With Dodgers looming, Brewers lose momentum at wrong time

MILWAUKEE – It was a bad day for the Brewers to see their recent momentum halted with Sunday’s 4-3 loss to the Reds at American Family Field.

The Dodgers are coming.

With the caveat that every game matters right now for the Brewers, the next four home games against L.A. – starting with Clayton Kershaw versus Freddy Peralta on Monday night – have the potential to be particularly impactful. The Brewers are 1 1/2 game back of the Dodgers for the second best record in the National League, and that could have huge consequences, since the top two seeds in each league earn byes to the Division Series and skip past the dangerous, best-of-three Wild Card Series that felled the Brewers a year ago.

Of course, that’s looking way ahead – something Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy is loathe to do.

“You realize what the situation is. You don’t back away from that,” Murphy said. “But the truth is, we have to play better.”

The Brewers had been playing great, scoring 43 runs during a five-game winning streak. Then came a relative dud on Sunday afternoon against the Reds.

Lefty starter DL Hall recorded nine of his 14 outs via strikeout but didn’t make it through the fifth inning in his long-awaited return from the injured list. Red-hot rookie Jackson Chourio cooled to the tune of 0-for-4 with a defensive misplay in the first inning and a batter’s interference that ended the fifth, costing the Brewers a runner at second base on a day they had only three at-bats with runners in scoring position.

It was that kind of afternoon, with small errors making a big difference. In the seventh, Joe Ross followed an intentional walk to Reds star Elly De La Cruz with an unintentional walk to Tyler Stephenson, pushing the go-ahead runner to third for Spencer Steer’s sacrifice fly before the Brewers went quietly the rest of the way.

Add that all up, and it was not a performance that had Murphy looking ahead to October.

“You can’t get your mind on the wrong stuff,” he said. “My job is to say if we play good, we’re going to put ourselves in position to keep playing. That’s why I’m worried about playing good.

“Prepare to play good. Play good. Treat ourselves good. Repeat.”

The Brewers did reap some positive returns from February’s Corbin Burnes trade, with third baseman Joey Ortiz golfing a low breaking ball for a two-run home run in the second inning and Hall pitching in the Majors for the first time since April 20.

For Hall, just getting back to the Majors was an achievement. He originally went down with a knee injury but endured two setbacks that forced a reset of his Minor League rehab assignment – including being hit on the forearm by a comebacker in what was supposed to be his final Minor League outing in early July.

“Overall, I thought it was a good step in the right direction,” said Hall of Sunday’s outing, in which he was charged with three runs on five hits and three walks in 4 2/3 innings, with his nine strikeouts representing a career high and his fastball sitting at 94-96 mph.

His next step is to be determined. Hall does have Minor League options, and the Brewers have some decisions to make with lefty relief ace Bryan Hudson due back from the injured list for Monday’s series opener against the Dodgers, and Trevor Megill and his 20 saves this season throwing live batting practice Monday, followed by a brief rehab assignment.

The Brewers also realigned their rotation in advance of the L.A. series, moving talented rookie Tobias Myers in front of recently-acquired Aaron Civale so Myers catches the Dodgers in Thursday’s series finale.

What, then, of Hall? There’s a chance he bounces back and forth to the Minors in the coming weeks to pitch for the Brewers as needed, though Murphy called Sunday’s performance the best he’s seen from Hall this year, and made clear, “He’s definitely going to pitch in the big leagues again.”

Hall believes he’s a different pitcher than the one who was struggling with a knee injury in April. Good health was only one reason he was grateful to be back on the mound in Milwaukee.

“It seemed like it was never going to come this year after all the stuff that happened throughout rehab,” Hall said. “The thought of getting to feel that feeling again that I felt today was what kept me going.”