Lauer strong, but Crew 'struggling a little bit'

PHOENIX -- Eric Lauer needed 101 pitches for five innings in his previous outing and 98 pitches for five innings the time before that. He was determined to fill the strike zone on Friday night at Chase Field.

Lauer succeeded in that. The Brewers also lost, 2-1, to the D-backs, because it was another night their offense struggled to score. They have scored one run over two days in the desert, and it was produced by a two-out single followed by three consecutive walks.

“I think we’re searching right now. That’s what it feels like,” Lauer said after the Brewers fell 7 1/2 games behind the Cardinals in the National League Central and 3 1/2 games out of an NL Wild Card spot, the furthest they've been out of a playoff spot all season. “We’re trying to put together some good games. We’re struggling a little bit, not playing great baseball, all around, first pitch to last pitch. It’s been a little up and down for us.

“We’re all trying our hardest. Everybody is grinding. It’s September, it’s a long season. But everybody is doing that, and we need to find a way to make some things happen and make some things go in our favor.”

Putting more crooked numbers on the scoreboard would help relieve some of the pressure on Lauer & Co. to be perfect. After D-backs reliever Kyle Nelson walked three consecutive hitters in the top of the fifth inning -- including Andrew McCutchen with the bases loaded for a 1-0 Brewers lead -- Lauer took the mound at 49 pitches and continued to fire strikes. This time, D-backs hitters made something of them.

Christian Walker and Emmanuel Rivera led off the bottom of the fifth with successive doubles, and Jake McCarthy followed with a single for a 2-1 lead.

In the span of nine Lauer pitches, Milwaukee's lead was gone.

“I established that I was going to be in the zone, and honestly, I think it played against me a little bit there in the fifth,” Lauer said.

Would he characterize any of those pitches as mistakes?

“No, I wouldn’t say they were mistakes, I would say I had more room to play with,” Lauer said. “I had room to adjust, seeing that they were coming out swinging that inning. I made the adjustment, it was just a batter or two too late.”

Lauer has a 3.54 ERA through 25 starts and has pitched into the seventh inning in seven of them, trailing only Corbin Burnes (11 starts working into the seventh or later) on the Crew's staff. Burnes and Lauer have combined for 73 percent of such outings for the Brewers this season.

“Sometimes, the best trait of a starting pitcher is how consistent they are, and I think that’s what Eric has done a good job of,” manager Craig Counsell said before Friday's game. “He’s just been consistent. He’s made every start. He got into every game. He pitched some beautiful games. In totality, that adds up to a really good starting pitcher.

“So, that’s kind of how I look at it. There’s the details of some pitches and choices and stuff like that, but what he’s done [in terms of] consistently being out there every five to six days giving us a chance to win, at times taking over a game and winning it himself, it’s just a valuable, valuable player.”

After Lauer absorbed the loss Friday night, Counsell added, “Eric pitched great. We just didn’t score enough.”

Counsell has said that often in 2022. Most managers have. For as poorly as it seems the Brewers’ offense has performed this season, the fact is that going into Friday, only four teams -- the Dodgers, Cardinals, Red Sox and Braves -- had scored four or more runs more often than the Crew.

But the past handful of games -- aside from a four-run inning in the finale of a homestand on Wednesday -- Milwaukee hasn't scored enough.

“Certainly, recently, we’ve had to say that too often,” Counsell said. “Today was a strange game in that we got a bunch of base hits, a bunch of singles, and didn’t have a ton of guys in scoring position. Nothing played after that, really.”

Said second baseman Kolten Wong: “No excuses, man. We just have to play better.”

Does Wong see any signs that the Brewers have a surge in them?

“That’s the beauty of baseball,” Wong said. “It doesn’t matter how you look right now, it’s all about the next day. We’re not playing our best, but we know we can turn it around just like anybody else can. That won’t go away until they tell us we’re out of the playoffs. We’re showing up every day trying to win.”

Said Lauer: “We have to shrug it off and push forward. That’s what makes teams great. We have plenty of guys in here who are great, so we have to keep looking forward.”