The Brewers’ 3-2 extra-inning loss to the Mets on Tuesday set off a fresh round of chatter around Pat Murphy, but the manager’s decision to pull Cooper Pratt fits a pattern that’s already been on display this season.
Murphy said Pratt didn’t execute a bunt with two on and nobody out, then compounded that with what the manager described as a lack of hustle on a pop fly to right field. The Mets fielders were blinded by the lights, the ball dropped, and Pratt reached base anyway. Murphy said Pratt could have made it to second if he had run harder.
"This is, for better or for worse, part of the Pat Murphy Brewers experience."@CyrtHogg explains why getting pulled mid-game for a lack of hustle is nothing new under Pat Murphy. pic.twitter.com/ezZrxHNahs
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) August 26, 2026
Right after that, Murphy yanked Pratt and sent in David Hamilton as a pinch-runner. Hamilton later made the game-losing error that opened the door for Francisco Lindor to break the tie in the 11th.
For Brewers beat reporter Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, though, this wasn’t some one-off eruption. He pointed out that Murphy has already shown this season that he won’t hesitate to remove players who don’t meet the standard he wants every night.
“This is, for better or for worse, part of the Pat Murphy Brewers experience,” Hogg declared in an appearance on Foul Territory.
And the results help explain why that approach carries so much weight inside the clubhouse. Milwaukee is sitting on the best record in baseball at 82-51, and it’s doing it with a moneyball-esque formula that clearly has the room’s buy-in.
The Brewers quickly moved on Wednesday, beating the Mets 8-1. Pratt was back in the lineup after saying he would never make the same mistakes from Tuesday again, and this time Murphy left him in to finish the game on the field.
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