If you watched the Brewers-Athletics series at all this weekend, you didn’t see a very good showing from the home team. Oakland came into this series 14-50 and on pace for one of the worst records in MLB history. Most fans were probably assuming a Milwaukee sweep or at worst winning two of three. Instead, the Brewers offense was poor all weekend and they were swept by the Athletics 5-2, 2-1 in 10 innings, and 8-6. Brewers play by play caller Brian Anderson mentioned a few times on the broadcast today this team hit rock bottom. So the question is, have they?
Why They Have
Oakland had the worst ERA among starting pitching and bullpen pitching. Every pitcher they brought out this series was below average at best. Coming off winning two of three against a really good Baltimore team, you would have thought this offense would have clicked early and often. They did the complete opposite of that this weekend.
The fact of the matter is you won’t face any worst pitching statistically over a three game span anymore this season and likely for awhile. Brewers players did credit the A’s staff for executing all series and rightfully so. However, when this offense is cold, they are really cold. There isn’t much a of an excuse for the lack of hitting this weekend especially in front of your home crowd. That is about as bad as it gets.
Why They Haven’t
When the Brewers went to the NLCS in 2018 and fell in game seven to a loaded Dodgers team, they went to Pittsburgh for a five game series before the all-star break. They were swept by a bad Pirates team and lost all momentum they had headed to the break. At the end, it worked out pretty well as they game one game short of the World Series.
I don’t want to compare teams because the 2018 team is a lot better than the 2023 Brewers. This team is young and doesn’t have the pitching depth the 2018 team had. However, I do say this because they’ve been in a spot like this before and they got out of if. Just about everything had to go Oakland’s way this series and it did. It’s not common something like this happens consistently. It’s early June and there is still a ton of baseball left. They didn’t give up much ground and they’re still in the thick of the NL Central despite an awful weekend.
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