Photo Credit: Rough Tough, Real Stuff (Flickr CC)
Chase Anderson (pictured), Junior Guerra and Freddy Peralta are all on pace to far exceed their career highs for innings pitched.
For about a week now, the Milwaukee Brewers have held a pretty unlikely position: They’re the National League’s leader in wins, but they’re not the leader of their own division. They picked up their 65th win on Saturday, and the NL’s three division winners—at least as of last Monday morning—had yet to match that number. But the Brewers also remain a game back of the Chicago Cubs following the two teams’ simultaneous losses on Sunday. The Cubs entered the week with a 64-47 record and a .577 winning percentage in 111 games played, while the Brewers were at 65-50 and a .565 mark.
All told, Sunday’s game was the Brewers 115th of the season. They’re the only NL club that has played that many games, leaving them with just 47 left on the schedule in the season’s final 56 days. They have at least one off day in each of the season’s eight remaining weeks and a pair surrounding a brief two-game visit to the Cubs next week.
The Brewers’ decision not to add starting pitching at the trade deadline was widely documented, but their remaining schedule could limit their need for depth down the stretch. They’ll still need a fifth starter at least seven more times between now and Wednesday, Sept. 26, but additional off days could give them an opportunity to allow struggling pitchers to skip starts or to play matchups without anyone having to work on short rest. That extra opportunity for rest could be important as Chase Anderson, Junior Guerra and Freddy Peralta are all on pace to far exceed their career highs for innings pitched.
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Leading in Strikeouts
Elsewhere in Craig Counsell’s “Run Prevention Unit,” entering play on Monday, the Brewers had used the same reliever on back-to-back days just 67 times all season (Jeremy Jeffress was used the most often that way, with 17 sets of appearances in consecutive games). They’ve been rewarded with a bullpen that leads the NL in strikeouts per nine innings (10.1) and is fifth in earned run average (3.51). With extra days off on the calendar, the Brewers should be positioned to be even more careful about avoiding overusing an effective bullpen, and they’ll be in even better shape once rosters expand on Saturday, Sept. 1.
While the Brewers are able to use off days to keep their pitchers at their best, their primary rivals will have to deal with the added strain caused by a lack of breaks. As of Monday, the Brewers had as many off days in the last 24 days of August (five) as the Cubs have for the rest of the season. Chicago will play 23 games in 23 days starting on Tuesday, Aug. 21, including a one-day road trip to Atlanta for a makeup game on Thursday, Aug. 30.
The Cubs are already fielding questions about how they’ll manage that workload. Last week, Mark Gonzalez of the Chicago Tribune wrote about how the stretch will impact Kris Bryant—who has been sidelined twice this season with inflammation in his left shoulder. Even among players who haven’t recently been on the disabled list, almost no one is fully healthy this time of year, and it’s at best unlikely that the Cubs will be able to present their best lineup consistently during a grueling sequence.
The Brewers’ schedule advantage over the Cubs appeared poised to loom larger over the season’s final months when Milwaukee was still leading Chicago in the standings. Holding the lead and getting more rest than the other teams in the chase would be an attractive combination. Nonetheless, when handicapping the stretch run, it’s important to remember that the calendar itself will give the Brewers a slight advantage.
