I think I’m just going to start playing this clip (:06-:14) for Brewer recaps from now on:
Related: Top tier Simpsons clip. I remember laughing for hours when I saw this for the first time. ‘I gotta go my damn wiener kids are listening.’
Welp, just when you think it can’t get any worse for Brewer fans, last night happens. They had the chance to maybe build a little momentum for the stretch run annnnnnnnd it’s gone. Yelich hit a home run to a different solar system in the 1st inning, Renfroe goes yard, Narvaez actually does something with his bat, Brandon Woodruff is rolling. They had a 6-1 in the 8th inning on a team that was 22 games under .500. Six outs to get. SIX OUTS! That’s all! And what happens? Craig Counsell pulls Woodruff at 91 pitches and puts in Luis Perdomo. In the span of EIGHT pitches he gives up 4 runs. How is that even possible? 8 pitches! They were up 6-1, you go to rock a piss, and you come back and it’s 6-5. The Rockies would later tie the game, it goes to extras, Brewers grab another lead, only to have Taylor Rogers look as inept as Perdomo giving up 4 runs in the bottom of the 10th. From a 6-1 lead to a 10-7 loss. Extraordinary.
I have to say, you almost have to tip your cap to this team at this point. They’re ability to derail even a little bit of positive momentum is poetic. It’s art. They’ve probably had 6 or 7, ‘worst loss of the season’ games since the trade deadline. It’s almost hard to pick which one is the actual ‘worst’ of the bunch. It’s like the 1994 Academy Awards for Best Picture when you had Forrest Gump against Pulp Fiction against Shawshank Redemption. Just a loaded category. Same deal for gut-punch losses for the Brewers since August 1st.
Now after last night’s game there were plenty of people on the ‘FIRE COUNSELL!’ and ‘FIRE STEARNS!’ bandwagons. Completely understandable given the way the second half has gone. This team was in first place by 4 games on July 30th and are 8.5 games back on September 7th. It’s an even worse collapse than 2014 in terms of the math, 2014’s collapse just happened later in September so it maybe felt worse because they were so close to the end of the season.
But it’s clear for anyone with eyes and a brain that the Hader trade shattered locker room morale. As we talked about after the trade, if the prospects they got back end up being high-level contributors at some point, maybe you can look back at that trade as a win. But for just this season, the 2022 season, it capsized the entire team. And I fully acknowledge that Hader has been a nightmare in San Diego. Would he have been that bad had he stayed in Milwaukee? Who knows. But the impact that trade had on the vibes of the team can’t be disputed. So putting the blame squarely on Stearns’ shoulders for that move is entirely appropriate.
As for Counsell, I’m not on the ‘Fire Counsell!’ train yet. But I will concede this: He’s been really bad this year. It feels like every button he pushes is the wrong one. You simply can’t pull Woodruff for Perdomo last night. You can’t. Not on September 6th when you’re desperate for wins to stay in a Wild Card race. If you’re going to pull Woodruff, you can’t put in a low-leverage reliever who you just called back up a few days ago. ESPECIALLY in Colorado. Every game right now is must win, so every lead needs to be protected like it’s a save situation.
But it feels like that type of stuff has been happening all season. I still believe that Counsell is a good manager. He’s the winningest manager in Brewer history, he’s got the 6th most wins of any active manager in baseball, the Counsell Era of Brewer baseball has been arguably the most successful in the history of the franchise. They’ve been in playoff contention every year that he’s the been the manager with the exception of 2016, and they’ve made the playoffs four straight seasons. If they fire him, you know that another team will pick him up instantly and he’ll have success there. You just know it. Maybe your thought is that he’s taken them as far as he can take them, and that’s fine. It’s a fair point to bring up 8 seasons into his tenure. But I guess I’m just bullish on him, and fearful that we have another Ned Yost situation where Counsell leaves and wins a World Series somewhere else. A good manager having a bad year, that’s where I’m at at this particular moment. Maybe history will prove me right and they’ll stick with Counsell and he wins a World Series at some point. Maybe it won’t and they’ll end up firing him in a few seasons and we’ll look back at 2022 and say it should have happened then. Maybe society will continue to collapse in on itself and baseball won’t even matter. Who knows!
The math is getting tough for this team, though. The Padres and Phillies both win last night, so you’re three games back, but really four games back because you don’t have either tiebreaker. After today they have 20 of their final 26 games at home. I’d say, ‘let’s hope that last night serves as a wake up call,’ but all of the previous ‘worst losses’ didn’t do anything so I don’t know why I’d think anything different would happen now.
PS: At least this team got us to Packer season? Can we hang a banner for that? Can’t be any more embarrassing than the 2020 Wild Card banner.
