The Brewers hit a strange but meaningful marker Monday night at Busch Stadium: back to .500 as an NL club for the first time since the opening stretch of their inaugural season in the Senior Circuit.
Milwaukee’s 4-3 comeback win over the Cardinals pushed the franchise to 2,261-2,261-1 in NL games, a balance that had been a long time coming. The club had spent years climbing out of the hole, including a 14-season stretch without a winning record from 1993-2006 and a point in 2016 when it was still 196 games under .500 as an NL team during a rapid rebuild.
That’s the backdrop. The present-day version of the Brewers keeps stacking wins, and Monday was another example.
They entered the night 23 games over .500 this season and then opened a five-game, four-day series against St. Louis with a rally built in the seventh inning.
The turning point came after Cardinals reliever Justin Bruihl was injured while fielding Garrett Mitchell’s infield hit. His exit sent Ryan Fernandez into the game against Sal Frelick, and Frelick made the most of it with a ground-rule double. Fernandez then bobbled Cooper Pratt’s dribbler in front of the plate for an error, loading the bases and setting up David Hamilton’s two-run double.
Hamilton later left the game with left hamstring tightness, but by then Milwaukee had seized control. Three batters after his hit, Brice Turang lined a go-ahead, two-run single.
The Brewers also got what they needed on the mound. Shane Drohan turned in a quality start, allowing three runs over six innings, while Chad Patrick followed with two perfect innings. Trevor Megill closed it out for his 14th save.
It all added up to Milwaukee’s 43rd win in its last 63 games since April 26 - and to a franchise milestone that, while not likely to change the season’s bigger picture, still says plenty about how far this club has come.
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