Houser, Ashby rep Crew's 'exciting' staff

MILWAUKEE -- Ben Sheets made a rare visit to American Family Field for “2000s Weekend” and saw a first-place Brewers team stacked with pitching. It wasn’t always that way when he was atop the team’s rotation.

“They’ve definitely got some arms, and it’s fun to watch,” Sheets said. “And it’s exciting. It ain’t like they’re just up there throwing ground balls. They’re throwing it by people. They’re tricking people. They’re freezing people. They’re doing it different ways.

“And that lineup has hitters throughout it. As [Christian] Yelich picks it up, that’s going to just add to the fuel.”

That was a solid summation of Sunday’s 7-3 win over the Nationals, in which Sheets saw Adrian Houser return from the COVID-19 injured list with an effective first outing, and saw pitching prospect Aaron Ashby hit 99 mph while striking out four batters over two innings in his first Major League relief appearance.

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Three runs came off the bat of Kolten Wong, who led off the first inning with a home run and delivered a go-ahead two-run triple in the fourth. Yelich tallied two more hits -- don’t look now, but he’s hitting .355 over his last 11 games -- and put two insurance runs on the board with a sixth-inning groundout thanks to the latest in a series of defensive miscues by the Nationals in this series. Lorenzo Cain then hit a two-run home run in the seventh, his first homer in a home game since September 2019.

The Brewers took the series, 2-1, and matched their high-water mark for the season at 27 games over .500 (76-49). They are off on Monday before opening their final regular-season series against the Reds (69-57), who remain 7 1/2 games behind Milwaukee in the National League Central standings despite winning four in a row and eight of 11. That’s because the Brewers have won nine of their last 12 games.

“This is the fun part of the year,” Cain said. “The rest of the year is kind of a grind, but this is where fans are really getting into it. We’re really excited to get to our end goal, which is getting to the playoffs and hopefully the World Series.”

Cain added, “We know we still have the rest of August and then September. Nothing’s going to be handed to us.”

A productive Cain and Yelich would be a boost, especially since the Brewers may be without Trade Deadline addition Eduardo Escobar for a while after the veteran injured his right hamstring and left Sunday’s game. Two days earlier, Milwaukee lost upstart outfielder Tyrone Taylor to an oblique injury that landed him on the injured list.

“The dark side of today is that we might have lost another player to injury,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said.

On the pitching front, however, Sunday brought three positive developments. First, Freddy Peralta played catch for the first time since landing on the 10-day IL with right shoulder inflammation, a strong indication that he won’t miss much time. Then, a healthy Houser threw 68 pitches against the Nationals without allowing an earned run and lowered his ERA to 3.44 over 107 1/3 innings this season.

Then, Ashby emerged from the bullpen for the first time in the big leagues, following the same path that Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff and Freddy Peralta took as they were getting established. Ashby impressed himself when he saw a 99 mph flash on the stadium scoreboard -- 98.7 mph was the official reading, according to Statcast -- and he worked around two hits and a walk to deliver two scoreless innings.

“As we look forward at this next month and look at ourselves hopefully as close to full strength as we can as we move forward, it probably fits more in the bullpen for Ashby,” Counsell said. “But I still think there can be a role. I think it's important to see it and I think it's important for him to do it, experience it and have some success at it. I don't think there's any question about the stuff.”

Cain saw Ashby's stuff firsthand at Triple-A Nashville while rehabbing a hamstring injury.

“The kid’s filthy,” Cain said. “He’s throwing mid- to upper 90s with a filthy changeup. I mean, the guy is absolutely it. He’s the real deal. He has great stuff. I think he’s going to be huge for us into September, and hopefully in the playoffs as well.”

Ashby said he’s picked the brains of the other young starters about their experience dipping their toes in the bullpen, and that he likes the adrenaline of relief work.

“Every time I get out there, I feel more comfortable and more relaxed,” Ashby said. “It's nice to have that. After you throw that first pitch in an outing, whether that's starting or in relief, everything else kind of goes away after that.”

He added, “Anything I can do to help this team win is awesome. Whether it's starting or relieving, I'm happy to do it.”