Even though the Brewers often exceed expectations, this year it seemed even tougher for them.
Craig Counsell, the most successful manager in Brewers history, left for the rival Cubs last offseason. Corbin Burnes, the 2021 NL Cy Young Award winner, was traded to the Baltimore Orioles.
Two-time All-Star pitcher Brandon Woodruff didn’t play at all this year while recovering from shoulder surgery. Two-time NL reliever of the year Devin Williams missed the first half of the season because of stress fractures in his back.
All-Star outfielder Christian Yelich, along with pitchers Wade Miley and Robert Gasser, suffered season-ending injuries. None of this stopped Milwaukee.
“You can do all that to us, but it’s still about people, and you have no idea what their best is,” Murphy said. “These guys don’t know what their best is and didn’t know what their best was and still don’t.
But they know one thing: Pulling together, competing, being doubted is something that can vault you forward into a championship.”
The Brewers took over first place for good at the end of April and never looked back. Now they have won back-to-back division titles for the first time since 1981-82.
The 1982 season was the only time Milwaukee appeared in the World Series, which they lost in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals.
Milwaukee benefitted from Murphy’s leadership, who had been Counsell’s bench coach since 2016. Instead of following Counsell to Chicago, Murphy stayed in Milwaukee and got his first full-time job as a major league manager just two weeks before his 65th birthday. His only previous MLB managing experience was as an interim coach with San Diego in 2015.
Murphy has kept the locker room relaxed while leading a team that hasn’t lost more than three games in a row at any point this season. The Brewers are the only team that hasn’t had a losing streak of at least four games.
Even though the Brewers often exceed expectations, this year it seemed even tougher for them.
Craig Counsell, the most successful manager in Brewers history, left for the rival Cubs last offseason. Corbin Burnes, the 2021 NL Cy Young Award winner, was traded to the Baltimore Orioles.
Two-time All-Star pitcher Brandon Woodruff didn’t play at all this year while recovering from shoulder surgery. Two-time NL reliever of the year Devin Williams missed the first half of the season because of stress fractures in his back.
All-Star outfielder Christian Yelich, along with pitchers Wade Miley and Robert Gasser, suffered season-ending injuries.
None of this stopped Milwaukee.
“You can do all that to us, but it’s still about people, and you have no idea what their best is,” Murphy said. “These guys don’t know what their best is and didn’t know what their best was and still don’t.
But they know one thing: Pulling together, competing, being doubted is something that can vault you forward into a championship.”
The Brewers took over first place for good at the end of April and never looked back. Now they have won back-to-back division titles for the first time since 1981-82. The 1982 season was the only time Milwaukee appeared in the World Series, which they lost in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals.
Milwaukee benefitted from Murphy’s leadership, who had been Counsell’s bench coach since 2016. Instead of following Counsell to Chicago, Murphy stayed in Milwaukee and got his first full-time job as a major league manager just two weeks before his 65th birthday.
His only previous MLB managing experience was as an interim coach with San Diego in 2015.
Murphy has kept the locker room relaxed while leading a team that hasn’t lost more than three games in a row at any point this season. The Brewers are the only team that hasn’t had a losing streak of at least four games.
“He’s brought the edge that we play with,” Williams said. “We’re ready to fight every day.”
The Brewers have done well with what Murphy calls an “all-hands-on-deck” approach.
Milwaukee has used 17 starting pitchers this season, which is more than all but two teams, the Miami Marlins and Los Angeles Angels. Twelve different Brewers pitchers have earned a save, just two shy of the record of 14 set by the 2021 Tampa Bay Rays.
Milwaukee entered Wednesday with a 3.65 ERA, ranking fourth in the majors.
In recent years, the Brewers mostly depended on their pitching but fell short in the playoffs, losing nine of their last ten postseason games. This year’s team seems to have a stronger batting lineup.
Milwaukee ranked fourth in runs scored (733) and 11th in OPS (.735) as of Wednesday, compared to last year’s 17th in runs (728) and 23rd in OPS (.704).
Yelich was leading the National League in batting average (.315) and on-base percentage (.406) before back problems cut his season short in late July. William Contreras has become one of the top hitting catchers in the game.
Adames is the first Brewers shortstop to have a 30-homer, 100-RBI season, something even Hall of Famer Robin Yount never did in Milwaukee. Chourio is the youngest player to hit 20 home runs and steal 20 bases in a single season.
“This is exactly what you as a competitor want to be a part of, right?” first baseman Rhys Hoskins said. “It didn’t necessarily look exactly the way that maybe some of us thought, but what’s cool is that we still were able to find ways to get the job done.”
