Brewers close the gap in the wildcard race with series win over the Reds
Down go the Reds, what's next? Cardinals, Yankees, and Mets. Oh my!
This was a series the Brew Crew HAD to win. There’s no way around it. Slip ups are no longer acceptable if this team is going to stay in the NL Wild Card race. Faced with that reality, the Brewers got the job done.
Friday’s game started the series off with a loss, as they were never able to dig themselves out of a 5-0 first inning hole. Saturday and Sunday they’d turn things around thanks to great outings from Adrian Houser and Brandon Woodruff, but perhaps more importantly, huge offensive contributions from the top of the lineup.
Christian Yelich, Willy Adames, and Rowdy Tellez showed how good this team can be when they’re all excelling at the same time. A tough stretch of eight games in a row against division leaders starts this week.
Adam and Andrew gush over the top of the lineup and turn the attention to a difficult week against three good teams.
Master Brewer Leaderboard (through 141 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.)
Brandon Woodruff 🍺
Brandon Woodruff continues to be the most reliable starting pitcher in the rotation (although Corbin Burnes has bounced back from his rough patch). Woody lasted six innings against the Reds, he allowed just a pair of runs and struck out 11 batters in Milwaukee’s 7-6 win.
Adrian Houser 🍺
Adrian Houser was back to his old self on Saturday. Houser delivered six innings of work with only one hit, one run allowed, two walks, and no strikeouts. Pitching to contact effectively is a lost art in modern baseball, but Houser’s throwback stat-line proves it can still be done on occasion.
Taylor Rogers 🍺
Make it three scoreless outings in a row for Taylor Rogers since his tough day in Colorado. Rogers threw in back to back games, providing two scoreless innings with four strikeouts.
Matt Bush 🍺
Matt Bush was electric during his lone appearance this series. On Saturday, he helped the team maintain a 3-1 lead with his hitless, scoreless, three strikeout 8th inning. It was essentially the highest leverage spot in the game and the Brewers would subsequently tack on a pair of insurance runs to give them a stress free 5-1 win.
Rowdy Tellez 🍺
Rowdy’s two homers on Sunday helped him bump his season total up to 30. His first season as a full-time starting first basemen has largely been a success, as he has proven himself to be a vital bat in the middle of Milwaukee’s order.
Willy Adames 🍺
This is the Willy Adames the Brewers love to see. Adames finished the series 4-for-11 with two walks, two homers, three runs scored, and four RBI. When Adames is mixing in walks and singles to go along with his game-changing power he can be quite the difference maker.
Tyrone Taylor 🍺
Tyrone Taylor tried to win Friday night’s game all by himself, but it was not to be. His two-run homer was Milwaukee’s only run production of the day and his outfield assist in the third inning kept the game within striking distance. He followed things up with another hit on Saturday before sitting out Sunday’s finale.
Christian Yelich 🍺
Christian Yelich gets on base. We like when Christian Yelich gets on base. Yeli finished this series 4-for-12 with a walk, three runs scored, and two RBI.
Leaderboard through 141 games
Rowdy Tellez: 🍺 x22
Christian Yelich: 🍺 x18
Corbin Burnes: 🍺 x16
Willy Adames: 🍺 x14
Brandon Woodruff, Andrew McCutchen: 🍺 x11
Jace Peterson, Hunter Renfroe: 🍺 x10
Tyrone Taylor, Devin Williams:🍺 x9
Kolten Wong, Luis Urias:🍺 x8
Keston Hiura, Josh Hader: 🍺 x7
Freddy Peralta: 🍺 x6
Aaron Ashby, Hoby Milner: 🍺 x5
Victor Caratini, Jason Alexander: 🍺 x4
Adrian Houser, Matt Bush, Taylor Rogers, Peter Strzelecki, Brad Boxberger, Trevor Gott, Jonathan Davis: 🍺 x3
Brent Suter, Omar Narvaez: 🍺 x2
Garrett Mitchell, Jandel Gustave, Luke Barker: 🍺