Phillies at Brewers: An Ugly Series, An Ugly Stretch of Baseball

Game 1 Brewers 2 – Phillies 3

Phillies 3, Brewers 2 (Final Score) on MLB Gameday | MLB.com

Josh Hader is Mortal
Well, it was good while it lasted. Really, really good. Josh Hader hadn’t allowed a run since July 28^th, 2021 and had not blown a save since July 7^th, 2021. He was one scoreless outing away from setting an MLB record with 41 consecutive scoreless appearances. So like I said…really, really good. But the bottom was bound to drop out at some point and that point was game one against the Phils. Hader gave up a game tying home run to Alec Bohm on his third pitch of the inning. And then gave up another home run to little used Matt Vierling two batters later. What looked like a sure win turned into a gut wrenching loss as the Brewers couldn’t scrape across a run in the bottom of the ninth.

The game started out great as Andrew McCutchen doubled home Christian Yelich in the first inning to give the Crew a quick one run lead.

The Phillies tied it up in the third on a Bryce Harper sac fly but the Brewers retook the lead in the bottom of the fourth on Rowdy Tellez’s 13^th double of the year scoring Yelich once again.

The score remained that way until the fateful ninth inning and the Brewers dropped game one of the series. At least we got to see Brent Suter’s dog run around.

Game 2 Brewers 0 – Phillies 10

Phillies 10, Brewers 0 (Final Score) on MLB Gameday

Gross
Ugh. This one stunk. The Brewers suffered their worst loss of the year going down 10 – 0 to the Phillies. It was the third time the Brewers had been shut out on offense in a week. Adrian Houser gave up five runs in six innings and the bullpen wasn’t much better. They made Phillies former first round pick Bryson Stott, he of the .451 OPS prior to the game, look like peak Richie Ashburn as he went four for four with a double, a home run, and two RBI. The Brewers managed four hits none of which went for extra bases. Christian Yelich stole a base. Yay. Well, at least there were dogs the day before.

Game 3 Brewers 3 – Phillies 8

Phillies 8, Brewers 3 (Final Score) on MLB Gameday | MLB.com

Willy Goes Deep, Brewers Fall
Welcome back, Willy Adames. In his second game since May15th, Adames crushed a 418 ft home run to dead center in the first inning. Unfortunately, there would not be many more highlights for the Crew putting to an end an ugly three game set against the Phillies.

Starter Corbin Burnes was uncharacteristically wild. He first got into trouble in second inning walking the first two batters and then allowing a single to Didi Gregorius to load the bases. He was able to work his way out of it with only one run crossing the plate but the walks would come back to bite him again. After three complete he had already given up four free passes (a career high) while striking out six. A lot of walks and a lot of K’s means a lot of pitches. Burnes was pulled with one out in the fifth after tossing a whopping 113 of them. Hopefully better days are ahead for the reigning Cy Young winner. With little offense to speak of recently, the Brewers will need their staff to pull the weight if they want to see the playoffs.

Adames had a few chances to play the hero with the bat. After the Brewers loaded the bases with two out in the second Willy worked the count full and fouled off two pitches before chasing what might have been ball four and weakly grounding out to pitcher, Zach Eflin. In the fourth, Adames was up again and worked a 13 pitch at bat before flying out to right field. In the sixth, Adames again worked a full count before popping out on pitch number eight. All told, Willy saw 36 pitches – an average of 9 per at bat – but other than the big home run had little to show for it.

In the bottom of the sixth, Hunter Renfroe cranked home run number 10 on the season to draw the Brewers within a run.

But the resurgent Phillies did what everyone thought they’d do this year and started hitting home runs against a less than stellar Brewer bullpen.

Bryce Harper hit one off Brad Boxberger in the seventh to push lead back to 2. Then Kyle Schwarber slugged a two-run homer in eighth off Trevor Kelley and pinch hitter Odúbel Herrera added insult to injury with a two-run shot in the ninth off Kelley giving them a six run lead that the Brewers had no chance of overcoming. The three-game sweep gives Philadelphia the season series as well.

Up Next
The quest for Craig Counsell to tie Phil Garner for most regular season wins in franchise history continues for another day. The suddenly reeling Brewers, losers of eight of their last nine, head out to the nation's capital for a three-game set against the Washington Nationals starting Friday night.