The Brewers can’t afford to carry Sunday’s mess into Wrigley Field.
After a 7-4 loss to the Rangers at American Family Field, Milwaukee turns the page quickly and heads into Monday’s opener of a four-game set against the Cubs - the kind of series that can shape the stretch run in a hurry. The NL Central’s top two clubs are set to play seven games over the next 10 days, and the Brewers arrive with a 7 1/2-game cushion over Chicago in the division standings, pending the Cubs’ game against the Reds later Sunday night.
Milwaukee also holds the early edge in the season series, 4-2, which could matter if the tiebreaker picture comes into play down the line.
“It’s hard to not get lost in all of that, but it just comes down to winning every night,” left-hander Kyle Harrison said. Harrison is scheduled to start Monday night against Cubs right-hander Clay Holmes. “That’s all you can think about in a series like this, just be the best version of yourself each night.”
The Brewers didn’t get that version on Sunday.
Milwaukee had chances against Rangers starter Kumar Rocker, who walked four batters and used 86 pitches to get through three innings, yet the Brewers managed only two runs off him. Both came in the first before Rocker recorded an out. After that, Milwaukee never really made the most of the opening.
Dustin May’s afternoon went the same way on the other side. The Brewers right-hander was back on the mound after a rough outing against the Mariners on Aug. 19, then a bizarre one-pitch start Wednesday against the Mets when a comebacker hit him in the right upper back.
Against Texas, he never settled in. May needed 97 pitches to record 13 outs, and the Rangers kept stacking quality swings against him early.
Through three innings, Texas was 4-for-8 against May with three doubles, a home run, a walk and a hit-by-pitch after two outs had been recorded. Then in the fifth, he issued back-to-back walks and allowed a one-out, two-run double to Ezequiel Duran that put the Rangers ahead 4-2.
May said he felt physically fine and didn’t hide his frustration afterward, saying in a not-safe-for-work postgame media scrum: “It sucks to be sucking right now.”
“You can blame it on a lot of things, but, I mean, we’re in September. There’s really no excuses,” he said. “I have to be better.”
“These are big games,” May said. “I’m glad I didn’t have this [stinker] against them.”
For the Brewers, the bigger picture has been strong even with Sunday’s loss. Milwaukee is coming off a run of winning five straight series against the Dodgers, Mariners, Braves, Mets and Rangers, and manager Pat Murphy pointed to several parts of the club’s game that have traveled well.
“There’s a lot of things to like,” Murphy said. “Our defense and baserunning have got to be part of our game every time.
The pitching has been great. Offensively, I think with William [Contreras] and [Christian] Yelich much better than they have been recently, that is encouraging.
…
“I think there’s good signs, but we need to play with a certain intensity. It will be a great opportunity in a great environment.”
Harrison said he doesn’t spend every morning checking the standings, but the broader picture around the league is impossible to miss with televisions around every clubhouse tuned to MLB Network. And while the numbers may say one thing, Monday night starts with a clean slate.
Going into Sunday’s games, FanGraphs’ simulations had Milwaukee as a 97.6 percent favorite to win the division and a 90.8 percent favorite to finish as one of the NL’s top two seeds and secure a first-round bye.
Still, Harrison’s message was simple: none of that counts once the game begins.
“We know what we need to do,” he said. “We just need to take care of playing good, winning baseball, just like ‘Murph’ said at the beginning of the season. If we focus on winning series from this point on, we’ll be in a good spot.”
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