Brewers: Injuries, Anemic Offense Cause Of Elimination From Postseason

The Milwaukee Brewers have been eliminated from the 2020 postseason. The reasons why are obvious.

The Brewers ended their 2020 season the same way they started it, by being shut out. On July 24th, Kyle Hendricks threw a complete game shutout in a 3-0 victory for the Cubs. On October 2nd, Clayton Kershaw went eight innings in a 3-0 victory for the Dodgers.

This whole series provided nothing new. We’ve seen the offense struggle to score runs and string hits together. We’ve seen the pitching staff limit runs and keep the team in the game.

Despite facing a powerhouse Dodgers lineup, the pitching staff help up extremely well. Outside of Brent Suter‘s struggles in the first inning of Game 1 and Brandon Woodruff‘s tough luck in the 5th inning of Game 2, the Dodgers offense was very quiet.

The problem was, so was the Brewers offense. The only runs the Brewers scored in this series were from an Orlando Arcia two-run homer in Game 1. Against Kershaw, the Brewers managed only three hits.

Anemic Brewers Offense

It’s obvious that things are not going good when Craig Counsell opts to put Ryon Healy in the starting lineup, when he’s only played in a handful of games all year, and hasn’t started a game since August 5th. And Counsell didn’t just put him anywhere, he was hitting in the cleanup spot.

Tyrone Taylor was another absolute disaster, striking out twice at the plate on three pitches and looking completely overmatched every time.

Avisail Garcia has had huge success against Kershaw in the past, but was 0-for-3 with three strikeouts against him in this game.

Christian Yelich, another 0-for-4 with a couple of strikeouts as he still couldn’t find himself at the plate. Orlando Arcia’s hitting streak in the postseason comes to an end at 10 games.

The Brewers managed to scatter four singles in Game 2. That was it. Just par for the course for this 2020 team.

Injuries Were A Major Factor

To add injury to insult, Jacob Nottingham had to leave Game 2 early with a hand injury. He struggled catching one of Josh Hader‘s fastballs and then a low pitch bent his thumb backwards and he had to come out of the game.

That adds on top of Manny Pina, who missed the final six weeks of the season with a knee injury. Pina was the best offensive catcher the Brewers had all season.

Also, Devin Williams missed the series, not that the Brewers had a lead to use him in anyways. Corbin Burnes was unavailable for Game 1 because of an oblique injury, which put the Brewers in a tough spot and changed the entire outlook of this series.

Ryan Braun had to leave Game 1 with a back and oblique injury and was unavailable for Game 2. He’s been contemplating retirement and that may have been his final game, though that’s a problem that will be discussed later.

Brett Anderson also was unavailable due to injury, not that he was likely to pitch in either of the first two games regardless.

If those guys were healthy and available, especially Burnes, Braun, and Williams, this series could’ve gone in a completely different direction. Instead, the season is over.

The reasons why the Brewers weren’t able to advance and push for a World Series are obvious. The offense was atrocious as always and injuries took away what remaining chances they had.

Now, it’s time to take a look back on what happened this year, learn from it, make some roster changes, and move on to 2021.