'Pretty complete' offensive dominance helps Brewers secure series sweep

MINNEAPOLIS -- Most of the time, to see an avalanche you have to be in a frigid climate. But in sub-tropical conditions this weekend, the Brewers buried the Twins with an avalanche of hits.

Caleb Durbin had three of the Brewers’ 17 hits on Sunday as Milwaukee completed a three-game sweep of the Twins with a 9-8 victory at Target Field.

To say the Milwaukee offense was clicking this weekend would be the understatement of the year. The Brewers beat the Twins into submission over the last three games with 35 runs and 47 hits. And after scoring 26 runs without hitting a homer on Friday and Saturday, they got back in the longball column with Rhys Hoskins’ solo shot and a three-run homer by Brice Turang.

Seven of the nine starters had at least two hits, including Joey Ortiz, who went 2-for-5 for his fourth straight multihit game.

“We can be pretty complete,” manager Pat Murphy said. “We can play defense. We can run the bases. We can hit. We can pitch. And we have a team -- that's what I'm most concerned about.”

Summarizing the numbers doesn’t quite tell the story of just how complete of a performance the Milwaukee hitters put on this weekend. Murphy used the same nine starters for all three games, and what they did individually is just as jaw-dropping as the numbers in aggregate.

Over the course of three steamy days in Minneapolis, the Brewers starting lineup did this:

• Sal Frelick -- 7-for-14, five runs, four RBIs
• Jackson Chourio -- 3-for-12, five runs, four RBIs, one stolen base
• Christian Yelich -- 8-for-14, two runs, 10 RBIs, one stolen base
• William Contreras -- 2-for-11, two RBIs
• Turang -- 5-for-13, three runs, four RBIs
• Hoskins -- 4-for-11, three runs, two RBIs
• Isaac Collins -- 4-for-11, four runs, three RBIs, one stolen base
• Durbin -- 5-for-13, six runs, one RBI, one stolen base
• Joey Ortiz -- 7-for-14, four runs, three RBIs

Every one of them drove in at least one run. All but one scored at least two runs. And every player in the starting lineup had at least one multihit game over the weekend.

“One through nine, everybody’s capable, and it’s taken us a while to get to that point,” Murphy said. “7-8-9 [in the lineup] weren’t always producing. We’re going to still have peaks and valleys -- we know how this thing goes. But we understand when we play a certain way -- meaning get on base, take the extra base -- we understand when we do that we’re a different team.”

That style of play was on display in the third inning on Sunday, when the Brewers scored twice to take the lead for good at 3-2. Frelick led off with a chopper to the left side of the infield. Third baseman Brooks Lee, aware of Frelick’s speed, knew he didn’t have much time and he bobbled the ball, giving Frelick a single.

Chourio followed with a bunt that just got past the left side of the mound. Lee again bobbled it but he really didn’t have a play on the ball. Yelich followed with a chopper over third base for an RBI single. And even though the ball was in shallow left field, Chourio never slowed down and wound up sliding into third base well ahead of the throw. That hustle play proved important three batters later when he scored on Hoskins’ sacrifice fly.

“That’s how you play. That’s what the threat of all that stuff helps you do,” Murphy said. “We don’t have any special sauce. We just understand how we have to play. When we do it, we’re pretty good.”