Opportunity knocks for more Crew members

MILWAUKEE -- Craig Counsell didn’t call a clubhouse meeting the day after the Brewers lost Christian Yelich to a season-ending knee injury. The path forward was so obvious, Counsell figured, that everyone knew the way.

“When a guy like that goes down,” Counsell said Monday, when the Brewers reunited with Yelich at Miller Park, “it’s very clear that everybody has to fill in around him. Somebody’s going to get a bigger opportunity. ... That’s how you minimize the loss -- guys step up.”

Two more guys stepped up in a 5-1 win over the Padres to open Milwaukee’s final homestand. Late-August callup Cory Spangenberg delivered a pair of two-out run-scoring hits totaling three RBIs, and slumping infielder Travis Shaw snapped an 0-for-20 with a pinch-hit home run for a victory that kept pressure on the Cardinals and Cubs in baseball’s only three-team divisional race.

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All three teams won Monday, so the Brewers remained three games behind the first-place Cardinals in the National League Central standings. In the Wild Card race, the Brewers are suddenly within 1 1/2 games of the Nationals for the top spot and one game behind the Cubs, who hold the second spot.

“In the last week or so, we’ve still got it,” Yelich said. “We just find a place to win. For whatever reason we just seem to pull it together in September. It’s a big tribute to the guys.”

Yelich was an observer on Monday, when Zach Davies and three relievers held the Padres to two hits and Spangenberg led the position player group. He made a diving stop to rob a hit from Manny Machado in the first inning, knocked a run-scoring single in the second inning and a two-run triple in the fourth off Padres starter Garrett Richards in Richards’ first Major League start coming off Tommy John surgery.

Did Spangenberg have any extra motivation to do damage against his former team?

“You know, playing in the playoffs is all the motivation I need,” he said. “This is the first time that I’ve ever had a chance, so I want to do everything I can to get there and be able to experience that. ... You have to be in the right spot at the right time sometimes. That just happened to me the last couple of weeks. It was a long wait, but I’m here now.”

It was a showcase of the energy Spangenberg has brought to the Brewers beyond his .735 OPS since a promotion from Triple-A San Antonio on Aug. 24, one week before Keston Hiura’s left hamstring injury opened playing time at second base.

Now that Hiura is on the verge of a comeback, Spangenberg figures to see more time at shortstop, Counsell said. He’s earned it.

“This is a player that, frankly, I anticipated being up here sooner and using more during the season,” Counsell said. “He got off to a slow start and it was just a series of events that it didn’t work out. But it’s a player who’s gotten an opportunity because of injuries and he’s taken advantage of it. Now it’s hard to take him out of the lineup.”

Shaw lost his spot in the lineup because he remains stuck in a brutal, season-long slump. But he worked a critical walk in the ninth inning Sunday that helped load the bases for Ryan Braun’s game-winning grand slam against the Cardinals, and a day later Shaw pulled a Ronald Bolaños pitch to the right field bleachers in the fifth for a 4-1 Brewers lead. It was his first big league home run since June 23.

“Even on the road trip in Miami, I felt like the at-bats were OK,” Shaw said. “But I needed to see something fall, something positive to happen. I’m hoping that kind of breaks the seal a little bit.”

Said Counsell: “That’s a good sign if we can make him a weapon again.”

It would make a recently-surging team even better. Despite playing significant stretches without Yelich and Hiura, the Brewers have won 10 of their last 11 games and 13 of 16 to make it a three-team battle in the NL Central.

“It seems like someone new wins the game every night,” Spangenberg said. “I think that’s just how this team goes. We have a bunch of grinders, a bunch of guys who want to be here and want to play well. It’s been fun.”