It is a point Pat Murphy rarely fails to make as he guides the Milwaukee Brewers toward another run at the World Series: Winning a Major League Baseball game is very hard.
Murphy, the Brewers’ two-time National League Manager of the Year, is no Captain Obvious. He is simply breaking down the notion of competition into bite-size moments, be it a spring training conversation, or a teachable moment after a loss, or tossing a young player into situations they might initially find untenable.
Doing the hard things. And sometimes, the end result is making things look very easy.
Externally, the Brewers are a machine, taking a club-record 98 victories into the final six games of the season. For the second consecutive postseason, they’re poised to seize
the NL’s No. 1 seed and a first-round bye in an attempt to reach the World Series for the first time since 1982.
Easy.
Yet if you stick around Milwaukee long enough, you know the path to teamwide bliss is anything but.
"I’m super grateful they traded for me. Super grateful to be here these last three years," Jake Bauers, the Brewers’ first baseman who’s hit a career-best 26 home runs, tells USA TODAY Sports. "At the same time, I think playing here can be a little bit uncomfortable, compared to some places.
"There’s a lot of things that the staff, starting with Murph, and also the players in the clubhouse – we don’t let slide. That’s a big key to our success.
"At the same time, it can be uncomfortable at times if you’re not willing to face the man in the mirror."
When the Brewers stare into the mirror nowadays, the best team in baseball stares back. They hold a two-game lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers for the game’s best record and given the rampant mediocrity in the game this season, the two clubs appear on a collision course for a rematch in the NL championship series.
With a lockout looming, that matchup would once again be a metaphor for Massive Market Behemoth vs. Lower Revenue Pluckiness, a tired if apt comparison.
Perhaps the better matchup is the Brewers vs. Themselves, a group that’s won four consecutive NL Central titles, will play postseason baseball for the eighth time in nine seasons yet must overcome the notion they don’t have the staying power to outlast October.
"Cool and all," closer Trevor Megill said after saving the club’s record 98th victory, "but not trying to be regular season warriors."
Doing so might require them to be just a little less imperfect than their opponents.
1-2 punch enough?
Can you win a World Series title with just two starting pitchers?
The Brewers might have little choice but to find out. Presumed NL Cy Young Award winner Jacob Misiorowski will start every Game 1 he is lined up for, and fellow 24-year-old Logan Henderson – born one month earlier than Misiorowski in 2002 – is a potentially dominant No. 2.
Yet the second-half regression of lefty Kyle Harrison and recent struggles of trade deadline acquisition Dustin May puts the Brewers in a bit of a corner. They’re aiming to rebuild Harrison’s fastball and for now are spoon-feeding him in relief bursts; he’d do well to claim a swingman spot for the postseason.
May is more vexing. The man who flirted with a perfect game earlier this season hasn’t completed five innings in three of his past four starts. After diligent off day work with pitching coach Chris Hook, he’ll start Tuesday, Sept. 22 against Philadelphia on three days’ rest.
For now, May seems to be teetering between short-burst or bulk-man duties and fully snagging a starting role for the postseason.
"He’s shown flashes of brilliance. I firmly believe he’s going to do well," says Murphy.
The manager calls May "humble" and his stuff – a four-seam fastball and power sinker that both run up to 97 mph – is tantalizing.
"I feel really good in this moment," May said after failing to get out of the third inning of his last start at Baltimore. "I don’t have anything else to blame other than execution."
Fortunately, there’s the Miz.
He’s thrown nearly 1,100 pitches of at least 100 mph this season, according to MLB.com, a record in the pitch-tracking era. For old heads who scoff at velocity guns and ghoulishly predict a breakdown, Misiorowski has been utterly precise, too, leading the major leagues in both ERA (1.86) and WHIP (0.80).
He’ll likely claim the strikeout title as well, sure to cross the 250 mark in his final start.
And then, the postseason, where Misiorowski still has fond memories of his three- and four-inning relief stints in a stirring five-game defeat of the Chicago Cubs in the NL division series.
Misiorowski gave up just four hits and one run in Game 2 and Game 5 victories.
"It was all that and more. Hard to describe in words," Misiorowski tells USA TODAY Sports. "Just thinking about it, it was a blast. It was everything I thought postseason would be, all wrapped up in one series."
Now, he will enter the postseason squarely as The Guy.
It’s a slightly different spot than the rookie curiosity he was a year ago. At the same time, the man has thrown 169 ⅓ innings and is still hitting 102 mph on the radar gun in late September.
Playoff ace? Game 1 starter, no questions asked? Bring it.
"I’m excited. But still, I have a job to do," says Misiorowski. "The role might have changed a little bit, but still gotta do my thing.
"There’s still pressure with it. But it’s just understanding my role and doing it well and helping my team win."
Been here before
That’s in the water in Milwaukee, where Murphy can use almost all the roster on a given night, be it platoon shifts with Bauers and Andrew Vaughn at first base or young Luis Lara and Sal Frelick in right field. Some nights, almost every reliever in the bullpen might be summoned.
"Everyone knows their roles," says Frelick. "Everyone’s ready when their name’s called."
Not that these are simply working-class, lunch pail platoon guys and role players. The Miz, obviously, is a superstar. Garrett Mitchell, finally healthy after four seasons of injury, has few peers in center field and posts a 117 adjusted OPS.
And then there is left fielder Jackson Chourio, who just joined Julio Rodriguez and Bobby Witt Jr., as the only players to begin their career with three 20-homer, 20-steal seasons.
"An absolute talent. Quickest hands I’ve ever seen," says Frelick. "Just a pleasure to watch, especially when he catches fire like that.
"It shouldn’t be slept on that a guy like that’s been doing that. He’s one of the best players in the league and I don’t think he gets the recognition he deserves."
Chourio, All-Star second baseman Brice Turang – whose 6.9 WAR leads the club – and catcher William Contreras form an interesting cohort. All are supreme talents between 22 and 28, all playing in either their third, fourth or sixth postseasons.
Young, peak performers – yet playoff-tested.
"I know we have an incredible group here, a special group," says Chourio through a club translator. "In certain aspects, it helps going three years now. Last year, you view as a learning experience, more than anything.
"Just looking forward to giving our all and going further."
No, it won’t be easy. Yet if the theory that the more times you simply get in the playoffs greatly enhances your odds of winning proves true?
Well, one of these years the Brewers are going to find out the hard part is already over.
"We understand the atmosphere. We understand what it takes to be there and win a game," says Misiorowski. "There’s a lot that we can take into it."
Or, as Bauers puts it, "You start holding yourself to a higher standard. And on top of that, there’s just certain things you don’t know.
"And you don’t know what you don’t know until it happens, right?"
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Brewers know how to get to October. Do they have enough to finally conquer it?
