Junior Guerra struggles as Brewers drop series finale to Phillies 6-3

WP: Jerad Eickhoff (2-7)
LP: Junior Guerra (1-4)
SV: Luis Garcia (1)

Box Score

What happened to the Brewers team that was flying high before the All-Star Break? They’re still around, but the current team on the field doesn’t look the same.

Junior Guerra struggled again today, pitching just four innings and allowing five runs. Three of those came in the fifth inning, where he loaded the bases before being replaced by Michael Blazek. He allowed two of those runs to score, and the other came in with Josh Hader pitching, along with a run charged to Blazek. The defense did no favors as well, with two errors charged to the infield (one to Jonathan Villar and one to Orlando Arcia), and there were a few plays by Thames that didn’t get recorded on the stat sheet. Meanwhile, Guerra has now allowed at least three runs in seven of his last eight starts, and at least four runs in three of his last five. At the same time, he hasn’t pitched through the sixth inning in his last five starts.

On offense, the Brewers only managed five hits and two walks total. No batter had more than one hit in the game. Jonathan Villar brought in two runs with an RBI single in the fifth, and Ryan Braun brought in the third with an RBI double. That was all the offense could muster today as they dropped their seventh game out of their last eight.

By the time the Brewers play next, they may not even hold a share of first place in the NL Central anymore. The Cubs play the Cardinals tonight, and then have two afternoon games in a row against the White Sox. Meanwhile, the Brewers will take an off-day tomorrow before starting a three-game series in Washington on Tuesday. Zach Davies will face Edwin Jackson in the first game of that series. First pitch is at 6:05 pm, and by that point, the Brewers could be anywhere from up two games in the division to down one.