Many thought these Milwaukee Brewers needed to be rebuilt.
Lose the manager. Exchange the ace. Suffer a season-ending injury to the other ace. And all this while playing in the smallest major league market?
At the start of this season, this was certainly not far-fetched logic.
Yet there they were, on Memorial Day afternoon at American Family Field, with a 3.5 game lead in the division over their arch-rivals the Chicago Cubs and pushing that lead back by another game with a victory of 5-1 buoyed by a pair of players who define why, year after year, these Brewers simply seem to defy outside expectations.
And to top it all off, they did it on Monday in front of the manager who spurned them six months ago to go to one of the game’s biggest markets, looking for a different challenge than host a World Series, the first in franchise history. to his hometown.
Craig Counsell’s boos were loud. The game for nine innings was stronger.
More:‘Good job, boo, whatever’: Craig Counsell faces the music in his return to Milwaukee as Cubs manager
The Brewers hope there are many more memorable moments to come this season. Yet, for now at least, this had to be the most satisfying yet.
“Today was electric,” Brewers reliever Bryan Hudson said. “It was fun. There was a lot of energy in that stadium. The guys played with a lot of energy and we made it happen.
Hudson is one of those two aforementioned players.
Second is starting pitcher Robert Gasser, who threw six shutout innings with seven strikeouts to keep the Brewers in the game as his counterpart, Justin Steele, split Milwaukee’s offense with a rising, cutting four-seam inning. after round. With Gasser only facing one over the minimum in his first six frames, it was easy to forget that he was the team’s seventh or eighth starter on the depth chart coming out of camp. Despite his status as one of the Brewers’ top prospects, he wasn’t on the team to start the year – then he got injured and missed a month.
“I feel really confident,” Gasser said. “Today I was kind of comfortable. Confidence doesn’t necessarily come from me throwing strikes. This is me knowing my stuff works and I can challenge the guys.
Now four starts into his MLB career, Gasser has a 1.96 ERA and 0.96 WHIP. He took the mound in front of a very enthusiastic crowd of 41,882 for Counsell’s first game in Milwaukee in Cubbie blue and he pushed.
“It’s not totally surprising but it’s remarkable,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “Look what he did today. His concentration was impeccable.
When Gasser finished ruling the Cubs’ bats with the stern command of a sweeper, a quadruple seamer and a cutter – his only walk in 23 big league innings remained a plate appearance in which he got rushed twice – and ran into trouble in the seventh. , Hudson trotted out of the enclosure.
Another nameless castaway who found his way to the shores of Lake Michigan, where players like him are maximized and careers like his are revitalized.
Hudson entered with runners on first and second after Gasser left them with no outs in a scoreless tie in the top of the seventh. The margin for error was slim when his former teammate in the Cubs organization, Christopher Morel, intervened. Hudson struck him out, moved Patrick Wisdom to second, then perfectly pointed a sweeper to Dansby Swanson to escape the jam.
For good measure, Hudson came out for the eighth and pitched another scoreless frame, striking out Nico Hoerner to get things going in the bottom of the eighth where the Brewers offense broke out just as the Cubs returned to the bullpen.
Hudson, if he wasn’t 6-foot-8, probably wouldn’t have stood out in the clubhouse this spring as a newcomer to the Brewers organization. The left-hander spent eight years toiling in the Cubs’ minor league system after being a third-round pick in 2015, but reached minor league free agency before getting a chance in the major leagues or even in a list of 40 players. The Dodgers signed him to a minors contract in 2023 and gave him a cup of coffee for five games before trading him to Milwaukee for a 20th-round pick, the very last selection in last year’s draft by the club.
Now, he’s pitched in 20 games, covered 30 ⅓ innings and has a 0.59 ERA. He also does it in a bit of a deceptive way, just like his delivery.
“The worst thing you can do with him is look at the board and see 91 (mph) and say, ‘I can do that,’” Murphy said. “But he drops it from here and it looks like he’s shooting over your head.” And then it looks like he’s far from here (laterally). It’s misleading. It’s quite effective.
Trevor Megill has taken over the closer role while Devin Williams, yet another big name the Brewers are down as he recovers from a back injury, is out, but it’s Hudson who has become the most reliable arm in a bullpen that is perennially among the best in the game.
“I don’t try to think about that stuff,” Hudson said. “I want to go out there and get my withdrawals as quickly as possible.”
Hudson is part of a stable of bullpen weapons that were acquired by means far more plebeian than patrician. Megill was acquired when the Twins designated him for assignment last April. Joel Payamps and Elvis Peguero were small parts of larger contracts last offseason. Hoby Milner signed a minor league contract. Jared Koenig too.
This is how Brewers work. And, on Monday, they shouted it on the field, in the same vein as the supporters who expressed their dissatisfaction with the former coach.
Loudly.
More:Social media reacts to Cubs manager Craig Counsell’s return to Milwaukee
“It was amazing,” said shortstop Willy Adames, whose three-run homer in the eighth opened the scoring. “How loud it was, we were looking forward to this series because it was intense when we played the Cubs, especially because Counsell is coming for the first time after he left.
“When you play with such energy and atmosphere, it’s incredible. I hope we have that every night, because it would be incredible, but when you have it, I feel like everything everyone is so energetic and enjoying the moments.”
Games in this rivalry always feature a certain level of passion that emanates from the stands to between the white lines, but this one was even a little more palpable.
“I feel like there was a little extra today because of Counsell, but we love it,” Adames said. “I feel like we feed off that energy that the fans bring to the table, so we expect the whole show to be that.”
Adames might get his wish. If Monday was any indication, the prevailing fan sentiment regarding Counsell’s departure isn’t going anywhere.
The Brewers believe that as a team, they aren’t either. Stay competitive with a new manager, new pitching staff and new faces in the lineup?
This is the challenge they want.