The Brewers have had trouble throughout the season delivering hits with runners in scoring position, but their recent drought has been about as bad as it gets.
In losing the first three games of their much-hyped four-game series against the Cubs, the Brewers have gone 0-for-15 with runners in scoring position. Over their last eight games, they have just three hits in 60 at-bats (.050) with RISP. Not surprisingly, they are 3-5 over that span. Since the All-Star break, the Brewers are hitting .156 (19 for 122) with RISP. They managed to go 8-5 over those 13 games, thanks to a 7-0 trip to San Francisco coming out of the break.
That famine has dropped the team average to .239 in those situations, one of the lowest marks in the league.
"There's nothing you can do about it," manager Ned Yost said. "Just keep battling. It'll turn around. I don't think it's a major ordeal they're going through.
"It's not just something that happens to us. You wait it out."
CUBS 7, BREWERS 2: This was supposed to be a tightly contested series, but the Cubs have taken the first three games to pull four games ahead of the Brewers in the NL Central. The Brewers offense has been dominated by the Cubs pitching. The only runs Milwaukee scored in this game came on a wild pitch by Cubs starter Ryan Dempster in the first inning and Prince Fielder's meaningless homer in the ninth. The Brewers should have known it wasn't their night when starter Manny Parra struck out Reed Johnson for what should have been the final out in the first inning, only to see the pitch get through C Jason Kendall. A run scored, and before the inning was over, Chicago had a 2-0 lead.
