BrewCap: Sogard’s Walk-Off Saves Hader’s Disastrous Outing

Did we all collectively jinx Josh Hader? He had a no-hitter for the season and columns were written about it. People got excited about it. Hader is still throwing a no-hitter, but the walks have become a bit of a problem. Hader cannot seem to locate his fastball. He walked five batters yesterday. He only threw nine strikes out of the 32 pitches thrown in the ninth inning. Devin Williams got the Brewers out with no further damage though. And that was important because Eric Sogard went deep to win this one for the Brewers in a wild 7-6 victory.
Player of the Game: Eric Sogard – Look, I’ve been tough on Eric Sogard of late. He is not hitting the ball at all, and I’ve named him Baseball Ersan. The reason for the nickname is Ersan Ilyasova keeps getting time for the Milwaukee Bucks similar to what is happening with Sogard. Regardless of his weak play, Sogard hit the game-winner for the Brewers to get their fourth win in the last six games.
Honorable Mention: Avisail Garcia – One at-bat was all Avisail Garica needed to be one of the men of the game. Garcia came to the plate in the eighth inning with two outs and two on. Brewers trailed the Pirates, 5-4, and Garcia stepped to the plate. He rocked a double that scored Keston Hiura and Christian Yelich to give Milwaukee the initial lead. Good on Garcia for coming up big at that moment.
One thing to wonder: Did the Brewers fix their offense or are they just playing the Pirates? – This is a fair question, right? Milwaukee scored nine runs on Friday. Seven on Saturday. That is the most runs Milwaukee scored in back-to-back games all season. Brewers did meet as a team prior to this weekend and emphasize that they needed to be better hitters. I don’t know if that immediately fixes things, but maybe, the team is playing a little looser.
Next up: Milwaukee will try to win the series today with one more to be played on Monday. Brandon Woodruff will take the mound and hope to get some run support finally. They’ll be facing off against Steven Brault who has seen the Crew a few times in the last few years. Brewers will try to beat him up today and keep the momentum going.
Charlie.