Brew Crew miss opportunity to significantly widen division lead with series loss to Cubs

It wasn't punishing in the standings, but this one hurt.

Baseball can be a real pain sometimes. The Milwaukee Brewers started their series off against the hated Chicago Cubs positively, with some drama added in for good measure. Victor Caratini’s 10th inning walk-off homer, after Brad Boxberger’s bases loaded escape, was one of the most exciting moments of the season. Alas, those good feelings would be fleeting.

Game 2 saw Jason Alexander and the defense behind him struggle, leading to an 8-3 loss. The third game of the series featured a Corbin Burnes gem that was would eventually be wasted by a lack of offense and uncharacteristic performances from Brad Boxberger and Josh Hader.

Ultimately, this won’t be a punishing result in the standings, the St. Louis Cardinals have dropped three games in a row the Atlanta Braves (they wrap up the series Thursday afternoon), but it sure feels like a missed opportunity. Andrew and Adam string together their streak of podcasting together to talk about the series.

Master Brewer Leaderboard (through 84 games)

(The Master Brewer Leaderboard is a season-long leaderboard tracking and ranking exceptional performances from Brewers players in the form of Master Brew Points 🍺, which at the end of the season will tally up to crown our Crewsing for a Brewsing Player of the Year.)

Corbin Burnes 🍺

Corbin Burnes sure is a joy to watch. Burnes pitched seven shutout innings and struck out 10 Cubs to give the Brewers a chance to win. It was his 18th start with 10 strikeouts or more which tied him for the franchise record with Yovani Gallardo. As my colleague and Gyro Step Podcast host Ti Windisch noted on Twitter, Gallardo completed this feat across 211 starts. Burnes has done it in 58.

Eric Lauer 🍺

It was great to see Eric Lauer return to form after a tough June. After the game he described last month by saying “I really feel like I got kicked in the nuts in June.” Monday was anything but the aforementioned Beckham to the unmentionables. Lauer went six innings and allowed just a single run with nine strikeouts. If he can limit home runs and walks moving forward it’s not hard to imagine him returning to his early season form permanently.

Victor Caratini 🍺

Overall, Caratini’s numbers for the series may not look Brew Point-worthy, but I think we all know why he’s deserving. He finished 2-for-9 with 4 RBI and one homer. That homer also happened to be a three-run walk-off in the 10th inning of July 4th’s series opener. That’ll play.

Keston Hiura 🍺

Keston Hiura made a more prominent than usual appearance in this series. Hiura finished 2-for-6 with a double, a homer, a walk, two runs, and an RBI. He also made an exceptional catch while crashing into the wall in left field and overall looks very comfortable in the outfield.

Leaderboard through 84 games

Rowdy Tellez: 🍺 x12

Corbin Burnes: 🍺 x11

Christian Yelich: 🍺 x9

Jace Peterson: 🍺 x8

Josh Hader: 🍺 x7

Andrew McCutchen, Willy Adames: 🍺 x6

Tyrone Taylor, Devin Williams, Hunter Renfroe 🍺 x5

Eric Lauer, Brandon Woodruff, Luis Urias, Kolten Wong🍺 x4

Keston Hiura, Victor Caratini, Hoby Milner, Jason Alexander, Aaron Ashby, Freddy Peralta: 🍺 x3

Brad Boxberger, Omar Narvaez, Adrian Houser: 🍺 x2

Jonathan Davis, Trevor Gott, Luke Barker, Peter Strzelecki: 🍺