{"id":199814,"date":"2025-10-03T16:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T16:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/199814\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T16:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T16:29:07","slug":"brewers-improved-lineup-could-help-them-stop-their-recent-history-of-playoff-misfortune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/199814\/","title":{"rendered":"Brewers\u2019 improved lineup could help them stop their recent history of playoff misfortune"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILWAUKEE (AP) \u2014 Pitching generally has carried the Milwaukee Brewers as they\u2019ve made their run of seven postseason appearances<\/a> over the last eight years.<\/p>\n

This year, they might have the type of offense that can produce more playoff success.<\/p>\n

Milwaukee posted the best record in the major leagues this year while having the second-best earned run average. But the Brewers also scored 806 runs \u2014 their most since 1999 \u2014 to rank third in the majors.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve done it without hitting many homers and instead relying on plate discipline and speed. They will try to keep that going Saturday when they host the Chicago Cubs in Game 1 of an NL Division Series.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have good swing decisions, you make them throw strikes, you get free bases or you get pitches to hit,\u201d second baseman Brice Turang said.<\/p>\n

The Brewers swung at the fewest percentage of pitches outside the strike zone across the majors. Hitting coach Al LeBoeuf<\/a> says the Brewers can preach that mentality up and down the lineup because 2018 NL MVP<\/a> Christian Yelich believes in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cChristian understands the fact that\u2019s the way we have to play,\u201d LeBoeuf said. \u201cHe just passes the baton and spreads the message, \u2018Hey, here\u2019s the way we\u2019ve got to play.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Manager Pat Murphy delivers his own pointed message.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you chase, you don\u2019t play,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cThe guys with the best ability to control the strike zone are going to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what the Brewers told first baseman Andrew Vaughn<\/a> when they called him up from the minors after acquiring him from the Chicago White Sox. Vaughn had an .869 OPS in 64 games with Milwaukee, up from .531 in his 48 games with the White Sox.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe message was control the strike zone, get on base and score runs,\u201d Vaughn said. \u201cJust be stubborn.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Brewers\u2019 .332 on-base percentage was the second-highest in MLB.<\/p>\n

They also wreak havoc once they reach base. Milwaukee\u2019s 164 steals ranked second in the majors.<\/p>\n

That explains how the Brewers scored so many runs despite hitting just 166 homers to rank 22nd. Murphy compares his hitters to woodpeckers<\/a> because they keep pecking away throughout games.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese guys are a handful,\u201d Cincinnati Reds manager Terry Francona said. \u201cWhen you play them, even when you beat them, you\u2019re tired. They have a lot of ways to come at you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outfielder Sal Frelick says he can tell how the Brewers\u2019 speed bothers opposing defenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not even the actual stealing bases part. Just having the threat of it,\u201d Frelick said. \u201cPitchers maybe have to slide-step, which makes them not throw as many strikes. And with a speedy guy on first, a hitter\u2019s probably going to get more fastballs because (a pitcher) doesn\u2019t want to throw curveballs in the dirt or offspeed pitches that you can steal on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Milwaukee didn\u2019t have a single All-Star position player, several Brewers outperformed their career norms.<\/p>\n

Frelick\u2019s OPS is .756, up from .655 last season. Turang has seen his OPS soar from .585 in his 2023 rookie season to .794 this year.<\/p>\n

As a longtime Brewers minor league coach in the majors for the first time this year, LeBoeuf has seen both Frelick and Turang develop. LeBoeuf noted Turang adjusted this swing to turn the barrel out in front, giving him more bat speed. He mentioned Frelick\u2019s \u201ctremendous hands\u201d and improved bat-to-ball skills.<\/p>\n

The Brewers got big contributions from a pair of rookies as well.<\/p>\n

Caleb Durbin, acquired in the deal<\/a> that sent two-time All-Star reliever Devin Williams to the New York Yankees, was hitting just .186 on May 23 but batted .277 the rest of the way. Isaac Collins had a .368 on-base percentage in 130 games.<\/p>\n

It took a while for this lineup to get going.<\/p>\n

When the Brewers were 25-28 on May 24, they were ranked 14th in MLB in total runs, 21st in on-base percentage (.311) and 28th in slugging percentage (.354). Yelich was returning from back surgery,<\/a> two-time All-Star William Contreras was playing through a broken finger,<\/a> and both had slow starts.<\/p>\n

But the Brewers ranked second in total runs, first in on-base percentage (.343) and eight in slugging percentage (.426) the rest of the way. The lineup surged even after LeBoeuf was away from the team<\/a> for three weeks in July to undergo surgery for prostate cancer. Leboeuf said last week he feels great and that \u201cwinning ballgames has made it a lot easier to digest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that just goes back to just having a better idea of who we are as an offense and really shaping that identity throughout the year,\u201d Durbin said. \u201cI think once we hit June, we were really taking off with that approach and being really comfortable with who we are as an offense. We knew all the different ways we could score.\u201d<\/p>\n

They haven\u2019t been scoring quite as much lately, creating consternation among Brewers fans bracing for more October disappointment. The Brewers didn\u2019t exceed four runs in any of their last nine regular-season games.<\/p>\n

Starting with their Game 7 home loss<\/a> to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2018 NL Championship Series, the Brewers have dropped 11 of their last 13<\/a> playoff games. They scored over four runs in just one of those 13 games, a 5-3 Game 2 victory<\/a> over the New York Mets in last year\u2019s NL Wild Card Series.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re the Brewers, Dodgers or whoever,\u201d Yelich said. \u201cRuns are hard to come by in the postseason because you\u2019re facing all the best pitchers, all the leverage arms out of the bullpen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet the Brewers believe their resourcefulness at the plate and on the basepaths could make their offense particularly well suited for the postseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at a lot of offenses with teams that hit a lot of homers,\u201d Frelick said. \u201cWhen those offenses aren\u2019t hitting homers, you kind of see them not scoring as many runs. I think in our case, that\u2019s not how we play anyway. When we\u2019re not getting 12 hits a game, we\u2019re still able to score runs because that\u2019s how we have to score runs, by playing smallball, moving runners and stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILWAUKEE (AP) \u2014 Pitching generally has carried the Milwaukee Brewers as they\u2019ve made their run of seven postseason…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[115154,1558,9893,61430,157,479,9894,8263,2325,363,99,1745],"class_list":{"0":"post-199814","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-al-leboeuf","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-brewers","11":"tag-brice-turang","12":"tag-chicago","13":"tag-chicago-cubs","14":"tag-cubs","15":"tag-milwaukee","16":"tag-milwaukee-brewers","17":"tag-mlb","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-wisconsin"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}