Brewers Week In Review: May 9 — May 15

May 15, 2022
|In Brewers
|By Ben Kenney

A 6-game week with series in Cincinnati and in Miami should generally breed a lot of success for the Milwaukee Brewers. The Crew has the best pitching in the league, the lineup does enough to win games, the Reds are historically bad and the Marlins are a sub-.500 baseball team.

Well, the paper matchups didn’t exactly bring the expected outcomes this week. Craig Counsell’s team dropped two of three in Cincinnati to start the week (the Reds lineup looked like the 1927 Yankees for a few hours) and turned around to take two of three from Miami over the weekend. So is a 3-3 week a disappointment? In the grand scheme of things, it is not. But the first-place Brewers have set a high bar for matchups against the league’s struggling ball clubs. If the week was to be graded like a college midterm, I’d give it a B-. It won’t come close to tanking a GPA, but it’s really not what you’re looking for.

Here is everything you need to know about the week that was for the Milwaukee Brewers:

 

Record: 3-3

Current Standing: 22-13 (1st in NL Central)

 

The Good: Kolten Wong

Kolten Wong’s bat is starting to heat up now more than a month into the season. His average hovered in the low .200s for weeks to start the year, with much of the team’s offensive production coming from the spots directly behind him in the lineup. This week was a different story. Wong batted .353 in 5 games, including 2 HR, 6 walks, 3 RBI, and 4 stolen bases. Among his highlights was a game-tying home run in the 5th inning of Sunday’s 7-3 win. That game turned into an all-around banner day for Wong, as he reached base safely in all 5 at-bats (a single, a home run and 3 walks) and lit up the basepaths with two stolen bases.

A 3-3 week against a horrid Reds team and sub-par Marlins team is a disappointment in many respects. Wong’s bat heating up should eliminate some of that sour taste.

Oh, Christian Yelich also hit for the cycle in Wednesday’s 14-11 loss to the Reds. He is now one of only six players in MLB history to have three career cycles (all of his are against the Reds). The Dodgers’ Trea Turner is the only other active player on that list.

Yelich’s week-long numbers — .273/.407/.952, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 5 walks — are quite solid but not phenomenal. He is starting to play some consistently-solid baseball, though (.286/.397/.928, 2 HR, 8 RBI, 8 walks in his last 13 games). One more productive week and he’ll find himself the headliner of this section.

 

The Bad: Brandon Woodruff, Adrian Hauser & Eric Lauer

The matchup between Brewers starters and struggling lineups should usually be a one-sided affair in favor of Milwaukee. Corbin Burnes and Freddy Peralta accomplished just that, combining for 12.2 innings, 15 strikeouts and only 2 runs allowed in their time on the mound. The other three starters moved the needle to the bad end of the spectrum, going a combined 1-3.

Brandon Woodruff: 2 starts, 1-1, 9.1 innings, 13 hits, 9 runs, 6 earned runs, 4 walks, 3 HRs allowed, 12 strikeouts, 5.79 ERA, 1.82 WHIP

Adrian Hauser: 1 start, 0-1, 4 innings, 6 hits, 7 runs, 3 earned runs, 4 walks, 3 strikeouts, 6.75 ERA, 2.50 WHIP

Eric Lauer: 1 start, 0-1, 5 innings, 6 hits, 4 runs, 4 earned runs, 3 home runs allowed, 7 strikeouts, 7.20 ERA, 1.20 WHIP

Combined: 4 starts, 1-3 record, 18.1 innings, 25 hits, 20 runs, 13 earned runs, 8 walks, 6 home runs allowed, 22 strikeouts, 6.46 ERA

The schedule is going to get tougher for Milwaukee with upcoming series against Atlanta, San Diego, St. Louis and Philadelphia (with the Nationals and Cubs also thrown in there.) The team has done a lot of winning thus far, though have done so against some poor competition (a lot of Pittsburgh and Cincinnati). Starting pitching will need to return to ace level for that success to continue.

 

MVP(s): 

-Kolten Wong (.353/.500/1.265, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 6 hits, 6 walks, 4 stolen bases)

 

Stat Of The Week: History For Hader

 

Best Video(s): 

 

Best Tweets:

 

 

Next Week: vs. ATL, vs. WSH

Brewers cycle highlights Kolten Wong marlins news reds standings yelich