This past week, the Chicago Cubs swept the Philadelphia Phillies, a significant outcome for a team that was locked in a three-team battle for two Wild Card spots. Even more precisely, the Phillies, who trailed the Padres, were trying to hold off the Brewers for that final Wild Card spot. So getting swept by the Cubs in the second-to-last week of the season should’ve been a nightmare blow.
Despite that, the Phillies are still a full game up on the Brewers. How? Why? Because the Brewers have lost four of six, including two of three to a very bad Marlins team, INCLUDING a blown late lead last night.
It was art, from multiple walks from replaced-Josh-Hader closer Devin Williams, to a two-run single that doinked off of left fielder Christian Yelich:
I don’t just hate on the Brewers to hate on the Brewers, or revel in their misery for the giggles of it. Sure, I don’t like them, and I’m fine with seeing them lose, but this stuff is a little more specific than that: from the moment it happened, I thought it was the height of arrogance that the Brewers traded away their superstar closer at the deadline while trying to compete for a playoff spot. Their own players were pissed about it, and I felt the organization deserved what was coming in the form of tons and tons of blown late leads.
The Brewers are 27-30 since that Hader trade, and went from up 4.0 games in the NL Central to down 8.0 games. And they might miss the playoffs entirely now. If I were a Brewers fan, I would be angry beyond words. Hader struggled with the Padres, but you have no way of knowing how or why that happened, how it might relate to HIM being stunned by the trade, and how the entire enterprise impacted the clubhouse.
Even still, the Brewers would’ve been in a spot to take a lead over the Phillies over the last week if they’d just been able to beat the Marlins a couple times. They could at least be tied right now if they hadn’t blown it last night.