Pat Murphy's benching of Cooper Pratt wasn't real reason Brewers dropped series opener with Mets

The Milwaukee Brewers lost a frustrating one on Tuesday night. Opening a series with the New York Mets, who despite their 60-72 record have been a much better team as of late, the Brewers lost in extra innings on a throwing error from third baseman David Hamilton.

The nature of the loss sparked controversy online, and understandably so, due to a questionable decision from manager Pat Murphy earlier in the game. Murphy, known for sending a message to his young players by benching them in the middle of a game if they don't meet the Brewers' lofty standards, pulled rookie shortstop Cooper Pratt in the fifth inning after two frustrating at-bats.

The 22-year-old shortstop failed to get a bunt down in his first at-bat, despite watching a fastball land in the middle of the zone for a strike, and ended up on first base in his second at-bat after dropping a bloop single over the first baseman's head. Murphy and the Brewers' coaching staff believed Pratt could have ended up on second base had he been running hard out of the box on his bloop single. Pratt was yanked from the game before he could run the bases.

The decision seemed like a fine, albeit slightly impulsive one at the time; Murphy has benched players like Sal Frelick and Caleb Durbin and pulled starters Brandon Sproat and Robert Gasser in the middle of at-bats in order to remind his team of the expectations the first-place ballclub holds. However, when Pratt's replacement, Hamilton, made a costly error in the bottom of the 10th inning, Brewers fans were left wondering if pulling Pratt was the right move. Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20.

That said, Hamilton's error in the bottom of the 10th inning wasn't the true reason the Brewers lost Tuesday night's game. Yes, it was the play that ultimately handed the Mets the victory, but without the Brewers' brutal display of situational hitting throughout the game, that play never would have happened.

Brewers' poor situational hitting is really to blame for Tuesday night loss to Mets

The Brewers had a number of opportunities to put last night's contest well out of reach and avoid extra innings altogether, but several frustrating at-bats ultimately prevented them from building a lead and defeating the Zac Thronton and the Mets.

It certainly began with Pratt's aforementioned first at-bat. Still a 0-0 game in the top of the third inning, Garrett Mitchell and Joey Ortiz led off the frame with back-to-back singles, quickly giving the Brewers a scoring threat. However, Pratt couldn't advance the runners, and instead grounded into a forceout in which Thornton scooped up a grounder and got Mitchell, the lead runner, at third base. Jackson Chourio followed with a shallow fly out to right and Brice Turang ended the inning with a ground out to shortstop. Chourio and Turang, hitting first and second in the Brewers' lineup last night, combined to go 0-for-10 with three strikeouts.

The more concerning sequences came in the final two innings of last night's loss. In the ninth inning, after Christian Yelich tied the game with a pinch-hit double, the Brewers had runners on second and third with nobody out. Given the way Trevor Megill has pitched as of late, Milwaukee simply needed to scratch across one more run to seemingly give them the victory, and all that was required was a fly ball deep enough to score Jake Bauers. However, both Luis Lara and Garrett Mitchell struck out swinging, and an excellent play from shortstop Francisco Lindor left Bauers stranded on third when the inning ended.

Then, in the 10th inning, with Hamilton starting the frame on second base as the automatic runner, both Chourio and Turang struck out in back-to-back at-bats. When Bauers flew out to right to end the inning, Hamilton hadn't moved an inch.

The Brewers ultimately went 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position last night, and failed to move a runner to third base with less than two outs on multiple occasions. For a team lacking in the home run department, a greater emphasis is placed on producing with runners in scoring position, and Milwaukee's recent inability to do so is concerning.

Therefore, as frustrating as it was to see Pratt's replacement make the error that ultimately ended the game last night, the lack of production with runners in scoring position and the poor situational hitting is far more concerning. Whether or not you believe Murphy's decision to pull Pratt last night was justified, Hamilton's error in the 10th was by no means the biggest reason that the Brewers dropped their series opener to the Mets.

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