LOS ANGELES - Pat Murphy keeps filling out his Brewers lineup the same way: on a napkin, on a scrap of paper, then snapped into a picture and sent to Evan Martin, the team’s game preparation specialist. And nearly every day, Christian Yelich and William Contreras are penciled in near the middle, with Murphy hoping this is the night one of them snaps out of it.
So far, that night hasn’t arrived.
Yelich went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in Friday’s 3-1 loss to Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium, and afterward he didn’t hide how much the stretch is wearing on him.
“It sucks, for sure,” Yelich said. “This is definitely one of the tougher ones, but there’s nothing you can do except going out there and trying to get it to turn.”
The numbers explain why the Brewers are searching for answers. Yelich opened the season on a 10-game tear, going 15-for-38 with a 1.018 OPS, but he’s hitting .207 with a .636 OPS over his last 74 games.
Contreras, an National League All-Star this season, has been even colder since the start of July, batting .159 with a .506 OPS. His drought reached 0-for-20 when he flied out in his final at-bat Friday.
Murphy has already moved both hitters down in the order, but he sounded less certain Friday about what comes next. He started asking out loud how many line drives Contreras has hammered to center field or right-center at 100 mph. Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel checked: Contreras entered the night 24th in baseball and first on the Brewers in batted balls with that profile, and he added another in the seventh when his 100.9 mph fly ball traveled 377 feet before turning into an out.
Murphy also wondered how many home runs Yelich has had taken away. Yelich said before the game he guessed four or five.
“It’s a results-based game, right?” Yelich said.
“You can only trust the process for so long. Eventually, you’ve got to start having things go right and start producing.
Hopefully, that’s around the corner. I don’t know what else to do but keep working.”
Yelich has at least shown a few signs on this trip. Contreras, though, is in a deeper rut.
The seventh-inning flyout was one of his better recent outcomes, and it still left him stuck in the 0-for-20 stretch. He did reach base in the ninth with a walk against Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz, putting the tying run on, but the Brewers couldn’t cash it in.
Joey Ortiz bounced into a force at shortstop with the bases loaded to end the game.
Murphy was then asked the obvious question: when does a manager decide a player needs a day or two off?
“He gets days,” Murphy said of Contreras. “It's just -- I don't think William is going to get out of it just by sitting on the bench.
But, maybe. It might be something I try if it doesn't."
That kind of move isn’t simple right now, either. The Brewers are already missing second baseman Brice Turang, who is day to day with left knee pain, rookie shortstop Cooper Pratt with a right hamstring issue, and Sal Frelick with a right shoulder injury.
There’s also another name in the background: Bo Naylor, the catcher acquired from the Guardians at the Trade Deadline, hit two home runs for Triple-A Nashville on Friday night. If Murphy decides Contreras needs a breather, Naylor could be a way to get him some big league exposure with the postseason approaching.
But that was a long way from Murphy’s main concern Friday night. The bigger picture was an offense that has managed 13 runs and two home runs over the first five games of the road trip, with the Brewers losing four of them.
“That’s part of baseball,” Murphy said. “You can go through stages like this, and you’ve got to credit the pitching we’re seeing.
That kid that pitched today [Yamamoto], he’s awful good. The variety he has, the movement on his pitches, his command.
That kid is one of the best in the game.”
For Murphy, that’s the reality of the majors.
“Everything is about results,” Murphy said. “Everything in our lives - especially young people that care so much - when you don’t get results, that’s really hard.”
In Other News...
Brewers Bullpen Just Took Another Hit During A Brutal Stretch
The Brewers are trying to survive a punishing 17-game stretch without an off-day, and the bullpen just got a little thinner in the middle of it. Milwaukee is already juggling multiple injuries on the position-player side, which has forced constant lineup and defensive adjustments, and the pitching staff is now feeling the strain as the club tries to keep everything together day after day.
Abner Uribe has been another name added to the injury list during the grind, creating one more adjustment for a relief corps that has had little room to breathe. In the short term, the Brewers turned to Triple-A for help, but the larger issue is how long they can keep patching holes while the schedule stays relentless and the list of unavailable players keeps growing. [Read more 🡒]
Brewers Make A Dodgers-Day Roster Move Fans Didnt See Coming
The Brewers quietly added another layer to their roster mix on the eve of a high-profile matchup with the Dodgers, acquiring Jonathan Ornelas from the Athletics in a minor trade for cash considerations. Ornelas had only recently been designated for assignment and then re-signed by Oakland on a minor league deal, but Milwaukee moved quickly to bring him in and give itself another infield option as the calendar turns toward an important stretch.
To make room, the Brewers are moving on from Jihwan Bae, a corresponding decision that shows how fluid the back end of the roster can be when teams are trying to squeeze value from every spot. For Milwaukee, the move is less about headlines than fit and timing, and it adds a fresh wrinkle to a roster that is already being managed with the Dodgers in mind. [Read more 🡒]
Misiorowski Gets Another Dodgers Test With Brewers Believing Even More
Jacob Misiorowski is headed back into one of baseballs brightest spotlights, with the Brewers lining him up to face Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. It is the kind of assignment that says as much about Milwaukees confidence in the young right-hander as it does about his rise, because Misiorowski has spent this season pitching like far more than a promising arm. He enters the matchup sitting among the sports most dominant starters, with a performance profile that has put him squarely in the National League Cy Young conversation.
Misiorowski has already shown he can handle pressure in October, and he pointed back to his relief work in last years postseason as a turning point that helped him carry this momentum into the present. For the Brewers, the timing of this latest Dodgers test matters because it comes with the belief that his best stuff travels, even against a lineup built to punish mistakes. What makes the start especially compelling is not just who is on the mound, but how the next chapter of Misiorowskis season might look if he handles one of the toughest assignments in the game as well as Milwaukee thinks he can. [Read more 🡒]