Next up for the 1st place Brewers is a 3-game series in Detroit against the 6th place Falcons.
Game 1 sees the Brewers fail to capitalize on a number of good scoring opportunities and let the Falcons over-take them in the 7th inning for a 3-2 win. Harry Lyerly deserved better, as he worked 6 1/3rd innings, giving up just 2 runs on 5 hits, striking out 4 and walking 3. Liann-wei Hua, continuing his inconsistent season, allowed one of the runners he inherited from Lyerly to score and gave up another run of his own in just 2/3rds of an inning pitched, blowing the save and earning the loss, as he drops to 1-4 with a 3.19 ERA. Rookie first baseman Greg Tietz (.364/.447/.455), recently called up from AAA when Ryan Rodgers went on the 10-day IL, got a rare start and went 3 for 4 with 1 RBI. Veteran (43 years old!) third baseman Billy Turner (.279/.333/.468) was 2 for 3 with a walk and hit his 4th HR of the season in the loss.
The Brewers offense did a better job of cashing in on scoring opportunities in the second game (well, after stranding 3 runners in the 1st inning), as they plated 5 runs in the 2nd inning and went on to win 10-4 (good buddy.) Bobby Erbakan (.373/.435/.511), who is starting to give teammate Pat Rondeau some good competition for the MGL batting title, had a little something to do with the offensive explosion. Erbakan just went 4 for 5 with 1 run, 2 RBI, and a walk in the game. Speaking of Rondeau (.379/.402/.494), he was 2 for 6 in the game with 2 runs scored, 2 driven in, and he hit his 22nd double (just 2 behind teammate Andrew Kennedy for the league lead.) As for the pitching, well, Justin Peacock wasn't great in his 2nd start since being called up from AAA. He worked 6 innings, giving up 4 runs on 8 hits. But with the offense providing him with plenty of support he got the win and is now 1-0 with a 5.73 ERA. Jaden Francis and Jordan Stephens were once again excellent in relief and are by far the best and most consistent members of the Brewers bullpen at this stage.
But the Brewers couldn't get anything going against lefty Nick Swenson in the rubber match, saw the Falcons score 6 runs in the 7th and 8th inning combined and run away with an 8-1 victory. Guess who started the game for the Brewers? Yup, that's right, Steve Green. Though to be fair, Green kept the Brewers in the game pretty well in his 6 innings, allowing 3 runs (2 earned) on 5 hits. He did, however, take the loss, falling to 6-8 with a 4.53 ERA. But it was the bullpen that gave up most of the runs, starting with Jose de los Santos, who allowed 1 run in his inning pitched, and then Sam Pruiett, who was roughed up for 4 runs (2 earned) on 4 hits in his inning pitched. If there was a bright spot it was Mike Foster (.279/.318/.388) who went 2 for 4 and hit his 8th double in the loss. After struggling earlier in the season, Foster has been slowly pulling himself up towards respectability for awhile and is likely going to be seeing more starts at third base.
With the series loss the Brewers now have a very narrow 1 1/2 game lead on Brooklyn, while they lead L.A. by 5 1/2 and are 6 games ahead of Phoenix and Baltimore.
But next up is a 4-game series against the Aces in Brooklyn which will be a real test of the Brewers mettle.