Offense the reason for Brewers’ slide
By Andy Egelhoff
E-mail
Print- Share on Facebook
-
Seed Newsvine
- Text size:
It’s been a rough few weeks for the Milwaukee Brewers, as their road woes continue. After sweeping the Colorado Rockies way back in the Aug. 22-24 series at Miller Park, which pulled them within three games of a wild card playoff birth, the team has struggled mightily.
It started with a four-game series against a hot Marlins team fighting for a playoff spot of their own.
After dropping four in a row in Miami, Milwaukee traveled to Houston where it was much of the same. They lost three straight to the Astros, who outscored the Brewers by a total margin of 16-6, including a 10-3 rout to kick off the affair.
The common theme in those losses? Many thought it was the fact that they were once again playing on the road. What cures this team’s ills is nothing a little homestand can’t fix, right?
Wrong.
The Brewers returned to Miller Park to face the same Marlins team they faced a few days ago only to lose three more games. That’s 10 losses in a row.
The 2006 Milwaukee Brewers were getting dangerously close to making history, and not the good kind. The record for consecutive losses in team history is 12.
While many would like to blame the recent struggles on the Brewers’ inability to win on the road, the fact of the matter is they haven’t been able to produce offensively.
Simply put, they haven’t been scoring runs. Over the 10-game losing streak, the team had batted a measly .213 and averaged a mere 2.7 runs per game.
Why the offensive slide? Any number of reasons come to mind.
Second baseman Rickie Weeks has been sidelined by a wrist injury for over a month, and had been the team leader in runs scored with a high on-base percentage. One person isn’t responsible for scoring all the team’s runs, but being the lead-off hitter he did get things going.
Or it could be due to the rookie wall it seems young slugger Prince Fielder may have encountered. His numbers have dropped off as they do for most rookies, adjusting to a schedule consisting of 162 games.
Bill Hall seems to be a statistical conundrum. His power numbers and slugging percentage rank with the league’s very best, but his on-base percentage is low and he strikes out too much.
While these suggestions are just that — suggestions — the correlation between them is that the players mentioned are the future of the Brewers. So it is no surprise that if they struggle, the offense struggles.
When they do get on the same page, it is fun to watch. Until then, it might seem like every game this team plays is a road game.


> Comments