Two weeks from right now, the grueling 162 game MLB regular season will be over. More importantly, the postseason picture will be set (barring, of course, an epic 163rd play-in game). For the first time in seven years, the Brewers will control their own destiny as they finish out the regular season. They’ve got a 3 game cushion to host the Wild Card, with another half game cushion for the second spot. Despite having the second most wins in the National league, they remain 2.5 games back of the Cubs in the NL Central, squandering a key chance to pick up a game this afternoon against Pittsburgh.
All in all, the Brewers are in good shape. An epic collapse is about as likely as the Brewers ending the season 12-0, sending all fans to George Webbs ahead of the NLDS. The result will probably be somewhere in the middle, and a three game cushion with twelve games to go is a good spot to be in.
No doubt, this has been the most exciting season for me to write about since I penned the very first Sunday Cycle nearly five seasons ago. Winning baseball is so much more fun to write about, and ten times more fun to read about than losing and rebuilding.
This week and next, and ahead of a potential first-ever postseason berth during the Squeaky Curd era, I’m going to break down my opinion of the biggest and most important “milestones” for the team. There was a lot of good, but not all of it – this team has had it’s fair share of challenges to overcome.
While the ending still hasn’t been written (or you could say, the rest is still unwritten), it’s important to remember the story that led this Brewers team to be right where they said they’d be before Opening Day: in contention.
January 26, 2018: The Brewers trade for Christian Yelich, sign long-term deal with Lorenzo Cain.
This may sound dramatic, but I can promise you most avid Brewers fans remember where they were when they found out the news about Yelich and Cain. I was in Denver, in the mountains, shredding, because I’m gnarly. It’s hard to imagine a more significant off season day in Brewers franchise history. The Brewers would later confirm what January 26th, 2018 had already made official- the rebuild is over. “The expectation now is to win.”
March 29 – March 31: Brewers sweep Padres on the road to open the season 3-0.
Orlando Arcia hit a game winning RBI in extras on Opening Day. Ryan Braun hit a go-ahead three run bomb on Saturday with two outs and two strikes in the ninth. The new Brewers Cain and Yelich went 15 for 28 with two walks, three stolen bases, four doubles, six RBIs, and seven runs. This series had everything. You could not have scripted a better start for the Brewer’s 2018 campaign.
April 17 – April 25: Brewers win eight straight, their longest winning streak of the season (thus far).
This run was important for the Brewers, who fell below .500 for the first time all year at 8-9. They proceeded to win the last two of that series vs the Reds, then sweep four from the Marlins and two from the Royals. They ended the run 16-9 with a 1 game lead in the Central heading into a pivotal series at Wrigley.
The biggest star of this run was the Brewers bullpen, who went 21 2/3 straight innings without allowing an earned run, and at this point were without Corey Knebel (who hadn’t yet had his disappointing season). Starting a trend that would go on to last almost the entire regular season, Josh Hader and Jeremy Jeffress looked unhittable in high leverage situations. All was well in Milwaukee.
April 24: Eric Thames injures his left thumb, placed on the 10-day DL
This is relevant for a number of reasons. First, Thames was having a monster first month (something that is now becoming a pattern). Before getting injured, Thames had an OPS of .976 with seven home runs through 22 games.
Thames would be on the DL for exactly seven weeks. While he was out, Jesus Aguilar started 37 of the next 40 games, hit 32 RBIs and 10 home runs, and didn’t commit a single error on defense. Aguilar would go on to grab the role of every day first baseman before making his first All-Star appearance, and Thames would struggle and never return to his April glory.
April 26 – April 29: Brewers swept in four game series vs the Cubs.
Things changed in a hurry. Cubs pitchers beat up on the Brewers, who managed just 14 hits and two runs in the entire series. The Brewers dropped six of their first seven games against the Cubs, feeding speculation that this team might not have what it takes to compete with the best in the NL.
May 13, 2018: Freddy Peralta makes historic MLB debut.
Peralta threw 13 strikeouts in 5 2/3 scoreless innings, at he did it in the hitter friendly Coors field in Colorado. Petalta’s family, who had never seen him pitch, had come to Colorado Springs to watch him pitch in AAA. They were instead treated to just the fifth MLB rookie since 1908 to strikeout 13 or more batters in the MLB debut. It was a feel good story on Mother’s Day weekend.
May 10 – May 30: The Brewers make a run atop the NL Central.
The Brewers won 15 of 20 games and six straight series to end the month of May with a 4.5 game lead in the NL Central, a lead that would prove to be the largest they’d have all season.
June 13: Jhoulys Chacin wins his third straight game to improve to 6-1, Brewers beat Cubs 1-0.
This milestone is relevant because it was the first time the general public started to believe that the Brewers might have found a gem in Chacin. Jhoulys worked six scoreless, giving up just four hits, and the Brewers beat the Cubs 1-0 at Miller Park. Chacin would go on to be the true star of the rotation, including being shuffled in the rotation to put him in line to start the do-or-die Wild Card game should the Brewers play in it.
June 22: Jesus Aguilar walks off the St. Louis Cardinals.
Aguilar actually hit two home runs this game- the first to break up a Cardinals no hitter in the 6th inning, and the second to secure the walk off win in the bottom of the ninth. Brewers win 2-1.
July 8: Lorenzo Cain, Christian Yelich, and Josh Hader named to the All-Star game roster. Jesus Aguilar wins the final vote, Jeffress added after injury.
The Brewers eventually send five to the mid-summer classic in Washington DC, their most in franchise history. For everyone but Cain, it was their first ever All-Star game. It was a well-deserved nod to the individual players the Brewers owed much of their first half success to: Cain, Yelich, Hader, Jeffress, and Aguilar.
July 15: Brewers swept by Pirates in a five game series to end the first half.
Every team has tough stretches of the schedule that tests their staying power. Fortunately for the Brewers, theirs came towards the end of the first half of the season. The Brewers would play 21 games in 20 days at a 10-11 clip, but they’d end on one of the lowest notes of the season.
Up two runs against the Pirates in the bottom of the 9th inning of the final game before the All-Star break, Corey Knebel blew the save, sending the game to extra innings where the Brewers would go on to lose in the pouring rain. Five games, five losses, and a whole lot of bad mojo heading into the break.
Down a run. Down to their last out. In the pouring rain.
That’s how you close out a 5-game sweep. 👀 #TipOfTheCap pic.twitter.com/MeW9cGAN6z
— MLB (@MLB) July 15, 2018
Next week: Part two, which kicks off with the #hadertweets