MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers’ bullpen spent Thursday doing what good relief groups are supposed to do: turning a messy afternoon into a clean finish.
In a 7-4 win over the Mariners at American Family Field, Milwaukee’s relievers covered the final 5 1/3 innings without allowing a run, helping close out a three-game sweep and extending the unit’s remarkable work across the series. Over the three games against Seattle, Brewers relievers combined for 16 1/3 scoreless innings.
That run included the finale, when Chad Patrick, Aaron Ashby and Trevor Megill took over after left-hander Robert Gasser had trouble holding onto an early lead. The Brewers had jumped on Mariners starter George Kirby in the first inning, getting two-run doubles from Gary Sánchez and Garrett Mitchell as four different Milwaukee hitters drove in runs and six different players recorded hits. Coming two days after the club’s record-setting 22-0 win in the opener, it looked like another runaway.
Instead, the game tightened fast. Gasser walked Taylor Ward to open the second inning on a full-count fastball that missed badly, and that was only one of three times in his 3 2/3 innings that he put the leadoff man on base. When Seattle cut the lead to 6-2 in the second and then to 6-4 in the fourth, manager Pat Murphy and his staff chose not to send Gasser back out for a third look at the lineup.
Patrick handled the next seven outs, Ashby covered six more, and Megill finished the job after Garrett Mitchell’s solo homer in the eighth brought the crowd of 35,909 back into it on a weekday matinee.
Megill picked up his 23rd save and kept rolling through a dominant stretch that has seen him allow just one run over his last 26 innings dating back to June 10. He also extended his streak of consecutive innings without allowing a home run to 57, the third-longest active run in MLB.
For Milwaukee, that trio of Patrick, Ashby and Megill is going to matter when October arrives.
In Other News...
Brewers Are Already Changing Their Trade Deadline Catchers Swing
The Brewers have spent all season leaning into an offensive identity that asks hitters to let the ball travel, stay through pitches and avoid living on the pull side. Pat Murphy has made no secret of his discomfort with the word itself, arguing that the approach helps keep hitters from rolling over outside pitches and settling for weak contact. It is the kind of philosophy Milwaukee has tried to reinforce throughout the organization, from the majors down through the minors.
That message appears to travel with new arrivals, too, which is why the early data around catcher Bo Naylor is worth watching after his acquisition from the Guardians. Naylors batted-ball profile has already shifted in the Brewers' direction, a small but telling sign that the club's approach is not just a talking point but something hitters are being asked to absorb quickly. What remains to be seen is whether that adjustment turns into the kind of consistent production Milwaukee is hoping for as it reshapes its catching mix. [Read more 🡒]
Red Sox Third Base Answer Just Sparked A Much Bigger Debate
The trade that sent Caleb Durbin and Kyle Harrison through a Boston-Milwaukee swap has quietly become one of those deals both clubs can point to with some satisfaction. What looked at first like a Milwaukee edge has settled into a far more balanced exchange, with Durbin helping the Red Sox in a meaningful way while Harrison and the other pieces have given the Brewers useful production of their own.
For Milwaukee, the broader question now is not whether the deal worked, but how much it changes the way the front office values this kind of multi-player swap going forward. When a transaction starts with one team appearing to land the clearer upgrade and ends with both sides getting real contributions, it complicates the usual instinct to declare a winner, especially for a Brewers club that has built plenty of its success on finding value in the margins. [Read more 🡒]
Brewers Best Start Comes With One Cost Fans Cant Ignore
The Brewers have turned baseballs best record into the latest reminder that a cautious approach can still work in an era when so many contenders try to buy certainty. Milwaukee stayed relatively quiet through the offseason and again at the trade deadline, settling for additions like Dustin May and JoJo Romero while passing on the kind of splashy pursuit that had circulated around targets such as Tarik Skubal. Even so, the club has kept itself in the thick of the postseason race, continuing an eight-year run of consistent October appearances that has become the standard around here.
Brandon Woodruffs situation is the part fans cant overlook, though, because the right-handers decision to accept a $22 million qualifying offer was supposed to give the Brewers a proven arm without completely changing the rosters financial shape. Instead, a shoulder injury ended his season and cut into both the on-field payoff and the payroll flexibility the club was counting on. For a team already working with restraint, losing that kind of value in one spot only sharpens the question of how long this model can keep surviving on depth, patience and a little bit of good fortune. [Read more 🡒]