This was not supposed to happen...

This was not supposed to happen the Milwaukee Brewers lose by two touchdowns the Chicago Cubs 17 to 3 and after Kyle Harrison mightily struggled along with the offense Robert gasser It looks to retool things for the Brewers in tonight's game two out of four in this i-94 rivalry and man Yesterday was absolutely ugly and definitely have to talk about what we watched on national television last night Not really many positives, but lots of things to learn to say the least I welcome you into this episode of Brewers Digest I'm your host Taylor Brettel and I got you covered on everything you need to know about the Milwaukee Brewers But probably know what we need to talk about. Let's hop right into it Let's look at the box score from last night's contest. And yeah a wolf nothing really pretty here Brewers only scored three runs So the game was basically over after the first inning gave up 20 total hits They brought in Andrew Vaughn to pitch in the seventh and eighth inning who gave up eight runs of his own But the story of the game was Kyle Harrison and his struggles and what to do with him He's a pitcher that has a 2.8 era going into this contest the starting pitcher two of the Brewers You're really confident in him And then you remember sometimes you can have outings like this and it makes you panic and worry what you do with a guy like Kyle Harrison and that's what we have to break down the Brewers nine hits three runs not pretty I mean again three runs in a game where the Cubs put in their Average bullpen arms because they were up by so much once their starter was removed. So nothing good about this The story of the game is Kyle Harrison and that's what we have to focus on Kyle Harrison with a very very very bad outing That is really the only way to put it and there's a lot of reasons why we saw Kyle Harrison throw the fastball a lot We saw it down the middle a lot We saw the velocity down and we saw the ball fly out of the field into the bleachers at Wrigley Field And there's a lot of concern here with where these pitches live for Kyle Harrison I have a picture of this chart right here or really this graphic rather I should say showing where the homers were These were the pitches last night that went over the fence you see mostly all of them But one were his four seam fastball three of a middle middle one of them a nice pitch on the edge and then a slur Pretty middle low, but still the full baseball in the zone Not really any challenging pitches there to hit out besides maybe that one on the edge That's a Suzuki got around to Kyle Harrison's final line in this game. He went three and two thirds innings Lasted longer than I thought I think mainly just because Bryce Wilson is injured You couldn't bring in a guy like him early So three and two thirds innings Kyle Harrison gave up ten hits nine runs Which will which were all earned and five home runs 98 pitches 62 strikes He had three strikeouts and walked two batters I mean yikes is the really only way to put it but you look at this right here Lots of four seam fastballs right in the middle of the zone and then the one slur believe Alex Bregman was the one that golf That one out to left field Kyle Harrison this is a concern and it feels weird to talk about because I feel like next week you could have a great start and I Could be here saying Kyle Harrison's back six innings No runs 10ks like we saw when he came back from injury against the Pittsburgh Pirates and then we're right here and we're panicking on if he should Even be in the starting rotation. That's the beauty of baseball You can overreact after one game, but there's a lot of nitpick things that are more factual than overreacting I want to talk about his velocity. I'll bring this back up on the big screen right here This is his velocity you start with his first game of the season Against Tampa Bay where that is all the way back in March and then you go all the way to this most recent one Against the Chicago Cubs and this is his fourth seam velocity You see it starts there a little bit above 95 miles an hour. You get to right around, you know that June area It's it's approaching even higher than that. Then you see a huge dip That's when he is went on the injured list. Then he comes back against Pittsburgh. It's kind of high up again But since that outing against the Pirates it has sank and sank and sank and sank losing multiple miles per hour on his fastball Velocity and the Cubs easily got around to it. I mean these were meatballs These were coming in like 92 93 miles an hour easy for these Cubs hitters to hit out They have the third most homers in the MLB They might actually have the second most now curious where those standings are after they hit 9 yesterday But we want to look at something like why is this happening? This doesn't just happen You don't just lose velocity out of nowhere a big reason is Kyle Harrison's arm angle that has changed and if you put these two Together you see they start up high and they only go lower I have a graph here that shows his arm angle, which is a huge concern because this is something that is also changing There's this average arm angle by month You see it 34 degrees there and a sink all the way to 31 degrees different arm angle different release point different results That is not just sinking. It is sinking fast ranging from April to now I guess we're technically in September, but that is to August 2026 So lots of concerns with Kyle Harrison what he's really going to be able to produce What he's going to have on the mound come playoff time again The Brewers still the best record in the league still lead the NL Central by a good amount of games But this is a team if you don't have your starting pitcher to on point you could be in big trouble in the playoffs Especially, you know in a series. Could you play the Cubs? Could you play them on the road and Wrigley would Kyle Harrison be pitching? These are all valid questions that you have to ask But one of the most interesting things about Kyle Harrison and this season even before this game He pitches really well at home and not great on the road and really well during the day and not great at night So you paired a road game at night put that together? That is some of Kyle Harrison's worse, which these are some of the craziest splits that I have ever seen I want to give you guys a look at this this home versus away, which I'll flash up right here You see is the RA at home this year through 11 starts a one point two six with a seven and one Record has only given up eight or runs in 57 innings you go away Totally different story if you don't actually think of the home one 11 games eight or runs yesterday through three and two-thirds innings He gave up nine if you want to really put it in a picture like that But you go to his away numbers a five point nine four era three and three record the exact amount of games at 11 He only his last 50 innings through those 11 given up 33 earned runs Just not good at all. You go to the day games where he has had Six day games a 5-0 record with a 1.3 era night games He's played way more of those 16 of those with a four point four eight I mean, it's absolutely insane to look at these splits I look at more home and away rather than day and night but day and night was so drastic I thought I'd include it in there. So it is like really interesting to think about I mean Do you really worry about these splits are these like you? You know view these as real the day and night kind of a things because I kind of do that that it's absolutely insane to Me how that is kind of super paralleled in line and that's what we've been seeing with Kyle Harrison So not great at all for Harrison again, only three and two-thirds innings nine Earn runs five homers you get the gist. I've already talked about it Kyle Harrison definitely needs to figure it out We'll be curious to see how they work him through the Brewers I have this Cub Series to finish up then they got the Reds then they got the Cubs again where they will be home and They got the Reds again. So Kyle Harrison still a couple more opportunities this season But I have a question for you guys talking about Harrison with multiple options here What should the Brewers do with Kyle Harrison in the postseason? Do you say hey, let's just keep him right where he is This is one rough start He's had a rough one in San Diego a rough one when they played in Vegas But he is still the starting pitcher to of this rotation. I understand that do you say keep him as a starter? But maybe move him down put Logan Henderson above him make Henderson the new starting pitcher to in this rotation And maybe make Harrison the three do you say move him the bullpen? Could you move someone like Kyle Harrison the bullpen and bring a DL Hall in the starting rotation? Maybe that's a little bit of an overreaction Or do you want to say only pitch him at home? I put that in there as a joke, but it's also not kind of a joke because those numbers are so insanely drastic Do you really want what we've seen and what three different instances where Kyle Harrison's given up eight earned runs on the road? Against Vegas against San Diego and now against Chicago. Do you want to see that? I really don't so that fourth option is in there kind of as a joke kind of not so you guys let me know But also talking about home versus road We take a look at what the splits were right here with home and away I want to take a look at what he's done month by month because we've talked about the downtrend and this is just Unfortunate to see a couple more splits for him right here. You see by month March April May June July and now August He's gone from a strong one eight two four one still solid point nine six the best month of pitching in his career Then it really inflated in June. He got hurt came back, you know Very inflated in July still pretty inflated in August that July, you know only two games to a smaller sample size But over five era in the month of August, that's why it's tough. Where do you really want to put Kyle Harrison? Do you want him to still be the two when he's had over a five era in the most recent month of baseball in the Most important time of the year you guys let me know But there's not really a better way to describe the result of last night's contest at 17 to 3 then this play right here I'll put this graphic up where you have Jake Bowers on the ground Kyle Harrison on the ground I can't field a simple ground ball to first and make the play that was all the way back in the third inning or second Inning when it was six nothing and that kind of just summarizes what we saw yesterday So we're gonna try to put that in the past. We have the pitching matchups I'll flash this graphic up on what all the pitching matchups are for the series for the Brewers We take a look at tonight's contest and not really sure how I feel about this one Robert Gasser versus Matthew Boyd We talked about in the last episode. I'll be satisfied if the Brewers went two and two I thought they could go three and one but now they're already down. Oh one so could they really rally three in a row? I look at this series this one with Gasser on the mound was the one I was most worried about Now is there more reason for worry Matthew Boyd's a guy that has had his struggles against the Brewers in his career We saw it in the playoffs last season. So this could be a pretty offensive heavy game But who knows maybe the Cubs used all they're hitting up last night and won't score 17 runs again I hope that that's not the case Maybe the Brewers can score more than just three hoping for a little bit of a change But it's Robert Gasser and Matthew Boyd. So we do have to take a look at Robert Gasser. What does he have to offer? Well, the unfortunate thing is you look at Kyle Harrison He has a fastball that he throws right around 92 93 and then also a slurve Those are his two he kind of has three pitches with that changeup, but Kyle Harrison really only throws two pitches So, you know what? Hey, it's a new pitcher. It's a lefty. What does he have to offer? Well Robert Gasser pretty similar He has a deeper pitch mix But yeah The sweeper and a four seam fastball that sits right around 92 to 93 miles an hour from the left side are also what Robert Gasser offers and that's exactly what the Cubs saw yesterday. No, it's a different pitcher. It's a different day It's a different arm slot. It could be a different lineup for the Cubs I totally know all of those things But that's a little concerning at least Gasser is able to pair it with a sinker and a cutter and then a changeup that sneaks in there about one every ten pitches But man, that is a very rough back-to-back after what we saw yesterday if Kyle Harrison absolutely shoved We might be looking at this in a positive light saying perfect They're gonna have to see pitches like that again, but that is not the case We wanted to look at the weather for tonight's contest as well because last night we talked about it The wind was blowing out to center field and I don't even take in the factor on how humid it was in Chicago So we're gonna do that here today. I will not miss that tonight versus the Brewers It's gonna be 87 degrees Wrigley Wind says the wind will be blowing out to center field at 6 miles an hour with gusts up 14 but let's talk about the humidity the ball travels further in humid air So you combine this wind 14 mile an hour gusts to center field with the humidity. This is at 7 p.m The game is starting at 640. So right around the start time Humidity 63% that is extreme humidity. There is a heat advisory So if you're going to the game, please be safe But you have the winds blowing out to center field you have extreme humidity in which the ball travels further in that Anyway, it could be another Homer fest and unfortunately for the Brewers sake They hit the least amount of homers in Major League Baseball and good for the Cubs sake They hit some of the most homers in Major League Baseball Playing in Wrigley when the weather and the wind is like this is not ideal for the Brewers We even saw it in the playoffs last year every single team that was at home won in that series out of all five games Hoping the Brewers are able to change the narrative tonight, but it is going to be pretty tough The big thing to the offense has to wake up. I mean you have to focus on pitching they give up 17 runs Don't get me wrong, but three runs through nine innings Brewers are likely not gonna win that game Anyway, even if Harrison shove let's say Harrison only give up two runs through what five like they probably still wouldn't have done it The bullpen is fully here Hopefully Gasser is able to last a little bit McGill's ready Abner rebate will be ready Need a win for the crew tonight cannot lose the first two in a row to the Cubs But Jacob Mizorowski will be the guy in game three. He only can take it one game at a time So it will be Robert Gasser that we focus the attention on tonight Hoping that the win can work in the Brewers favor as well Let's see some power from the bats off of Matthew Boyd Hoping the brew crew get the dub and we can be back here tomorrow not talking about being down by two touchdowns