The Milwaukee Brewers endured another loss on Saturday, and Pat Murphy detailed how it happened.
The Milwaukee Brewers lost their fourth straight game on Saturday after falling to the Washington Nationals, 3-1. After the game, Brewers manager Pat Murphy reacted to his team’s lackluster performance.
“Yeah, I mean, we've been pitched well,” Murphy told reporters. “Yeah, we don't have much conviction. It doesn't seem like enough. I'm proud of our guys. We put ourselves in a position to win the game at the end there, loading the bases against their closer.
"They're sporadically really good at bats,” he added. “But it's tough when you've got high expectations of yourselves and you've got some injuries, you've got some inexperience, and guys getting to play that haven't played full time, and you've got some guys kind of caught in between and trying to do a lot.”
The Brewers’ offense has struggled during their losing streak, and Saturday provided the most glaring example of their woes at the plate.
In 30 at-bats, Milwaukee logged just two hits: A single by Joey Ortiz that did not happen until the bottom of the sixth inning, and a ninth inning home run by WIlliam Contreras to give the Brewers their only run of the night.
During their losing streak, the Brewers are 15-for-131 at the plate and have scored six total runs during the skid after scoring five-plus runs in eight of their first 10 games.
“It's common in baseball,” Murphy said. “It's not like all of a sudden something crazy has happened. They got off to a good start connecting at bats. They're trying to do that, there's not lack of effort. But you mix in good pitching, guys really trying to take care a lot, trying a little bit too hard, not meeting the game halfway every at bat.
“One at-bat can throw you off in an inning,” Murphy added. “Guy does something, gets overaggressive or leaves the zone or makes a poor decision, it can ruin the inning. Then they catch a line drive or a ball's hit that doesn't get away from them and a guy makes a good play.”
With Saturday’s loss, the Brewers have now dropped their second-straight series after winning their first three. They have also fallen to 8-6 and fourth place in the National League Central Division. However, Murphy is not expressing worry.
“So yeah, credit to the Nationals. They're playing great,” he said. “They're loose, playing great. A nice young team that's playing hard. So I'm not panicking.
"I still trust the ballclub,” he added. “I like the ballclub. We are injured, we are inexperienced. It showed up today. We're going to go through stretches like this.”
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