'Work to do': .500 not good enough for Murphy's injury-battling Brewers

CHICAGO -- Pat Murphy isn’t one to look too deeply at the standings, particularly this early in the season.

The Brewers’ skipper knows where his team stands, obviously, but the thing he cares most about is Milwaukee playing themselves into a better spot.

“The only standings that matter to me is we're .500, and if you're going to be a team that plays beyond the end of the season, you can't be .500,” Murphy said before Wednesday’s game, which his club entered with a 15-15 record. “But you don't look at it now. You just say, 'Hey, we got work to do.'”

Murphy’s words still rang true roughly 24 hours later. Following Wednesday’s victory to get a game above .500, the Brewers (16-16) fell back to even with an 8-0 loss to the White Sox on Thursday at Rate Field.

Things looked promising for Milwaukee from the start. Second baseman Brice Turang, right fielder Sal Frelick and left fielder Jake Bauers each drew walks in the top of the first off Chicago starter Sean Burke. That brought first baseman Rhys Hoskins to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded.

Burke hung an 0-2 curveball over the heart of the plate, and Hoskins drilled it to center field. The ball would’ve left 13 of 30 Major League ballparks, per Statcast, but White Sox center fielder Luis Robert Jr. leaped up and gloved it before it could go over the wall, turning it into a long, inning-ending flyout.

“It turns out to be a game-changer when it happens like that,” Murphy said.

The Brewers hardly threatened offensively after that. While Chicago took the lead in the bottom frame and added seven runs in the sixth and seventh, Milwaukee got just four other runners on base (two on hits, one on a walk and one on an error).

That wasted another solid start from right-hander Chad Patrick, who threw a career-high 102 pitches over 5 2/3 innings, allowing three runs on six hits while striking out four. Now seven appearances (six starts) into his Major League career, Patrick owns a 2.87 ERA.

“He was outstanding,” Murphy said. “I thought he helped us a bunch. Our bullpen was depleted today, obviously, and it was crucial that he went deep, and he did. Any adversity he had, he fought through. The line won't look as good as he pitched. He pitched really well.”

It hasn’t been an easy first month-plus for Milwaukee to get through.

The Brewers rebounded from an 0-4 start to the season with a 7-1 stretch, which put them a season-high two games above .500 on April 9. After this series win in Chicago, they’ve won six of 10 series this season, and they’ve done it while dealing with a number of injuries, especially in the rotation.

When Patrick got the nod on April 6, fellow starter Freddy Peralta was the only healthy arm from the planned Opening Day rotation. Currently, six potential Milwaukee starters remain on the injured list, though right-hander Brandon Woodruff could return soon.

That’s not to mention other injuries, like having two center-field options in Garrett Mitchell (left oblique strain) and Blake Perkins (right shin fracture) on the IL. Again, it hasn’t been easy, but Milwaukee has managed to work through some issues and have at least stayed close to .500 over the past month. The wheels haven’t fallen off.

Now, the National League Central-leading Cubs come to town for a three-game set starting Friday night, the teams’ first meeting of the season. It will be a test to see how the squads stack up -- and the adversity the Brewers have faced likely won’t get them any sympathy from their opponents.

“It's a testament to this team that they stood up and won some games. That's a positive,” Murphy said. “There's been a lot of guys get chances that wouldn't have gotten chances that all of a sudden are stepping up and making themselves noticed. There's a lot of good. But as the manager, you're always thinking like, ‘How can we get this guy better? How can we do this?’

“It doesn't get any easier, because there is no bad teams, and there's no mercy in this game. 'Oh, poor them, they got hurt. Oh, they had West Coast trips. Oh, poor them.' That's not a thing. Everybody's trying to step on your throat.”