TAXED: Milwaukee Brewers’ bullpen is PUSHED to the LIMIT /Will It COST Them in September/October?

TAXED: Milwaukee Brewers’ bullpen is PUSHED to the LIMIT /Will It COST Them in September/October?

The Brewers are in a stretch of 19 games in 18 days and it is taxing their bullpen. It has this week. We’ll get to that next here on Locked on Brewers. You are Locked On Brewers, your daily Milwaukee Brewers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Along here on a Wednesday. Good to have you on early Wednesday morning. My name is Chuck Freeman, proud host of Lockdown Brewers, part of Lockdown Podcast Network. We are your team every day and appreciate you all for tuning in. Longtime sports cer here in the state of Wisconsin, proud host of Lockdown Brewers here in my third year and every year I’ve done it. They’ve gone to the playoffs and won a division title and are on their way again with a 6 and 1/2 game lead. All right, the bullpen is draining. Another great win. They blew a six nothing lead, but it’s draining the bullpen. The bullpen is getting exhausted. They walked off another win. We’ll get to that. And boy, do they ever need a big start out of priest coming up later on tonight. All right, this episode is brought to you by the good folks over at Game Time. Download the Game Time app. Create an account. Use the promo code locked on MLB. You’ll get 20 bucks off your first purchase. That’ll be with the folks over at Game Time. Oh, what a game. 6 nothing. And the Brewers had to walk it off. 10th time this year they’ve walked it off. Uh but the bullpen, we saw this Tuesday night. Meyers brought up and they needed to get some innings out of him and he was not very good. Kenny looks exhausted. Kenny gave up five hits uh in his outing and between Kenny and Meyers, nine hits over two and two/3 and an 83 lead drained. All right, hate to start off on a negative here right now, but we’re trying to win a a World Series title. The Brewers need longer starts and right now with The Miz, he’s not giving him longer starts. the five innings he went on Tuesday night, that was his longest start since July 8th against the Dodgers because he had not gone more than four innings. And we’re going to get more about the Miz a little bit later on. But Shelby Miller got him some big outs, especially in the ninth inning. He had that leadoff double. Mona made a big play at shortstop. And Shelby Miller has been getting some big outs. Quietly been getting some big outs for them. And Murphy talked about that as well. But the Brewers tonight were did not have Urebe, did not have Mirs, did not have Miguel. They needed a blowout victory tonight, but it wasn’t in the cards because I mean the Arizona’s got some nice bats even though the Diamondbacks traded off Naylor and Suarez. They got some guys in that team who could still rake and we saw that. And Meyers was not very good. Kenny was not I mean Kenny gave five base hits. I don’t care if they’re bleeders or what. Some of those were shots up the middle. No, base hits are base hits. Uh, and those two guys kind of let the Diamondbacks back in the game. That would have been a horrible one to lose. But I mean, you look at these guys, Ashby’s getting taxed. Kanig, your rebate, they’re using your rebate an awful lot. And like I said, he was not there. Uh, Shelby Miller, turns out that’s going to be a big pickup for these guys when they got him at the trading deadline. Murf also talked about this. He said, “Yeah, we didn’t get, you know, some of the big names guys out there at the trading deadline, but Shelby Miller is helping us a lot right now.” And yeah, he’s had a couple of moments where he’s given up home runs and all that, but for the most part, they’re getting they got some big production out of him and he kind of helped save the bullpen on Tuesday night because there was nobody else. I mean, if this game goes the extra innings, if this game gets to the 10th, Eastston McGee is coming in and he’s been up here five times so far, back and forth. And you know how we’d all feel about Eastston McGee. No disrespect to him, but we wouldn’t feel good. So, it’s a good thing that they walked that one off in the bottom of the ninth inning. But the bullpen, yeah, you got to be concerned about it. Murf was asked about this and he says, “Yeah, we’re concerned. A lot of teams are concerned about their bullpens at this time of the season. And that bullpen looks exhausted. You just hope that you got to start getting some longer starts. They’re not getting long starts out of these guys, these starters. And this was a problem earlier in the year. It’s starting to catch up to them right now. Some of these guys are logging in some big innings and it might have caught up to Kenny Kenny’s on uh on Tuesday night. It might have. you know your rebate hasn’t yet used a lot been pitching great migill could the innings be catching up to him was down he’s been fine but getting Shelby Miller might turn out to be a a terrific move low-level move that is really going to help these guys getting some innings but like I said they’re shuttling guys back and forth my I bet you before the game on on Wednesday you might see some more roster moves, getting more fresh arms because they’re in a stretch. They’ve played nine games in the last eight days. And thank goodness they they won that game because that was a it was a huge one. It moved them six and a half in back of the uh in front of the losing Cubs. But my only fear with this team is where most of the season I would say, well, how are they going to be offensively in October? My fear would be, is this bullpen going to be okay in September and most importantly in October? But they still got to close this thing out. They’re six and a half games up and that’s why I said it’s a big game because the Cubs got beat by the Giants and the Giants have won three in a row. They beat the Brewers the last two games here and they won the first game uh out in San Francisco. But we’ll continue to monitor this bullpen thing. But I think if if anything, if this doesn’t go where we want it to go, we may have to look back in the bullpen and say, gosh, next year need longer starts, might be the case. But them getting these short stop. Miz Pster needs to give him one on on Wednesday. Really need a long start. He was not he did not give them length in his last outing. And you look up and down of all these pitching lines of the of all the Peralta on Saturday night, only got five innings. He was upwards of 90 pitches and you had to get him out of there. And I know some of you guys didn’t want to see Grant Anderson in the ball game, but the Brewers, you got to go to some of these guys. You don’t want to use East McGee in the 10th inning, but that’s where they are. That’s how taxed this bullpin is right now because Urebe Mirrors and McGill were unavailable. But something to really watch out for. All right, on to more positive things. Walking this thing off that 10th time they walked it off. Maybe once they got to the bottom of the ninth inning. I said this in my postgame video. You get to the bottom of the ninth inning or the 10th inning with these guys. These guys just find a way to get it done at home. 10 walk-off wins and Arizona contributed a little bit. I mean, just imagine you’re the Diamondbacks. You fight your way back into the game. You’re down 6 nothing and then 8 to three and you find yourself back in this ball game and your bullpen guy comes out and walk. Oh, he gave up a single to contrar like Jesus. You can’t be walking guys extra innings. I was asked on the Bill Michaels show. I feel like more teams are walking more. I feel like the walk rate is up. I’m going to do some looking at that. But I feel like there’s more leadoff walks and walks in bad situations. I’m gonna really watch for that. But man, Arizona, thank you for walking guys in the ninth inning. Walk two guys in the ninth inning. Help load the bases. And then Isaac Collins, this is what Isaac Collins do. He delivers game-winning home run couple of Sundays ago to walk it off against the Mets. This time he walks it off with a sack fly after Freelick hit a little number to to center field that didn’t get down. It was too short to score the runner from third base, but then Collins gets it done. Yelich has given him some great at bats. He is. He gave him a great at bat there in the bottom of the ninth inning working a walk. Felt like the Brewers all night were doing that offensively. You look at this series, they scored eight runs uh seven runs on Monday night, nine on Tuesday night. Offense is there working the count. Even Contrarus Contrarus worked the count down 02 earlier in the game. Got it to 32. Got ahead in the count and then crush a two-run homer to make it three nothing. How about Terraang? The price tag is going up on Bryce Tang. In fact, the price tag is going up on Terra and Freelick this year. And I hope Mark Anonasio is taking isn’t taking uh you know expensive lunches. He’s brown bagging at the work saving up his monies because you better be paying Terra and Freelick when the time comes. I don’t want to see this these two guys walk the free agency as some of these other guys have or having to trade these guys in a contract here. Frick and Trang, these guys are the heart and soul of this Milwaukee Brewer team and you got to keep these two guys long term. I don’t be seeing these guys playing for anybody else. All right. And if you got to sign them early in, buy them arbit out of arbitration. But Terra and Freelick, it starts with two two guys right there. And I know some of you have asked about the Miz and all that. I’m really skeptical to do that with a pitcher, but Terra and Yelich are terang and um and Freelick for sure. These two guys are flatout winners. Flatout winners. Speaking of the Miz, they up nine five innings, struck out 10. Like I said, his longest been um time out there since July 8th. He really thought he got some of his stuff back. Wasn’t walking guys like he had in some of his previous starts. That really makes us antsy. But the Miz, I thought, had a nice start. He had upwards of over 90 pitches. Still needs more length out of him, right? I know he’s on a pitch count, but if if we’re going to be getting four and five inning starts out of him, Peralta, you got to come through. Priest Woodruff, I know he’s on that pitch counts. You got two guys there, Miz and Woodruff, on these pitch counts that uh are concerning. And that’s and in turn, it’s going to filter down to the bullpen. And it’s happened. It’s happened. But 96 pitches gave that I thought Miz gave that three-run home run in the fourth inning and that made it six to three, but he bounced right back and pitched the fifth and pitched nicely in the fifth inning and gave him five. At least he got him five. Okay, he didn’t go four like his previous four stars. He got him five. But I just thought the Brewers offensively good at bats. good at bats like we’ve seen from these guys all season long. Murphy’s was talking after the game. He said at one point tonight we used seven position players who spent time in the minor leagues. Look at this lineup. Terra, Contrarus, Yelich, Vaughn, Frick, Collins, Stigler, Perkins, and Monasterio. That’s that lineup right there has got 83 wins. It’s 83 and 50. Terrain Contraras Yelich, Vaughn Freelick, Collins, Sigler, Perkins, and Monasterio. That lineup right there has done the heavy heavy lifting here in the month of August has done without Curio in the heart of that lineup. Stigler in there again, I get it. I’m screaming from the mountain tops that I want Durban out there. Durban was on deck to be the next hitter. as a pinch hitter for Sigler and then Collins lifted that sack fly. Yeah, I was screaming yesterday, Durban, I want him in every day. Don’t pinch hit for him. Stigler in there again. Did have a bloop double down the left field line. Looked like it might have been an air. I forgot how they actually ruled that, but it should have been caught out in short left field. I think they ruled it a double, but that lineup, Terang, Contras, Yelich, Vaughn, Freelick, Collins, Sniggler, Perkins, and Monasterio. Terang, we didn’t expect 15 homers out of him. Contrarus had the sore hand most of the season. Now he’s been turning it around in August. Yelich has just been amazing since late May. Vaughn down in the minor league system with the White Socks. Felic has been terrific. Collins never talked about him in the off season, won a position on this team because there were some injuries at the end of spring training. Ziggler was not even on this team. Perkins started the year on the injured list and Monisterio is down at TripleA. There was no room for him and he has provided some made a big defensive play off shortstop and he’s been hitting well. Laced another RBI double tonight. I mean it was a leadoff double I think it was but still he doubled one to the left center field gap. But all those guys contributing. Takes a lot of guys to win a pennant. The Brewers are closing in and thank God team lifeless was back to its old tricks tonight after the Cubs had swept a three-game series in uh against the Angels. They went up to San Francisco and uh you know they showed no pulse whatsoever and the Giants were able to beat them five to two. Six and a half game lead right six and a half. It was seven when they left Chicago last week after that four game set or fivegame set there. So, the Brewers have only lost a half a game in the standings. It seems a lot worse, right? We come back. I’m going to tell you, I don’t like this talk about the Brewers have to finish, you know, if they go 500 the rest of the season and um you know, they can still win the division title. I don’t like that talk. We’ll get to that next here on Locked on Brewers. Lockdown Brewers brought to you by Game Time. Hey, maybe you want to go to the game on Thursday afternoon, Wednesday night. Nothing like catching a baseball game live. Man, that crowd out there was great. 33,000 out there on a Tuesday night with some kids back in school. The Yelly chance in the ninth inning, the Vaughn chance. Love it, man. What an energetic crowd there on a Tuesday night. But game time, you want to get tickets for the games in the next couple of days, use the game time app. Take advantage of the game time app. Tickets once you get past that, you know, one hour or less before game time, ticket prices begin to drop. You always get 100% authentic tickets delivered on time. Best price, plus all the fees are included. So the price you see is the price you pay. But right now, download the Game Time app, create an account, use the promo code locked on MLB, 20 bucks off your first purchase. Terms apply. Promo code locked on MLB. You spend 70, you pay 50. Use that promo code locked on MLB. Swipe tap ticket. Go download the Game Time app today. Also, this show brought to you by FanDuel, America’s number one sports book. Looked on FanDuel. The Brewers at one point were minus 10,000 when they had a 8-3 lead. And then after that leadoff double to start off the ninth, the Brewers were plus 40 uh 140. How about that? They went from minus 10,000 to plus 140. What a heck of a swing. Not the first time, but FanDuel’s great for live betting or anything really. The NFL season is almost here. FanDuel making sure you’re ready for kickoff with a can’t miss offer right now. New customers bet five bucks. Your bet wins. You’ll get $300 in bonus. 300. They’ve upped it up to $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Bet just $5 and that bet’s got to win. So, you ready to play? Download the FanDuel app today. Visit fanuel.com. Get started. FanDuel.com. Place your first $5 bet. It wins. You’ll get $300 in bonus bets right into your account with FanDuel. Good to have you along here on Lockdown Brewers, part of Lockdown Podcast Network. We are your team every day. You get us on Google, Spotify, Apple, wherever you download your audio podcast. We’re the number one brewers podcast on the internet internet because you great Brewer fans out there. If you’re already downloading us on the audio version, you might want to hit us up on YouTube. server. Hit us up on YouTube. Search Lockdown Brewers. Hit the subscribe button. Hit the bell. That alert you every time we drop an episode. Ran into a few fans today at the ballpark. Took some selfies with you all. Like I always say, you see me at the ballpark walking around, maybe in the clubhouse store before the game, checking it out. Hey, come up to me, say hello, take a selfie, whatever you want. Always great talking Brewers baseball. And don’t ever say, “Hey, I don’t want to hear from you later on in my DMs.” Wow, Chuck, I saw you at the ballpark, but you are look like you’re busy. I am never too busy. Talk to great fans of Lockdown Brewers. Thanks for making us your first listen to every day. All you everydayers here on Locked On Brewers. Yeah, this talk about about Brewers. Well, they go 500. Uh the Cubs have to go so and so. I don’t want to slide into this division title. In fact, I don’t want to slide into getting the best record in baseball or the second best record in baseball. The first the best record in baseball. Not the second best. Let’s get that first that first best record. All right. Brewers are good enough to do that. But I mean know this talk of well if they finish 14 and 15 or whatever. Uh-uh. I want to go in the playoffs strong. I want to continue to play good baseball. Yeah, they’re playing about 500 baseball since that 14game winning streak. Yeah, I want to play a little bit better. Got to play some better baseball. got to get this bullpen uh straightened out as far as um get them fresh, get them ready to go, get them fresh. Uh longer starts so they’re not texted when October baseball does come around. We’re sitting here talking about another short series that didn’t go the Brewers way. But yeah, let’s finish out this I don’t want to hear this talk. Well, Chuck, you know, or if the Brewers do this, all they got to do is play 500 baseball down the stretch. We don’t want that. We deserve better than that. This team is better than that. You don’t want to go into the postseason playing 500 baseball. And what if you do play 500 baseball? And the Cubs, well, I know this is weird, but what if the Cubs play 900 baseball, 800 baseball, which they won’t because they’re team lifeless, but maybe the Phillies do. Hey, the Brewers gained another game on the Phillies because the Phillies got walked off by the Mets on Tuesday night. But and don’t count the the Dodgers in this either. They’re getting hot as well. But play good baseball. No 500 baseball. Got to play winning baseball here in the final five, six weeks of the season. Got to do that. Yeah, this talk of the the do and the Cubs can do this. No, keep winning games cuz every game you win, you’re up off another calendar, uh, a date off that calendar and pretty soon you make it impossible for anybody to catch you. Take care of your own business. You’re a good enough team and I know the Brewers think that way. Brewers, you’d be surprised some guys in that locker room, they’re not checking out the standings. They don’t check out the standings. Murf says he doesn’t either. I don’t know. But these guys are just going out and playing baseball. And when they lose, like if they would have blown that game tonight and lost. And I know some of you guys were like, “Well, they can’t do this in October.” This is baseball, man. I get that. But these guy, it’s not for a lack of effort with these guys. These guys are resilient. They didn’t blow that lead because of a lack of effort. Not at all. I think you I think we can all admit to that. They did not blow that lead because of a lack of effort. All right, I got to come right back here. I got to do a quick commercial break and come right back and tell you about what we got going on and why Preachers got to have a big outing and who the Brewers are facing. Another tough customer on the mound coming up on Wednesday for the Diamondbacks. Get that next here on Lockdown Brewers. Upside, a great sponsor here of Lockdown Brewers. Are you paying full price for gas? Trust me, going back and forth between Amfan Field and Lammy, it’s a 50-mi trip. Stop leaving money behind. Get real cash back every time you fill up the tank with free upside, the free upside app. Simply download the app in the App Store on Google Play right now. Start earning cash at the pump today. Use my limited promo code season. That’s season. And get an extra 25 cents back per gallon on your first fillup. You can make up to $300 a year just buying gas. You already need gas. you can make some more money. 300 bucks. At first, I thought it was too good to be true, but me, some of the buds I know in this neighborhood, totally legit. Real people getting paid just to make their daily commutes. So, don’t let this offer drive you by. Um, don’t drive on by it. Download the free upside app right now. Use my code season for a limited time. 25 cent per gallon bonus. Promo code season. Upside app downloaded. Offers vary by user and location. Go to upside.com for terms and conditions. All right, down the stretch we come here on lockdown Brewers. Brewers facing Ryan Nelson. Now, the Brewers don’t have a lot of um at bats against him. In fact, Contrarus is the only one really was hit against this Ryan Nelson who’s six and three, a 3.63 earn run average. Nelson is a guy who won the spot in the starting rotation in Arizona last season. Got 10 wins, right-handed pitcher. Last time out against Cincinnati, six innings, four hits against the Reds. Has not faced the Brewers. Contrarus is one for four lifetime against him. Uh and that’s really the only guy who’s had any amount of uh at bats against Ryan Nelson. Now Quinn Priest on the hill for the Brewers and the Brewers have won 15 in a row with him on the hill. 11-2 3.44 earn run average. Last three starts haven’t been great for Priier. He’s given up nine runs in the last 14 innings. But I mean we look at Pster got him on early April 11-2 a 3.44 earn run average. and the team just wins when he goes out and takes the hill whether he’s pitching well not great as of late but he’s been dynamite for the most part got a no decision in his last outing only Arizona Diamondback who’s faced Pester Jake McCarthy uh has gone three for three otherwise the numbers aren’t there really for for Arizona’s got some bats Arizona is a tough out just like the Giants were this weekend Giants were a tough out and the Cubs are finding that today. Found that on Tuesday. And hopefully the Giants can continue to churn out victories. And Arizona few games under the 500 mark. Teams like Arizona and the Giants, they feel like they they have a shot. They just got to get on fire and which is possible. Late August, September baseball is crazy as we all know. Anything can happen. And the Brewers out to a six and a half game on team lifeless getting to 83 and 50. Even six and a half. Hey, Brewers got a lot of work to do. They got to close out this series here the next couple of days with Arizona and a big series this weekend coming up with Toronto. I don’t have to tell you how huge that series is going to be for both teams. Also, on Friday’s episode, I’m going to do the mailbag. Send me your questions. Uh DM me Chuck Freeman on Twitter. Chuck F re-u N D. Or if you want to Facebook message me, you can do that. You can also friend me on Facebook if you want. We can be buds. How about that? But you want to get your questions maybe after Thursday’s game. Or if you want to get them in now, I’m taking your questions in the mailbag coming up on Friday morning when I drop the episode. All right, that’s going to do it. My name is Chuck Freeman. Thanks for making us your first listen to Everyday. All you everydayers out there, Locked On Brewers, part of the Lockdown podcast network. We are your team every day. Another night game coming up Wednesday. We’ll be here late night Wednesday, early Thursday morning talking Brewers baseball with you on the number one Brewers uh podcast out there. Number one Brewers podcast on the internet. Locked on Brewers. Thanks everybody.

The Milwaukee Brewers’ bullpen fatigue is an issue. Can they overcome the strain of 19 games in 18 days?

Chuck Freimund analyzes the Brewers’
walk-off victory against Arizona, highlighting Isaac Collins’ clutch performance. The discussion covers the Brewers’ offensive surge, Bryce Turang’s impact, and the team’s 6.5-game division lead. Key topics include bullpen management strategies, Quinn Priester’s impressive win streak, and the upcoming series against Toronto.

Will Milwaukee’s relievers hold up? Can the Brewers secure the best record in baseball?

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