Milwaukee Brewers: Did the bullpen really implode on June 27th?

The headlines will say that the Milwaukee Brewers bullpen imploded on Wednesday afternoon against the Kansas City Royals. Did it really? Let’s investigate…

The Milwaukee Brewers started the seventh inning of Wednesday afternoon’s game against the Kansas City Royals with a 1-0 lead. The Royals had a 5-1 lead by the time the Brewers came up to bat in the bottom of the inning. What happened?

How did the seventh inning start?

Milwaukee Brewers starter Brent Suter had cruised through the first six innings, so he came out to start the seventh inning.

Suter served up a solo homer to Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas to lead off the inning. The game was tied at one.

What happened next?

Suter loaded the bases with a pair of singles and a walk. This was enough to force Suter out of the game with only 82 pitches on his pitch count.

Jeremy Jeffress came in, and recorded the first out of the inning. Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar grounded into a force out at home.

Brewers manager Craig Counsell pulled Jeffress, and called on Josh Hader to work out of the jam.

Hader got out of it, right?

Not this time. Royals shortstop Adalberto Mondesi laced a single into left field to plate two runs…on the first pitch he saw from Hader. Mondesi’s line drive gave the Royals a 3-1 lead.

Pinch-hitter Lucas Duda hit a sac fly to push the Royals lead to 4-1. Royals second baseman Whit Merrifield poked a 2-2 fastball into left field for another single, and drove in Mondesi to push the lead to 5-1. Royals right fielder Rosell Herrera grounded into a force out at second to end the inning.

Was this really a bullpen implosion?

It wasn’t good, but it’s not really an implosion. If Jeffress had started the inning, walked the bases loaded, and then Hader gave up a Grand Slam, then it’s an implosion. This was guys coming into a game with the bases loaded and the Royals stringing together a few hits. The only walk in the inning came from Suter. The bullpen failed to get the Milwaukee Brewers out of a jam, but this was a far cry from an ‘implosion’.

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While there may be some concern over Hader’s workload, one rough outing isn’t going to derail his season. Bad days happen to good pitchers. Wednesday was a bad day, but calling it an implosion, explosion, or any -plosion isn’t really telling the whole story. Suter had as much to do with the rough inning than anyone else. At worst, it was a team effort in that everyone worked together to have a bad inning.