Milwaukee Brewers: Getting The Spark They Badly Needed

The Milwaukee Brewers have been stuck in a rut for most of the past month. Is Tuesday night’s victory the spark they needed?

For whatever reason, the Milwaukee Brewers were playing like a mediocre baseball team over the past month or so. Things looked so bad, some fans were thinking the team should sell at the deadline and even GM David Stearns is taking a “wait and see” approach with this team for the deadline.

We know this team should be good enough to win the division again and make a deep run in the playoffs. But some players are underperforming, and some egregiously so. They had fallen to just one game above .500 prior to Tuesday night’s game. If they lost, they would fall to .500, and this late in the season, that’s not a good sign.

But they didn’t lose. Instead, the offense exploded for 13 runs and they destroyed the Braves. Is this the turning point of the season?

Looking For A Spark

What the Milwaukee Brewers really needed was a spark to get this team going. Frustration was mounting about their poor play and they knew they needed to get it together. Then Yasmani Grandal was called out on strikes on Monday night’s game, and he had had enough.

Grandal’s ejection on Monday night was the result of a lot of frustration, not only during that game, but from the past month of games where seemingly nothing was going right. He had hoped that would provide a spark for the dugout to come back and win that game. It didn’t, but it may have been what them going in Tuesday night’s game.

There was simply a different energy and a different feel to Tuesday’s game. The players were a lot more energetic and just seemed to be having fun playing the game of baseball, which they normally do. When you’re playing good baseball, it’s much easier to just have fun, and that kind of energy and play is contagious. Once you get on a roll of good baseball, it’s tough to stop.

Not Out Of The Race

Despite the Crew’s poor play over the past month, the Cubs, Cardinals, and the rest of the NL Central have been playing equally as poorly. The fact that the Brewers are only 2.5 games back of the Cubs after that stretch is incredible. They’re well within striking distance and much closer than where they were for most of last year.

This spark and explosion that will hopefully lead to an extended stretch of quality baseball can jumpstart this team into taking over first place soon enough. Although as we know, it’s the team that leads the division at the end of 162 (or 163) games that’s most important. Leading it now doesn’t guarantee anything, but it would be nice for a little peace of mind.

Perhaps the Grandal ejection and Tuesday’s blowout win is the spark and the turning point in the season for the Brewers that’ll get them out of the rut for good. There’s still a lot of season left to be played, however.

The Milwaukee Brewers will be buyers at the deadline, and they’ll need to add some pitching if they’re going to make a deep run.