3 Milwaukee Brewers to blame for NL Wild Card series loss to Arizona

The Milwaukee Brewers season ended in disappointment on Wednesday, as Craig Counsell's bunch fell to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the second of two games at home. Fans at American Family Field left unhappy, even booing Counsell at one point in time for a pinch-hit decision (more on that later).

Milwaukee received some disappointing news prior to the series, as Brandon Woodruff was forced out of the majority of the postseason with a shoulder injury. Woodruff had suffered a similar injury in 2022, so he has a long road to recovery ahead.

The Brewers offseason starts now, and the first order of business is to figure out if Counsell will be back After the game, he wouldn't entertain the discussion, though star Christian Yelich made it clear the team wants him back.

“Couns’ been a huge part of why this place is the way it is now,” said Yelich. “We haven’t been able to take it the whole way and win a championship, but being in a small market and being a consistent winner and having a good, competitive team every year that’s either in the playoffs or missed it by one game, it’s tough to do."

While Counsell's value to the Brewers' recent run is unquestioned, he's not blameless for Milwaukee's defeat in this specific series.

Craig Counsell deserves some blame for Brewers defeat

Counsell was faced with several tough tasks in just two games this series. First, he had to remake the rotation on the fly, replacing Brandon Woodruff with Freddy Peralta. Second, he received plenty of flack for his decision to pinch hit Jesse Winker in Game 2.

Per Matt Carroll of Reviewing the Brew, Counsell's confusing choice to go to Winker immediately backfired:

"So then why would Counsell go with someone like Winker, who had a season to forget as he slashed .199/.320/.247 in 61 games? Sure, he looked good in some rehab starts down at Triple-A toward the end of the season, but that's way different than an MLB playoff game...In what probably wasn't much of a surprise to many Brewers fans, Winker struck out on three straight pitches. To add injury to insult, Winker had to have the athletic trainer come out and check in on him after the second of the three pitches after he winced following a swing and miss."

Counsell was booed when Winker was forced out of the game, which spoke to the frustration of Brewers fans in the moment.