Brewers: 3 Slumping Players Who Need To Step Up Heading Into Crucial Pirates Series

The Milwaukee Brewers have lost six straight games heading into a crucial series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The losing streak has allowed the Pirates to take control of first place in the NL Central.

What's strange about the losing streak is that right before it the Brewers were playing some of their best baseball, taking two of three from the Orioles and three of four from the Reds. The Brewers need to snap out of their funk to avoid falling further down the standings. They've been presented with an incredible opportunity to take the division with the Cardinals falling off the table and now their main competition is the upstart Pirates.

The Crew's next opponent is the Pittsburgh Pirates. Seizing momentum, and the division lead, will be crucial for the Brewers in this weekend's series.

How can the Brewers seize that momentum? They need these players to step up and perform at a higher level than they have been.

1. Luis Urias

The Brewers activated Luis Urias off the IL back in the Reds series, and he's been slow to get started. Urias is hitting just .080 (2 for 25) with a .521 OPS. Urias' two hits are a double and a homer. The home run he hit in the second game against the Twins, perhaps a sign that he's starting to feel more locked in at the plate.

Milwaukee needs Urias to get going offensively. He can supply some power and is a productive bat when at 100%. The Brewers have been dealing with some holes in their lineup and Urias, frankly, has been one of them since his return. While he was on the injured list, there was a hole in the lineup in his absence, but he hasn't plugged that hole yet. Instead, he's just been a continuation of one.

Perhaps he needed a little more time on his rehab assignment to get in a groove at the plate. But he's back in the lineup and Craig Counsell will continue to ride with him and give him regular at-bats to get him going. Hopefully he can do that in this Pirates series.

3. Rowdy Tellez

It's quite clear that Rowdy Tellez has found himself in a funk of late. Back in May, Tellez was on a solid tear at the plate, but he hasn't homered in a couple of weeks and that's the main part of his game.

Over his last 15 games, Tellez is hitting just .167/.182/.204 with no homers, just one walk and 16 Ks in 54 at-bats.

Adames and Tellez were supposed to provide a powerful punch in the middle of the order for the Brewers and lately neither of them have been able to do that. Even when Tellez is getting hits, he's not doing much extra-base damage as shown by his .204 slugging percentage over the last two weeks.

On the season, Tellez's numbers don't look too bad with a .231/.305/.433 slash line to go with 12 homers and a .738 OPS. But he had an .830 OPS as of June 1st, marking a practically 100 point drop in OPS in just two weeks.

Home runs have typically come in bunches for Tellez and the Brewers are going to need him to find one of those bunches soon to blast himself and the team out of this slump.

This series against the Pirates can either launch the Brewers back into the top of the NL Central standings, or make the deficit they have to chase grow even larger. With the balanced schedule, there are fewer games against division opponents like the Pirates, which will make it more difficult to chase them down in the standings if they fall further behind.