The Milwaukee Brewers have lost 14 of their last 17 games and have fallen a half-game behind the Pittsburgh Pirates for the second NL wild card spot. They're now in the same position as the Cleveland Indians and the New York Yankees, who are struggling to hang on in the AL playoff race.
The Brewers have just one win since August 26, and over that time span they've scored only 28 runs in those 12 games and surrendered 69. Over the past 30 days, Milwaukee's pitching staff has been particularly horrendous outside of starters Yovani Gallardo and Mike Fiers. Wily Peralta is 1-4 with a 6.49 ERA; Jimmy Nelson is 0-5 with a 4.54 ERA; and Kyle Lohse is 1-3 with an 8.20 ERA. The all-around poor performances have finally made the players call a closed-door clubhouse meeting after Sunday's 9-1 loss to the Cardinals.
Milwaukee has had some injuries over the course of this losing streak though. Outfielder Carlos Gomez has been limited (one at-bat in September) because of a sprained left wrist and starting pitcher Matt Garza was activated from the DL on September 3 after missing a month with an oblique injury. But Gomez is expected back in the lineup on Monday and Garza will also make his second start since returning from the DL, so the Brewers can ease them back into the lineup with 19 games left in the regular season.
"We've got to find a way to keep grinding it out and playing hard. We need to get that edge back; we need to get that energy back and move forward," said Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy, in this Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article. "We still have time; we definitely have time."
As for the Yankees and Indians, they've spent the whole season just outside the playoff picture while the Orioles have stayed atop the AL East and the Royals and Tigers have been battling for first place in the AL Central. New York sits 4.5 games behind the Seattle Mariners for the final AL wild card spot and the Indians are 3.5 games back, but the Tigers are the closest and remain only a half-game behind. The Yankees have 21 games remaining and the Indians have 20. Do they have a shot at the postseason?
It all depends how Seattle and Detroit perform. The Mariners have seven games remaining against the Los Angeles Angels and three against the Oakland A's, but also six against the Houston Astros. The Tigers will face the Indians three times and could shake up the standings with their six remaining games against the division-leading Royals. Unfortunately for New York, they still have eight games left against the first-place Orioles, while the Indians have six against the Twins, four against the Astros and three against the Rays. With the Yankees unsure regarding the return of Brett Gardner and Masahiro Tanaka, it's likely they could be missing the postseason in Derek Jeter's final year.
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