The Milwaukee Brewers 10-game winning streak has them five games clear of the next-best team in baseball, period. They are 6.5 games up on Craig Counsell's Cubs in the NL Central though little fault of Chicago's skipper – Milwaukee has just been that good, all the while winning in ways the Cubs never could.
It's all come full circle for the Brewers and Pat Murphy. At one point this season, Milwaukee was staring down the barrel at 25-29, playing at Pittsburgh and facing what looked to be sure defeat. But the Brewers didn't lose that game, instead showing their guts and flexibility on the basepaths to overcome a late deficit. On Monday, they faced those same pesky Pirates, though the game was never all that close.
For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the Discord to get the inside scoop during the MLB season.
Brewers won 10 straight games by playing differently than the Cubs
Despite a couple of home runs on Monday night, the Brewers have not put together their second long winning streak of the season by out-slugging the rest of baseball.
“We have to play up-tempo baseball in all facets,” Pat Murphy said. “We’re not going to sit back and slug. That’s not our game, even though I hear that that’s the only way to win in big situations. Whatever. We have to do what we have to do to be who we are.”
The Brewers rank 20th in baseball in team home runs. They are not a group of sluggers, though they have made some improvements to their lineup – notably around the trade deadline by acquiring Andrew Vaughn – to increase their power potential. Heck, Milwaukee was even interested in Eugenio Suarez. Yet, the deadline came and went, and Murphy now knows exactly how the Brewers will have to win games for the rest of the season and the playoffs if they are to win a World Series.
The Cubs, meanwhile, are fifth in MLB in home runs and feature some of the best power hitters in the game, like Kyle Tucker and Pete Crow-Armstrong. This is not to say Chicago won't be the last team standing in October, but these two rivaling style of play will come to a head at some point. Murphy is betting on his squad.
The Brewers path to the World Series isn't an easy one
How they might get there – which would require defeating behemoths like the Cubs, Dodgers, Padres and Phillies (among others) is by catching their opponents off-guard, and out-smarting those same teams. Murphy achieved that on Monday (albeit against the Pirates) by asking Andrew Vaughn to sacrifice squeeze bunt with runners on first and third. It worked to perfection.
“Nobody cares what we’ve done in the last month,” Yelich said. “It’s all great, but we have bigger goals than 74 wins.”
To get there, Yelich and the Brewers will bank on making their opponents uncomfortable. It's gotten them this far.