The Brewers came one hit away from tying a fascinating, if frustrating, franchise record as they collected 19 hits in the contest and somehow still lost, 8-7, to the Braves on Sunday. It was just the second time in franchise history they’ve had that many hits in a nine-inning game and failed to secure the victory. (They had 20 hits in a 17-10 loss to the Pirates in 2002.) While the way the Brewers lost on Sunday was surprising, the fact that they lost was hardly a surprise. Entering the game, they were 4-14 in Sunday games this season. They’re now 16-29 in day games, including a stretch where they went just 3-17 during the day since Sunday, June 10.
Those daytime losses have taken on all kinds of forms. Sunday’s loss wasn’t even the Brewers’ highest-scoring daytime loss of the season. On June 17, they lost 10-9 to the Phillies. Chase Anderson started that game and allowed six runs in five and 1/3 innings. The Brewers scored four in the ninth to make it close but still came up short. Then, on July 14, the Brewers lost a pitchers’ duel, falling behind 2-0 to the Pirates in the first inning and losing 2-1 in Pittsburgh. Chase Anderson was also the losing pitcher on this day, although the lack of offense was the primary issue. But not all the daytime losses have been close games. On June 30, the Brewers lost 12-3 to the Reds, and on July 22, they lost 11-2 to the Dodgers. Those games got so far out of hand that Erik Kratz was called upon to pitch in both of them.
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As alluded to above, Chase Anderson has been a part of several rough Brewers day games this season. Sunday was his 10th daytime appearance, and the Brewers have lost seven of those games. One of the wins was a game where he allowed five runs over three and 2/3 innings, but the Brewers bailed him out and beat the Mets anyway. Anderson’s ERA is 5.08 in day games and 3.23 under the lights this season. Corey Knebel has also had a rough go of it during the day, allowing 13 earned runs in 13 and 2/3 innings.
As Different as Night and Day
As a team, however, the Brewers’ pitching staff is largely the same regardless of when the game starts: They’ve held opposing batters to a .719 on-base plus slugging during the day and a .702 mark at night. The bigger gap shows up on the offensive side, where Brewers hitters lose 86 OPS points when a game starts before 5 p.m.
Day games are a little rough on hitters across baseball, with the average MLB hitter seeing his on-base percentage and slugging fall off by a combined 11 points in games played under those conditions. The Brewers’ gap, however, is nearly eight times larger than the average. During the day, the Brewers’ OPS is .673—fourth worst in baseball. At night, it’s .759, which is baseball’s eighth best. A few hitters have bucked this trend, most notably Eric Thames and his nine home runs during day games; but Ryan Braun, Manny Pina, Travis Shaw, Christian Yelich and Jesus Aguilar are all noticeably better at the plate in the evening.
Whether the issue is the Brewers’ sleep cycle, routine or simply bad luck in a small sample size, they need to figure out a way to reverse this trend quickly: Sunday’s loss in Atlanta was the first of four day games in eight days, including a pair in Chicago this week against the Cubs. All told, 12 of their remaining 41 games this season will take place during the day, including each of their seven remaining Sunday games. The difference between a good season and a great season might be finding a way to win before dark.
