The Brewers Season Just Got Real...

The Brewer season just got real after a home series win against the Cincinnati Reds. The Brewers officially clinched a spot in the postseason, but that is not all that they want to do. They want to not only clinch a spot in the postseason, they want to win the NL Central and take it all the way to the World Series. We have to break down this past series that we saw at home against the Cincinnati Reds. I got all that for you on today's episode of Brewers Digest. Man, this Brewers team is absolutely fun. Would have been nice if they could have got the true sweep, a 4-3 loss in that third game. But man, you cannot really complain when the Brewers offense put up 33 runs in the two games before that. Let's just dive into game one of this series right away. I'll put the box score to the right right here and a 20-0 win. No, it is not a football score between the Packers and the Bengals. It is the Brewers and the Reds. 20 runs for Milwaukee. I think a big part about this too, 17 of them were like actually off of pitchers. We saw the 22-0 win earlier in the season for the Brewers and Mariners, but that was really what, like 13-0 before a position player came in the game. 17 of these runs came through five innings of baseball all off a pitcher. Then those three in the eighth inning was a three-run homer from Contreras. But the Brewers put together 23 hits in this game. And you're going to see this. You're going to see 20-0 and you're going to be like, that's all you got to pay attention to. The offense, the offense, the offense. And that is totally fair. 23 hits, 20 runs. They were hitting the over the fence like crazy. You cannot ignore that. But what I do not want to ignore is Dustin May and what he did in this contest for the Brewers. Because Dustin May has had a strong September, which is very needed with how this pitching unit is looking for Milwaukee. We take a look at May's final stat line in this contest. And don't get me wrong, he got lots of cushion to work with. So he was definitely firing in the zone a little bit more. But six innings only allowed two hits, no runs, only walked one batter and struck out six. That perfect one strikeout per average. And nice to see no earned runs, only two hits and was only giving one free pass across that time. Dustin May is going to be a huge piece to this Brewers starting rotation. We have seen struggles all throughout with guys like Kyle Harrison, who I'll get on to in a whole nother video with a breakdown on his struggles. Dustin May is a guy that the Brewers got the trade deadline. It's a guy that needs to step up for the crew and has been over his past two contests, hoping that that is able to stay a little more consistent. We take a look at Dustin May's game log, which I'll flash up here for you guys right now. And this is his entire game log with the Milwaukee Brewers, a 6.41 ERA in the month of August. His first start with the Brewers came against the Pittsburgh Pirates and what I thought was a very solid first outing with a new team. You're at home in front of a new fan base. He went 97 pitches, six innings, only two earned runs. The start after that at San Diego, absolutely incredible as well. Seven innings and one earned run, but then everything kind of imploded from there. Face Seattle only lasted two innings, gave up seven earned runs. His next outing after that, he got hit by a line drive on the very first pitch of the game, so only lasted one third of an hitting. So now you're kind of worried. His first outing back from that one, four and a third, four earned runs. So that three game stretch is absolutely brutal. I know that there's a lot of worry about Dustin May and if he would like, you know, ever kind of be what those first two starts were. But luckily you go to the month of September and he had an alright start against Cincinnati. Only went 56 pitches in that one, but in his second outing against Cincinnati again, but now at home, even better with those six innings, only allowing two hits, no earned runs, and a walk. His ERA for the month of September is a 1.86 and that's the type of baseball we need to see. And Cincinnati has a pretty solid offense. I know it's not the talk of the town. They are in last in the NL Central, but they got some guys. They got Elie De La Cruz. They got Sal Stort. Even in Eugenio Suarez, batting average is struggling on the season. He's still always a threat at the plate. So, you know, Dustin May, we'd like to see him against maybe some bigger competition and know how he's going to perform in the playoffs, but you can't complain. His two most recent starts have looked very, very good. But again, with this series win with that win in game one, the Brewers did it yet again, clinching a spot in the postseason. When our way is the slogan that they are going for. I really like that one because a lot of people call it devil magic, Brewers, baseball, whatever they want to give a term to how the Brewers play baseball. Bunts, singles, fast, no homers, all that jazz, pitching lab, all that stuff. They say, win our way. And I think that that is pretty cool, but they are in a job not done mentality. I don't have a picture of the Tampa Bay Rays and the Tampa Bay Rays are kind of like a Brewers-esque team, but in the American league, you know, lower in the market with the amount of money they have to spend, but have so many guys that get developed very well by the coaches. But the Tampa Bay Rays clinched a spot in the playoffs. They were popping champagne, had the goggles on, doing all that jazz. The Milwaukee Brewers and Pat Murphy did it a little bit differently. They were pretty casual with this. This is truly a job not done, just a sipping on champagne and a glass standing in a little bit of a semi-circle looking at Pat Murphy, who gave a very good speech to the team. And I really like that this is the mentality because this Brewers team makes the postseason year after year after year. They keep winning the division, but they cannot get the job done. They haven't even been able to reach the World Series. Pat Murphy, his first two years with the Milwaukee Brewers, manager of the year. This is the third year with the Brewers. I think he could honestly win three in a row. The most managers in a year, there's a couple of them that have had four. Pat Murphy has a chance to be a manager for three years and win this award three times. I know that there could be some other names in there, and I know that voter fatigue could definitely be a thing, saying we're really going to give it to Pat Murphy again. But some sports markets, some people had teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates being higher than the Brewers in this division. They had the Brewers around like 86, 87 wins. Pat Murphy has a chance for the Brewers to get a hundred wins. He has a chance for them to break last year's record of 97. I think the Brewers only have to go, what, like five and seven to break last year's franchise record, and then seven and five to get a hundred wins, which has also obviously never happened. I think Pat Murphy has to get manager of the year. I think there is no doubt about it. I know voter fatigue could be real. And the thing is, I know some people say, well, in the playoffs he doesn't come through. Well, you know what? I think he's done pretty good in the playoffs with what we saw last season. It was obviously a disaster against the Dodgers, but to even get to that point with that roster that was out there is incredible. And also the manager of the year award is only how he has done with the team in the regular season. Brewers hold the best record in all of Major League Baseball with truly a, I don't mean it like this, way less talented roster than like the Dodgers. It's more like they can't pay the superstars. They have to truly use all these guys through their system, and no one has done it better than Pat Murphy in the entire league. But I want to talk about game two. This was a game that was pretty close. Lots of offense on both sides. I'll swing that on over to the top left of your screen. Brewers win this one, 13 to nine. They once led 13 to five. And this is the game where Kyle Harrison had his big struggles coming out of the bullpen, trying to figure himself out again. And Kyle Harrison was not even able to record an out, gave up four earned runs. Again, I'll have a whole different breakdown on him and on some other pitchers, what this starting rotation, what this bullpen can look like in the postseason. But another offensive explosion, 14 hits, 13 runs that made it 33 runs over two games. And that was a franchise record. The Brewers put that out on X franchise record, 33 runs over two games. Just absolutely unreal what this offense is able to do. And this is why you could see them making a deep postseason run. And I know it's the Reds, it's a team in fifth place. They're struggling. Their season's kind of over. I get that, but there's really no winning if you view it that way, because if the Brewers lose, you're saying, wow, they're losing to not a good team. If they barely win, you're saying they are barely winning against a good team. And if they're beating them big, you're saying, well, they're not really a good team. So you know what? There's no winning with this type of scenario. I think it's very nice that the offense exploded exactly how they did. But we do take a look at the pitchers in that game, and a lot were used because it was 13 to nine, as you just saw. Here were all the pitchers. We had Shane Drowan, who started it off. Chad Patrick came in for relief for him. He was the one that got credited with the win. Saw an inning from D.L. Hall. Saw Antonio Senzatella. You see Kyle Harrison there, not even able to record an out, giving up those four runs. Aaron Ashby, Amner Ebay, all used in this contest. So they used up a lot of pitchers. A big reason why, you know, that game three, a little bit less availability in the bullpen or having to pitch guys back-to-back days. But there'll be lots to talk about, which I will get into. What do the Brewers do with Kyle Harrison? Does he even stay in the starting rotation? Do they try to have him there in the postseason? What do you do with a guy like Shane Drowan? Does someone like D.L. Hall get more of a starter-type role? Or a Chad Patrick? There'll be lots of things to figure out. Because this Brewers starting rotation has looked like one of the best in the league, and now you're kind of a little bit worried. So that's why I think it's big guys like Dustin May starting to bounce back a little bit, because the Brewers need, in my opinion, a four-man rotation. Because some teams go three-man rotation in the playoffs, but when one of your three guys is Jacob Mizorowski throwing as hard as he is, way more innings, way harder than he has in his life, you want to be very, very safe with him. We take a look at game three, which is kind of the one to forget, but it is the most recent one. The Brewers in this one, the offense, not really able to do anything. I mean, definitely went quiet. A four-to-three loss. I believe they only had runner in scoring position like one time. The two runs in that second inning were scored on a two-run homer from Joey Ortiz, and that was really all the offensive spark that was shown in this game. Abner Ribe did struggle. He did give up that fourth run, but again, the offense was, in my opinion, the real reason why the Brewers lost this game. I talked about it. It's tough. Ribe had a pitch back-to-back outings, hoping that everything is good with him. You're always kind of bound for a rough outing, and that was his, so hopefully that that is out of the way. But we take a look now at the postseason race for the Brewers. Who could they possibly be playing? Well, we are still two weeks away from the end of the season, and so many things can move around, but I just want to give a pretty decent picture of what the Brewers are looking at right now, where they sit kind of across the National League, and they do sit in first place. The Dodgers have played some hot baseball. They are only two games ahead of the Dodgers now, but for the Braves in that three-seed, that is now five and a half, which I think is really, really big. The Brewers definitely need to get a bye. We cannot see this team play in the wild card. We saw them get a bye last year, and they were able to win off of that. The Brewers in the wild card is an absolute disaster with all due respect, as we've seen going back to 2019 with the Nats, or 2020 with the Dodgers, or 2023 with the Diamondbacks, 2024 at the Mets. I mean, the wild card in the Milwaukee Brewers are a recipe for disaster, especially always being that three-seed. You get it at home. They just have not seemed like a wild card type team. I know it's a different roster every single year, but I would definitely like the bye. So the way that this would work for the Brewers, if they ended up being the number one overall seed, they would play the lowest seed that advances, and it's a pretty tight race. You cannot assume that anything is over right now because these wild card teams will adjust, but it's really these seven teams battling for six spots. The Diamondbacks are trying to surpass the Padres, but the Padres have won eight straight. There's a lot of teams that scare me here, honestly, out of this group. The Diamondbacks, they had our number in the wild card, and that's a team that always gives us struggles. The Padres give us struggles and a half, it feels like, but we have not faced them in the playoffs, so maybe that's a little bit of a different story. The Philadelphia Phillies, I mean, if you get a lot of these games at home, that might not be the worst opponent. And then the Chicago Cubs, the Brewers winning the season series against them comfortably, but like, you know, you can never count out the Cubs. Let's be honest, that offense is unreal, and they could explode for 12 runs in a game, or they could really fall off and only score like one or two. They are such a run of a team, hot and cold every other week, it feels like. So hopefully the Brewers are able to at least get a bye. Hopefully they are able to get that one seed. You get those games at home, or more than half the games at home. That would be very big for the Brewers. I now have a question for you guys. We see this job is not done mentality. We see it right here. This is how they are in the locker room. You talk about it, the season is not over. So my question to you guys is, what is the floor for the Brewers this season? Is it to reach the NLCS, which is exactly what they did last year? Is it to reach the World Series, which means they get to the NLCS and actually win it? Or is it to win the World Series? You notice I don't even say reach the NLDS, because that's where they sit right now. That's where they should stay with where they are right now, and they should at least win one round in the playoffs. If you were the one or two seed, you are expected to win, especially getting home field advantage. So my opinion, win the World Series. I know that that is something that the Brewers have never done in their franchise, they've only made the World Series once, but you have a chance to be the number one seed again. Last year, we saw the Brewers, absolute disaster, 4-0 swept by the Dodgers. I do not think that you can have the floor any more than winning the World Series. And another reason I say that, I think the National League is very stacked in comparison to the American League. And if I'm wrong about that, I will eat my words. But I feel like if the Brewers make the NLCS and they face like the Dodgers, that is going to be a harder matchup than whoever they face in the American League, whoever makes it out of that. The Yankees are always dangerous, but that's a team that has struggled in the postseason. You even got some other teams, you know, the Rays, they're kind of the Brewers of the AL, a little bit more inexperienced. I think that could be an easier matchup, not trying to talk down on the AL. It's just more praising how good teams like the Dodgers are going to be that you might have to face along the way, or even the Braves who sit at that three seed. So I say the floor is to literally win the World Series, which I know is also the ceiling at the same time, because that's as far as you can go. That is what I'm putting the floor out for the Brewers. You guys let me know in the comments down below what is the floor for you guys, but I don't think it could be any more than winning the World Series, because I think the World Series matchup, even though the pressure is way higher, I think the opponent could be easier than if they had to go through a team like the Dodgers and even someone like the Padres before that to get there. But we look at the matchup for tonight's contest, it'll be Jacob Mizorowski on the mound for the Brewers. A chance the Brewers do have a chance to win the NL Central tonight. If not, hopefully that is tomorrow, but it'd be very neat if the Brewers are able to get it done tonight. And they start from Jacob Mizorowski. So that's a pitching matchup you got going on. Jacob Mizorowski looking to solidify that NL Cy Young race. He seems very far ahead of it, just seems like this one more outing should get him there if everything goes as planned. But that's all I got for this episode of Brewers Digest. I appreciate you tuning in to yet another one, the Brewers and the Pirates. Pirates are a team that give the Brewers struggles, and you know they're a team that would just love to disrupt something. So this is not an easy game at all, and definitely be tuned in to see how this one results. Hoping Jacob Mizorowski is able to get the Brewers back in the winning column and lead them to an NL Central crown.