Milwaukee Brewers survive difficult April schedule

The Milwaukee Brewers had a difficult schedule to start the year and despite some tough stretches they survived and will enter May in decent shape.

The 2019 season really couldn’t have gotten off to a better start for the Milwaukee Brewers. Through ten games they were 8-2, had averaged 5.3 runs per game and had beaten up on a majority of the NL Central.

However, we knew it was impossible to keep that pace up and things came to a screeching halt in the second half of April, which currently includes just four wins over their last 13 games, although they have been able to win three of the last four.

Issues for this Milwaukee Brewers team have come both on the mound and at the plate. As of the time that I am writing this article, Ryan Braun, Travis Shaw, and Jesus Aguilar all have batting averages of .200 or lower. This is really hurting the heart of the Brewers order and not providing Christian Yelich with much protection, which may result in pitchers beginning to walk him more often.

In the starting rotation, we have seen Corbin Burnes sent to Triple-A with home run issues, Freddy Peralta hasn’t made it past four innings in three of his four starts, while Brandon Woodruff and Jhoulys Chacin have just been inconsistent.

Uncharacteristically, the bullpen has had struggles of their own and is clearly missing Corey Knebel and the Jeremy Jeffress of 2018. As expected, Josh Hader has been their rock but even he has had a few hiccups of his own, while Alex Claudio has been a very good addition, and Junior Guerra has settled into his role in the bullpen. But otherwise, the Milwaukee Brewers have been looking for more reliable options to help close out close games.

Overall the Milwaukee Brewers pitching staff has a team ERA of 4.98, which is actually down from where it has been, but still ranks 23rd in all of baseball.

Now after reading all of that, things may seem a bit bleak but I promise you they are not. The schedule that the Milwaukee Brewers had to endure to start this season was brutal.

Milwaukee has already played 10 of their 19 total games against division rival St. Louis, who is seventh in all of baseball in OPS and fifth in total runs.

Then they’ve already played their entire season series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, who rank fifth overall in OPS and second in total runs.

For a Milwaukee Brewers team that is relying on three young pitchers to lead their rotation, this is two high-powered offenses to open up their season against. Of Milwaukee’s first 30 games, 17 have been against Los Angeles or St. Louis who hold a combined record of 39-22, and the Brewers have gone 8-9 in those games.

Could it have been better? Of course, it could have, but by no means did they dig themselves into a huge hole.

In addition to those two teams, Milwaukee has also had to face the Chicago Cubs, who may have gotten off to a slow start but are still a very good team. They’ve won seven of their last ten games, have the ninth best OPS in baseball, and we saw how explosive their offense can be as they put up 26 runs in the three games against Milwaukee, however, the Brewers still took the series.

Currently, the Milwaukee Brewers are closing out the month of April against the New York Mets and Colorado Rockies, both of which should be playoff contenders.

Really, the only truly discouraging part of the month was getting swept by the lowly Los Angeles Angles. Yet overall, the Milwaukee Brewers come out of the first month of the season with a 17-14 record.

For a bit context, the Brewers were 17-13 entering the month of May last season and although expectations around this team are clearly higher than what they were at that time, and rightfully so, Milwaukee is still off to a very similar start.

Things haven’t gone as smoothly as most would have liked, but with inconsistent bats from key players, rocky starts from the pitching staff, and some unreliable bullpen options, the Milwaukee Brewers have endured a difficult stretch and will enter the month of May in good shape.

In baseball, you surely can’t win the division in the month of April but you can lose it. And the Milwaukee Brewers haven’t even come close to the latter.