One week remains in the MLB regular season and the Brewers are still in line to host the one-game Wild Card playoff next Tuesday, October 2nd. Last week, we started recapping a timeline of the significant moments over the past six months. Today, we’ll pick up part two of this series right where we left off: the MLB All-Star Game.
July 17: The Josh Hader Tweets.
The All-Star break was supposed to be a couple of days away from baseball to relax and celebrate the accomplishments of the franchise record five Milwaukee Brewers who appeared in the All-Star Game. What happened instead created the Brewers biggest off-the-diamond story of the year.
Before the final out of the game had even been recorded, old racist and hateful tweets from Brewers’ All-Star reliever Josh Hader’s 17-year-old past resurfaced, and dominated much of the national media coverage after the mid-summer classic.
What happened over the following week was a combination of great PR and a team choosing to publicly rally around a man who said some stupid things when he was a high school kid. While they didn’t realize it at the time, they may have saved the Brewers season. Hader’s performance didn’t dip – he remains one of the most feared relievers in all of baseball and his strikeout clips are breaking records. The Brewers would not be in line for a postseason berth had Hader collapsed down the stretch.
July 20 – July 22: Brewers lose 2 of 3 to the Dodgers following the All-Star break.
This was the low point in the season for me. I think a lot of Brewers fans were placing a ton of importance on the series to the Dodgers because they wanted to put the Hader tweets in the review mirror. When the Brewers lost two of three, including an 11-2 pounding on Saturday at the hands of Matt Kemp and newly minted Dodger shortstop Manny Machado, some (me) panicked.
“It all sounds great in January…” I tweeted angrily before bed that Sunday evening, “…the expectation now is to win. But when you’re trying to change the losing culture of one of the least successful franchises in sports, calling your shot and striking out could end you back right where you started.”
The Brewers also lost Brent Suter for the season during the final game of the series. At 3.5 games behind the Cubs, and the pressure of the trade deadline mounting, this was the first of two times this season that I worried about whether the Brewers had what it took to get to October.
July 24 – July 31: The Brewers complete three deadline deals, bringing Mike Moustakas, Jonathan Schoop, and Joakim Soria to Milwaukee.
Dealin’ David Stearns made it clear that he wasn’t backing down from his commitment to making the postseason in 2018. All together, he dealt six prospects + Jonathan Villar to add playoff experience, power, and an additional arm for an ailing bullpen to the 25-man roster. While I think many were thrilled to see Stearns making an effort to improve the team, he seemed to take a lot of heat for what he didn’t add to the team: a starting pitcher.
August 11: Ryan Braun says something stupid following a good catch.
Here’s the quote: “I don’t know that it’s too much of an exaggeration to say it felt like a season saver.” Spoiler alert: it was too much of an exaggeration.
I call attention to this because it was a stupid comment to make about a single game played on August 11th. More importantly, though, it was concerning because it felt like that was the mentality the Brewers had in the clubhouse – that their season was slipping away and needed to be saved. I was happy to see Craig Counsell publicly back the comments down the following day.
August 18: Jonathan Schoop’s poor Milwaukee debut highlights a 6-10 August.
Thanks a lot, Ryan Braun. Early and mid- August brought out the worst in Brewers fans. In fairness, everything that could go wrong for this team seemed to go wrong in early August. There were reports from national baseball insiders stating that the Brewers deadline moves, which had yet to pay dividends in the form of wins, has the current players confused and frustrated. Nobody took more heat from fans than Jonathan Schoop, who went 3 for his first 26 with 12 strikeouts.
But other things were going wrong, too. Corey Knebel was sent to AAA following a couple of blown saves. Craig Counsell refused to pitch Hader and Jeffress in a couple of one run games the Brewers would go on to lose. They weren’t just losing close games, either. At that point, they were losing by an average of 5.1 runs. This was the lowest of the low points of the entire season.
August 22: The Brewers take two of three from the Reds, start a season defining run.
On August 22nd, it was just a series victory at Miller Park against the worst team in the NL Central. A month later, it would be looked back on as the first of seven straight series wins for the Brewers, who would ride that success through late September and put themselves in a position to host the Wild Card game.
August 30: David Stearns adds Curtis Granderson, Gio Gonzalez, and Xavier Cedeno.
Stearns continued the push to make his roster better, adding a veteran pinch hitter with postseason experience in Granderson, and yet another option in the bullpen with Cedeno. However, the most significant move was the decision to bring Nationals starting pitcher Gio Gonzales to Milwaukee to replace the struggling Junior Guerra. Combined with 11 September call ups, the Brewers now had anywhere between 34-37 active players in their clubhouse every night. Make no mistakes about it: the postseason push was officially on in Milwaukee.
September 5: Craig Counsell sits Christian Yelich in final game vs Cubs, Brewers lose chance to sweep.
This was probably the single most discussed managerial decision of the year for Craig Counsell. The Brewers MVP candidate sat for the final game of a three-game series, where a series sweep would have cut the Cubs lead in the NL Central from five to two. Instead, the Brewers offense struggled to get anything going, and dropped to four back in the Central with 20 games to play. The reasoning was simple: Yelich needed rest, and every game was important. The fans were angry – the Brewers had an off day that Thursday and it felt like a wasted opportunity to gain ground in an NL Central race that felt like it was slowly slipping away.
September 9: Jonathan Schoop hits go-ahead Grand Slam in the 6th inning, Brewers sweep Giants.
Every season has those moments that you remember for years to come: this was one of them. The Brewers were trying to sweep the Giants, who had not been in the postseason conversation since the first month of the season.
Madison Bumgartner was cruising along in the sixth inning with the Brewers down, when he just happened to “lose his control” on two wild pitches, the second of which hit Ryan Braun to load the bases (first base was open at the time). Benches cleared, tempers flared, Counsell was tossed, and Schoop came up to bat with the bases loaded. The rest is history – Schoop hit the grand slam heard round the 414, and the Brewers swept the Giants, their six straight series victory.
September 16: Brewers lose two of three to the Pirates, their first series since August 19.
As previously mentioned, the Brewers run of seven straight series victories set the stage for what is now a comfortable lead in the NL Wild Card. While they were never truly able to gain significant round vs the Cubs, they rode their 15-6 record to the second best record in the NL, and the ability to control their destiny with just one week remaining in the regular season.
September 18: Christian Yelich hits second cycle of the year, capping MVP bid.
Regardless of how the next month or so plays out, there will be no bigger story about the 2018 Brewers than that of Christian Yelich, who hit his second cycle in less than a month (both vs the Reds). The cycle came on a triple that was absolutely laced to the wall, and Yelich was off to the races as soon as it was hit. It was an awesome moment to highlight an incredible campaign for Yelich, who has made a series case for himself in the MVP race as he looks to bring home the first batting title in Brewers history.