Pitching wins in the postseason, but to get to that point, you have to be able to hit the ball and lately, the Brewers have not.
Milwaukee's offense has been unable to score more than four runs in a game since Sept. 3 when the Brewers beat Houston, 8-2. They followed that by four runs in consecutive games but, for the most part, the bats have been stunningly silent ever since.
The Brewers' lead in the National League Central grew to 10.5 games after a 4-1 victory at St. Louis on Sept. 6. Since then, the team has won just two of eight games and lost five full games off its lead. during which Brewers batters are hitting just .202 (52 for 257) with 53 strikeouts. They've stranded 55 runners and are hitting just .105 with runners in scoring position.
Surprisingly, the Brewers aren't playing all that worse than they were in July and August, when they were the hottest team in baseball and won 27 of 32 games to take what seemed like a commanding lead in the division.
But many of those games, according to manager Ron Roenicke, were similar to the ones the Brewers have found themselves in lately; tight, well-pitched, low-scoring affairs. The only difference between now and then is the Brewers, during their hot streak, were getting timely, clutch hits.
"A lot of those games were close, too," Roenicke said.
During their second-half run, the Brewers averaged 4.9 runs per game and scored more than four runs in 17 games. At the same time, 15 of those games were decided by two runs or less.
"Obviously we're not going to go out and blow people away all the time," catcher Jonathan Lucroy said Wednesday, after a 6-2 loss to Colorado at Miller Park. "We're going to run into some good pitching like we have here recently. Guys are throwing good games against us."
Lucroy admitted that some players – himself included – may be pressing a bit and trying to do too much to get back into their groove. Still, neither he or his teammates seem to be overreacting or showing noticeable concern.
"Sometimes you try to do too much and you get a little frustrated and you end up hurting yourself instead of just relaxing and playing," Lucroy said. "I think we're going to be fine.
"I think it's going to take one game to get back to it. Usually that's how it is. You go one game and get 15 hits or something, blow people out, that's usually how it works."
Of the 12 games left on the schedule, none are against teams with winning records. The Cardinals, meanwhile, open a four-game series tonight at Philadelphia, which is looking to lock down the NL East Championship.
In other words, this is no time to panic.
"We didn't play well the last couple games," Roenicke said. "We'll get out of it and start playing good ball again."
His team will try and do just that tonight, when it opens a three-game series at Cincinnati's Great American Ballpark where the Brewers have won just two of their last 12 games.
NOTES: Roenicke hasn't named a starter yet for Sunday, but it could be lefty Chris Narveson, who threw two scoreless innings of relief Wednesday ... Rickie Weeks could play the full nine innings tonight at Cincinnati. He hasn't played more than six since returning from the disabled list ... The Brewers' magic number remains 8.
