Brewers Eliminated From Playoff Contention Following Late-Season Collapse

It wasn’t that long ago that the Milwaukee Brewers were one of the best teams in baseball and appeared to be headed for the playoffs. Now, with only three games left in the season, the team has eliminated itself from post-season contention after a historic late-season collapse.

The Brewers grabbed first place in their division on April 4 and kept that lead until Sept. 1. The wheels arguably came off in late June, when they led the Central Division by 6.5 games, then lost 46 of the next 76. The team’s playoff hopes officially ended on Thursday, with a 5-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds.

Baseball analysts had not even expected Milwaukee to be a contender this season. Brewers broadcaster Joe Block said the team was actually better compared last year, and not just in terms of their overall record.

“The Brewers’ pitching staff is going to post the lowest Earned Run Average in franchise history since 1992. So only one pitching staff has had a better ERA in the last (22) years,” said Block. “That’s pretty good.”

Block also said that there were star performances by individual players — namely the team’s catcher, Jonathan Lucroy.

“He’s still playing every day, despite being a catcher, and had some talk of being a Most Valuable Player for a period of time,” said Block.

The cause of the collapse is a matter of debate among fans and analysts. Some Brewers players were injured as the team faded. Also, the team’s offensive production went down while mental mistakes in key moments went up — something that normally gets attributed to managerial error. Some fans and writers have speculated that Brewers Manager Ron Roenicke could be fired. Joe Block, however, isn’t one of them.

“To only be able to pinpoint one person, one event … I think it’s a culmination of things,” said Block. “That is way out of my pay grade, and that will be decided by somebody else.”

The Brewers are one of only five teams since 1969 who led a division for at least 150 days, then failed to make the playoffs. The others are the 1969 Chicago Cubs, the 2007 New York Mets, the 2008 Arizona Diamondbacks, and the 2009 Detroit Tigers.