MILWAUKEE – Coming off a shoulder injury at the end of last year, Devin Williams hasn’t looked quite like the lights-out reliever who won the 2020 National League Rookie of the Year Award. So, the Brewers are trying a new approach for the time being.

They think pitching Williams on a semi-scheduled basis -- rather than holding him for the late-inning, high-leverage role he filled in front of closer Josh Hader last year, like the one that came up in Tuesday's 3-2 loss to the Cubs -- will be beneficial.

“The tricky thing with Devin is we were trying to thread this needle of not a normal Spring Training, and also game situations,” said manager Craig Counsell, referring to Williams’ sparse usage in spring to avoid over-stressing his right shoulder. “It's just a hard needle to thread. I think our goal, really, is to just get Devin in games at this point. That's kind of why you saw him [Monday] night.”

Williams pitched with a five-run lead in the eighth inning of Monday’s 6-3 win over the Cubs. It was not at all a typical Devin Williams inning. Of his 14 pitches, only four were strikes. He walked two batters. Williams didn’t record a strikeout, something that happened only once in 22 outings in 2020, a two-thirds inning stint against the Pirates last Aug. 29.

And yet Williams did the job. With two on and one out, he faced Cubs catcher Willson Contreras, whom Williams had hit in the helmet with a pitch last week at Wrigley Field. On the first pitch of their rematch, Contreras hit into a double play.

“The best way to get [Williams] stronger is to get him pitching,” Counsell said. “He said he felt great last night from a shoulder perspective -- it felt great, like, as good as he's felt. That's a good sign. But we’ve got to get him out there. I think that's going to be the goal for a little while, just get them out there on kind of a regular schedule. And that's what's going to get him back to strength, what he wants to be and what we hope he can be. It's too hard picking out – [waiting for] the game lining up every single day.”

Because they were so cautious with Williams in Spring Training coming off a rotator cuff injury, he has pitched in only seven games so far in 2021 – four Cactus League outings plus his three regular-season outings.

“Even if you think about Josh, who we didn’t go crazy with Josh in Spring Training but we at least got him out there 8-9 times,’ pitching coach Chris Hook said. “We’re getting into Devin’s seventh, eighth time out there. We’re still kind of in that buildup mode.”

With Williams backed off from setup duties for a bit, J.P. Feyereisen, Brad Boxberger and left-hander Brent Suter are among Counsell’s options to pitch in front of Hader.

Yelich still sidelined, Wong progressing
Christian Yelich missed a second straight start Tuesday with a sore lower back, but he was “improving,” Counsell said.

With a day game Wednesday and an open date on Friday, might the Brewers be tempted to rest Yelich until Friday’s series opener against the Pirates at American Family Field?

“We’re taking it day by day,” Counsell said. ”We'll see if we can increase activities today, and if we can, then I think [Wednesday’s series finale against the Cubs] is not out of the question. If we're kind of limited to the training room today, then we'll probably use the off-day.”

Asked whether the Brewers’ impressive outfield depth informed these decisions, Counsell said, “No, I think the time in the season probably does as much as anything. It's just having so much season left that you don't want any big chunks here [during which Yelich misses time]. You would be [making] a mistake. What the depth does is it just raises the floor every day for us, and that's what I feel like we're doing. When Christian is healthy, we're going to put him in there, but we're going to make sure he's healthy.”

Counsell said he was optimistic about Kolten Wong’s progress from a left oblique injury that landed him on the 10-day injured list. Wong is eligible to return for the Brewers’ second game at San Diego next week, and while he might not hit that target precisely, Counsell said it’s likely that Wong will return to the lineup some time during that weeklong trip.

McKinney is a hit off the bench
Billy McKinney didn’t get into Monday’s game until the sixth inning, but he wound up going 3-for-3 to leave him 6-for-9 as the Brewers’ most effective bench option so far this season entering play Tuesday. He was the first Brewers player to tally three hits in a nine-inning game he didn’t start since Orlando Arcia in 2018. Before that, it was Joe Dillion in 2007.

“I had a little bit of experience [pinch-hitting] in Toronto. I platooned over there so I definitely needed to be ready later in the game if a tough righty came in,” McKinney said. “Pinch-hitting’s just more prevalent in the game nowadays -- even in the AL sometimes. It’s definitely a learning experience, and I’m learning every day. With the outfield we have and how talented it is, I understand.”

McKinney’s first hit on Monday gave him three singles in his first six at-bats as a pinch-hitter, a role he’s likely to play a lot considering the Brewers have four starting outfielders in Christian Yelich, Lorenzo Cain, Avisaíl García and Jackie Bradley Jr.

“Look, the results have been great, but the approach has been probably even better,” Counsell said. “Sometimes it's hard to understand as a young player, 'Why am I not playing? If I don't play this isn't going to work.' I think he's taking the exact opposite approach. 'How can I be good at this job?' And that's how I think you have to approach it.”