Brewers: Is A Little Run Support Too Much To Ask For?

It’s got to be getting frustrating for the Brewers starting pitchers.

With the Brewers offense struggling, run support has been hard to come by for the rotation, putting more pressure on them to pitch well and not make any mistakes. For the most part, they have stepped up.

Brandon Woodruff had just tossed 7.2 scoreless IP, but the Brewers couldn’t get him a lead by the time he was pulled in the eighth inning, and then a bloop single, a horrible replay review, followed by another error put the Brewers down 2-0 with both runs being charged to Woodruff. The offense was shutout and Woodruff took the loss despite pitching brilliantly.

It’s a story all too commonly told this season regarding the Brewers.

Starting pitcher pitches well, offense can’t get him a lead, starting pitcher makes one mistake, Brewers end up losing.

Brandon Woodruff and Corbin Burnes have started a combined 15 games this season, heading into Burnes’ start on Wednesday against the Royals. The Brewers offense has been shutout in five of those games.

Woodruff has a 1.58 ERA on the season and Burnes has a 1.57 ERA. Yet Woodruff has a 2-2 record and Burnes is 2-3. The Brewers are at least 6-3 in Woodruff’s starts but they’re a lowly 2-4 in Burnes’ outings.

Is it too much to ask for the Brewers offense to supply these guys with some run support?

Apparently, it is too much to ask for some run support. The Crew has been shutout in half of Burnes’ starts, and gave him just one run in another start. In the two wins, the Brewers scored 6 and 7 runs, respectively. Burnes allowed no runs in each of those starts.

Brandon Woodruff has the worst run support of any qualified pitcher in the league with just 1.58 runs per nine innings, the same as his ERA ironically enough. The reason the Brewers have a better record in his starts than in Burnes’ though is because the offense has scored some late runs after Woodruff was taken out to finally give them the lead.

Woodruff and Burnes are two of the best pitchers in the league right now, and the Brewers are just 8-7 in games they start because they get little to no run support.

On the flip side, Freddy Peralta is top 10 in the National League in run support received with 6.20 runs per 9 IP. Meanwhile, Adrian Houser has received little more support than Burnes has.

It’s important to keep in mind that when Woodruff and Burnes are pitching, they’re also typically going against the top rotation arms the opponent has. Still, they should be able to scratch out something. The shutouts with your top arms on the mound are getting inexcusable at this point.

Christian Yelich is back in the lineup, which is important. He needs to provide a spark. The Brewers need him to spark this offense. This is a historic rotationMilwaukee has, and the offense can’t do enough to make good use of it.