The Brewers travel to Charlotte to take on the reigning MGL champion Sting, who are languishing in 8th place at this point of the season and have been mathematically eliminated from contention for a while. This is a 4-games in 3 days series.
In the opening game of a Monday doubleheader, the Brewers get another fine start from Harry Lyerly. Harry gets a season high 13 strikeouts in his 8 innings pitched, giving up 1 run (unearned) on 7 hits. He also gets plenty of run support in an 8-1 victory. Lyerly improves to 14-6 with a 2.78 ERA. Mike Foster (.278/.310/.394), in the midst of a disappointing season, has a fine game, going 3 for 5, scoring twice and driving in 2, and hitting his 10th HR of the season.
The Brewers drop the night-cap, 5-1. Steve Green takes the loss and falls to 8-12 with a 4.28 ERA. He gave up 4 runs on 6 hits in 7 innings pitched. Not much good to report about the team in this one, although Pat Rondeau did throw out a runner at 3rd base for his 12th outfield assist of the season.
The team bounces back with a 10-5 win in game 3. Eric Johnson wasn't sharp in his 3 innings as he gave up 3 runs on 7 hits. But the bullpen was mostly strong with Jaden Francis pitching 2 spectacular innings (5 K, 0 hits, 0 BB) to earn the victory and improve to 3-3 with a 2.56 ERA. And rookie Justin Bismark worked the final 3 innings, allowing just 2 harmless hits, and got the save, his 2nd, and now has an ERA of 2.84. Bobby Erbakan (.353/.407/.491) was 2 for 4 with 5 RBI in the game and hit his 10th HR of the season. He also hit his 24th double of the season, a 2-out bases loaded knock that drove in all 3 runners to cap off the scoring in the 5 run 6th inning. Mike Foster (.282/.314/.397) had another fine game, collecting 3 hits in 5 at-bats, scoring 2 runs.
The Brewers get the series victory with a 9-3 win in the final game. Erik Sloan worked 7 innings, giving up 3 runs on 7 hits, and sees his record move to 13-8 with a 3.49 ERA. Pat Rondeau (.368/.392/.456) led off the game with a rare home run, his 2nd of the season. And Ryan Rodgers (.365/.475/.465), chasing Rondeau for the MGL batting title, went 3 for 4 in the game and hit his 5th triple of the season.
In spite of the 3-1 series win the Brewers remain in 3rd place, 3 games off the pace. With 14 games left in the season, time is running out on the Brewers even as they are playing pretty well. And they do not face the L.A. Spinners again though they do have 2 games at Brooklyn in the penultimate series of the season. All the Brewers can do now is keep plugging away and hope the Aces and Spinners stumble a bit down the stretch run.