The Brewers Scored 52 Runs in Six Games — and It Mattered More Than the Homers They Don't Hit

The Milwaukee Brewers spent the last week flattening the Cubs and the Reds, and they did it in a way that should make the rest of the league uncomfortable.

Six games. Five wins. Fifty-two runs scored, 25 allowed. A three-game home sweep of the Cubs by scores of 4-3, 4-3 and 8-6. Then a 20-0 demolition of the Reds, followed by a 13-9 win, before Sunday's 4-3 loss closed the week at 5-1.

That's a +27 run differential in a single week from a team already sitting at +195 for the season (778 scored, 583 allowed) with a 93-57 record, the best winning percentage in baseball at .620.

The offensive gear nobody saw coming

The interesting part isn't the volume — it's the method. As Yahoo Sports put it in a recent headline, the Brewers are "tied for last in the sport in home runs." Milwaukee has hit 146 of them in 150 games. And yet the offense just posted its loudest stretch of the season.

That's because this lineup wins with contact, patience and pressure. The Brewers are hitting .261 as a team with a .344 on-base percentage and a .412 slugging mark, and they've stolen 141 bases. Jackson Chourio has been the engine of the surge: over his last 30 days he's hitting .364 with a .402 on-base percentage, a .591 slugging mark, six homers, 18 RBI and 28 runs scored in 25 games. For the season he sits at .292/.349/.493 with 23 home runs. William Contreras has chipped in 17 homers and 86 RBI while catching most of the staff's innings.

The 20-0 and 13-9 wins against Cincinnati are the tell. This team doesn't need the long ball to hang a crooked number.

The pitching floor is the real story

For most of the year, Milwaukee's margin has been its rotation. Jacob Misiorowski has been the National League's best pitcher — 14-5, a 1.95 ERA, a 0.80 WHIP and 236 strikeouts in 161.1 innings, with just 41 walks. Over his last 20 outings he owns a 1.75 ERA and more than 10 strikeouts per nine.

The market reflects it. Misiorowski is priced at -3000 for the NL Cy Young at betmgm — an implied probability around 97 percent — and -360 at FanDuel, which implies roughly 78 percent. That gap is worth noting: even when books agree on the favorite, they don't agree on how much of the race is already over.

What matters more for October is what happened the one time Misiorowski didn't have it. He matched career worsts against the Cubs earlier this month at Wrigley, and the offense bailed him out in a 9-5 win. Rookie Logan Henderson has since built a case for a postseason rotation spot behind him: 10-3 with a 2.34 ERA and a 0.78 WHIP over 88.1 innings, with 99 strikeouts against just 15 walks.

One thing to watch

The Brewers placed reliever Grant Anderson on the 15-day injured list with right biceps inflammation and recalled Brandon Sproat from Triple-A Nashville. It's a depth hit, not a crisis — Milwaukee's bullpen carries a 3.25 ERA with 22 saves and only five blown saves — and the club expects Anderson, Bryse Wilson and Rob Zastryzny back before the end of September. Brandon Woodruff and Quinn Priester remain on the 60-day IL.

Why this week mattered

The Brewers sit 9.5 games clear of the Cubs (84-67) in the NL Central and have already clinched a fourth straight playoff berth, their eighth in nine seasons. Their championship price sits at 600 at betmgm, FanDuel, BetOnline and BetRivers, and 650 at DraftKings.

The lingering question about this club has always been whether a lineup that doesn't hit home runs can survive October pitching. The last six games offered a partial answer: when the ace is human, the bats can still carry the night.