The Sports Xchange
MILWAUKEE -- Following their 9-1 thumping at the hands of the St. Louis Cardinals Sunday, the Milwaukee Brewers held a closed-door, players meeting in the hopes of regrouping and getting back on track for the final 19 games.
So optimism was high Monday as the Brewers prepared to face the Miami Marlins at Miller Park, and it looked like the Brewers were about to turn things around after scoring two first-inning runs to erase a 1-0 deficit.
But it all went out the window when right-hander Yovani Gallardo gave up back-to-back home runs to open the second inning, then a leadoff home run to Giancarlo Stanton to open the third and ultimately failed to get out of the fourth inning while burying the Brewers offense with a 6-2 deficit.
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"We (the starting pitchers) set the tone for the rest of the guys around us," Gallardo said. "Obviously today I didn't do the job I was supposed to do. It was just never there. It's not easy for the guys to come back from being down four runs that early in the game."
While Milwaukee has struggled in all aspects of the game during their late-season swoon, the starting rotation has been a leading reason the Brewers have lost 15 of 18 games and gone from leading the division by three games to being a game and a half out of the postseason.
In September alone, Brewers starters have combined for a 1-7 record and have given up 35 earned runs in 39 1/3 innings of work good for an 8.00 ERA.
That performance has made things all the more difficult for the Brewers' batters, who have struggled to score runs as it is but have also been faced with the prospect of swinging their way out of deep deficits.
"It's never easy," said first baseman Mark Reynolds, who is batting a paltry .196 after going 0-for-3 Monday. "You would obviously like to play from in front and give your starter some cushion to go out there and play but it seems that everything that can happen that's bad, happens.
"Bloopers, homers, whatever. It's just one of those ruts, and if we don't get out of it soon, it's going to be tough sledding here."
If there's been a saving grace, it would be the Brewers bullpen, which has done its best to give the offense a chance. Milwaukee went 19 1/3 innings without giving up a run before Sunday, when right-handers Brandon Kintzler and Alfredo Figaro gave up four to St. Louis.
But right-hander Marco Estrada, who struggled to keep the ball in the park as a starter earlier this season, has shined in the long-relief role and is up to 8 1/3 scoreless innings after shutting out the Marlins over four 1/3 Monday.
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"I know what my role is, what I'm supposed to do out there," Estrada said. "If I come in losing by six runs, then I've got to keep the team in there because we have a really good offensive team that can score a lot of runs. Obviously having my job, I'm trying to go out there and just keep the team in there. That's all I can do. Today we almost came back and won the game. That just goes to show you how important it is to keep the team in it."
PLAYER NOTES
CF Carlos Gomez returned to the Brewers lineup Monday for the first time since spraining his left wrist a week ago and was a key contributor to the offense, drawing a leadoff walk and scoring in the first inning, then driving in another run with an eighth-inning double. Gomez had appeared in three games since the injury; he pinch-ran and entered the game as a defensive replacement in the series against St. Louis, then hit a pinch-hit RBI single Sunday in Milwaukee's 9-1 loss.
RHP Yovani Gallardo gave up three home runs and couldn't get out of the fourth inning Monday, lasting just 3 2/3 innings in his shortest non-injury start of the season. He's lost three consecutive decisions and is 0-2 with a 10.38 ERA in two September starts. Gallardo recorded just one strikeout Monday, but it was an historic one as it gave him 1,207 for his career and moved him into sole possession of first place on the franchise's all-time list.
RHP Marco Estrada worked 4 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of RHP Yovani Gallardo Monday, extending his streak of scoreless innings to 8 1/3. He began the season in the rotation and went 7-6 with a 4.96 ERA in 18 starts but allowed a whopping 27 home runs. But since moving to the bullpen July 10, Estrada has allowed 14 earned runs in 35 2/3 innings of work and only two home runs.
RF Ryan Braun dropped down to No. 5 in the Brewers lineup Monday as manager Ron Roenicke continues to look for a way to snap Braun out of a lengthy slump. Braun came into the game hitting .235 since the All-Star break and had a hit in four straight games before going 0-for-4 Monday. This marked the fourth time this season Braun batted fifth in Roenicke's lineup.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "I didn't do the job I was supposed to do. It was just never there. It's not easy for the guys to come back from being down four runs that early in the game." RHP Yovani Gallardo, who gave up three home runs and couldn't get out of the fourth inning Monday, lasting just 3 2/3 innings in his shortest non-injury start of the season.
