel pretty open for the middle of the pack guys. 

I'm at 76, and that was my one sub-72 series, so I'm off for a bit. To Jeff, Josh or Mike, if one of you hits 72 and wants to get a series in, let me know. I've got nothing to lose and nothing to gain at this point, I've got the rest of the season mapped out innings wise, and I've only got some beach days to plan around basically. 

Glad we can keep winning games, surprised it took being out of the race for it to happen, but, again, The Brewers.