OOTP 21 Brewers Season Sim: Perfectly average at the halfway point

We may be without baseball on TV right now, but that doesn’t mean we can’t play the Brewers’ 50th anniversary season anyway. Thanks to Out of the Park Baseball 21 — the latest installment of the best baseball sim out there — we’ll be bringing you the “results” of the last week of Brewers games every week as we wait for the real thing to return.

Friday, June 26th - Brewers 3, Pirates 2

Brandon Woodruff rebounded from a rough month to hold the Pirates to 2 runs over 7.1 innings in one of his most efficient starts of the year, only striking out 3 batters but also only walking 2 and allowing 3 hits.

The Brewers’ bats were able to give him just enough to get by against Hector Noesi, with Lorenzo Cain driving in 2 with a single in the bottom of the 4th and Omar Narvaez continuing his All-Star push with a solo home run the following inning (his 5th homer in the last 10 games) to help the Brewers get back to .500 at 40-40.

Saturday, June 27th - Brewers 4, Pirates 2

Like Woodruff the night before, Freddy Peralta held the Bucs to only 2 runs in his start, going 5.2 innings and striking out 7.

Peralta left the game with the score tied at 2, but the Brewers were able to rally for 2 runs in the 7th on a run-scoring double by Brock Holt and a single by Cain. Josh Hader struck out the side in the 9th for his second save in as many days.

Sunday, June 28th - Pirates 8, Brewers 4

Josh Bell and Gregory Polanco tormented Brewers pitching in the series finale, going a combined 5 for 10 with 3 home runs and the game-deciding 4 RBI.

The score was still tied at 3 heading into the 7th inning when the Pirates put up 5 runs on Josh Lindblom and Devin Williams, breaking the game open and eventually dropping the Brewers to 41-41.

Monday, June 29th - Cubs 14, Brewers 5

The Cubs came into this game on a 6-game losing streak, but you wouldn’t be able to tell by how they beat up Brewers pitching in a wild night at Wrigley.

The crushing blow to Milwaukee’s morale came in the bottom of the 5th, when still only trailing 3-2, Corbin Burnes coughed up a game-changing grand slam to David Bote. Kris Bryant also homered twice (one off Burnes, one off Eric Lauer) and Willson Contreras added another (off of Lauer) as the Cubs racked up 17 hits.

The Brewers were able to collect 10 hits on the night, but were stifled for much of the evening by Kyle Hendricks, who continued to have their number, allowing just 1 earned run over 7 innings.

Tuesday, June 30th - Cubs 3, Brewers 1

Javier Baez was the difference, driving in all 3 Chicago runs on a pair of home runs, giving him 20 for the season. Brent Suter was the tough-luck loser as Cubs starter Jharel Cotton limited Milwaukee to just the 1 run over 7 innings, and Craig Kimbrel picked up his 12th save of the year.

After the game, Ben Gamel was optioned to Triple-A to make room for the returning Ryan Braun.

Wednesday, July 1st - Brewers 6, Cubs 5

The Brewers were finally able to get to Jose Quintana, but it was Craig Kimbrel tacked with the loss after a Milwaukee rally in the last inning.

It was an unlikely hero coming through for the Brewers in that spot, as Justin Smoak lifted a 2-run home run that fought through the wind blowing in at Wrigley to give the Brewers the lead. It was Kimbrel’s 5th blown save in the first half. Josh Hader picked up his 10th save, striking out 2 Cubs in the bottom of the 9th to end the game.

Keston Hiura (17) and Avisail Garcia (16) also picked up solo home runs in the win.

Thursday, July 2nd - Brewers 10, Cubs 2 (10 innings)

Milwaukee’s exploded in extra innings, helping the Brewers salvage a split at Wrigley against the last-place Cubs.

Jon Lester held the Brewers at bay for much of the game, limiting them to 2 runs over 7.1 innings.

With the score tied at 2 going into extra innings, it was Luis Urias who got the scoring going in the extra frame, ripping a run-scoring triple into the corner to give the Brewers a 3-2 lead. From there, it was death by a thousand paper cuts for the Cubs: Brock Holt singled home a run. Lorenzo Cain singled to load the bases. Avi Garcia walked to bring in a run. Christian Yelich singled. And then Keston Hiura blew things wide open with a bases-clearing 3-run double. He would eventually score on another extra-base hit by Urias in the inning — this time a double — before the inning ended with Urias trying to score on a single by Sogard.

By that point, Wrigley had pretty well cleared out after boos of disapproval, and Eric Lauer pitched a 1-2-3 9th inning to bring the Brewers back to .500 at 43-43.

Record over the last week: 4-3
Overall record: 43-43
Standings: 2nd place, 5 GB in NL Central, 3.5 GB in NL Wildcard

Next Week: @ STL (7/3, 7/4, 7/5), vs. TB (7/7, 7/8), vs. COL (7/9, 7/10, 7/11, 7/12)