'Relentless' Brewers bats continue surge as NL Central tightens

MILWAUKEE -- In a way, the Brewers’ bout with the Rockies on Friday night at American Family Field aptly summed up their first 81 games of the season.

Milwaukee spent the opening three innings putting runners on but leaving each frame with nothing to show for it.

One inning later, the Crew was suddenly up by six. Nine hitters came to the plate in a six-run fourth, giving Milwaukee enough of a cushion to pull off a 10-6 win in the series opener.

It’s quite on-brand for the Brewers, who scuffled through the first two months of the season before riding a recent offensive tsunami that’s placed them just two games out of first in the NL Central at the season’s halfway point.

“There’s only one way for this team to play, and that’s with an edge,” manager Pat Murphy said. “They have to be relentless, and they’ve probably got to put a little more into it than any other team, because we have to collectively build small victories throughout the game. We can’t become emotionally attached to the result, but rather emotionally attached to how we do it.”

How Milwaukee did it this time was opening the fourth by getting the first three hitters on base. Brice Turang then promptly followed with a two-run single to push his hitting streak to 11 games. Later in the frame, Sal Frelick -- who's been thriving since being moved to the leadoff spot on June 12 -- singled home another run, tallying an RBI for the sixth time in his past seven games.

Jackson Chourio put the finishing touches on the rally one batter later, cracking an opposite-field three-run shot for his 13th homer of the season.

While the Brewers’ edge was trimmed down to just one run in the eighth, Christian Yelich helped secure the win by cracking a two-run double to end any doubt.

“Everybody contributed,” Murphy said. "Yelich coming up with a key double at the end after he was 0-for-4. … Frelick, great day. Turang, of course, a couple of hits. The offense stayed relentless.”

It’s hardly how anyone would’ve labeled the Brewers’ bats back in May. They opened the month getting blanked by the White Sox, which ended up being one of their six shutout losses in a 15-game stretch. After a May 17 shutout loss to the Twins, Milwaukee was six games back in the division and trying to navigate itself out of a team-wide cold snap.

Which makes what’s happened since all the more surprising.

Entering Friday, in the 36 games after being silenced by Minnesota, the Brewers had scored 186 runs. Only the Dodgers and Rays scored more in that stretch. Friday's victory also marked Milwaukee’s 10th in its past 13 games, while the club has outscored opponents 90-54.

Though the lineup as a whole has suddenly started clicking, a pair of key bats ditching early-season slumps has been crucial in Milwaukee snapping its collective funk.

Thanks in part to a brutal 0-for-24 stretch, Chourio’s OPS had fallen to .672 as recently as May 20. Thirty-three games later, he’s boosted it 60 points and clubbed six homers.

Meanwhile, 48 games into the season, Yelich was batting just .184 with four doubles and 26 RBIs as he worked to find his rhythm after undergoing back surgery last August. It’s safe to say he’s since found it, as he's nearly doubled his RBI total (59) in the 29 games since, which includes Friday night's clutch knock.

“I’m not surprised,” Murphy said. “I’ve been here for his whole time in Milwaukee, and I’ve seen some pretty special things out of the guy. The one thing is he doesn’t quit. I could tell he was not giving an inch, getting down on himself.”

The same could be said for the rest of the Milwaukee lineup, which continues to look nothing like the one that couldn’t seem to find home plate back in May. A little over a month after being routinely unable to score, every member of the lineup now seems to be capable of sparking a multirun rally.

As a result, Milwaukee is suddenly coming on quickly in the division-leading Cubs’ rear-view.

“They’re a bunch of the right people, and I think that gives us a shot to do something,” Murphy said. “I don’t know exactly what, but I like who the people are.”