Brewers Notebook: Drohan Settles in, Shewmake, Mitchell Takeaways

The Milwaukee Brewers limped into the All-Star break after being swept in three games by the Pirates on the road in Pittsburgh, the culmination of a stretch of 18 games in 17 days. Apparently all the team needed was a little bit of rest.

After squeezing out an extra-inning home win against the Miami Marlins on Friday night, the Brewers had a more convincing win on Saturday, taking game two by a score of 8-6. Milwaukee attempts a series sweep on Sunday afternoon.

The Marlins kicked off the scoring by getting to Brewers starter for three in the second inning. Milwaukee started chipping away immediately, scoring two over the next two innings against Miami starter Max Meyer, who was actually chased after throwing 74 pitches in three innings.

That was all the Brewers needed to eventually break through as they scored six combined runs against the Marlins bullpen in the sixth and seventh innings. Miami made things interesting with a three-run homer in the ninth before Milwaukee squashed the rally to secure the win.

Quotes pulled and stats taken after Saturday, July 18th’s game

Shane Drohan Settles In for the Win

When Miami scored their trio of runs against Drohan, it seemed like the rookie might be in for a short outing. Instead, he ended up sticking around long enough to earn the win and reach a new career milestone.

Drohan would only allow one more baserunner the rest of the way when he hit Leo Jiménez with a pitch in the fourth. Ultimately, he would end his outing having gone six innings on 90 pitches, 60 for strikes.

“I felt like I settled in pretty well. I was pretty efficient after that second inning,” Drohan said of how he settled back in. “It’s kind of just the mindset of one inning at a time. A new inning is a new inning so you just continue to attack their lineup, but yeah, that second inning can’t really happen.”

The Marlins were carved up by Drohan all day, striking out nine times which allowed the Brewers starter to set a new career high in the category. His previous high was seven, which he did twice, most recently in a 4-2 Brewers win against the Cincinnati Reds on July 1.

Drohan came to the Brewers in an offseason trade that also netted the team starter Kyle Harrison and infielder David Hamilton. It was up in the air what role he might fill for the team, but he has pitched both out of the bullpen and the rotation and he has done both quite well.

His most recent outing actually raised his ERA slightly to 3.20 while it dropped his WHIP to 1.18 and his batting average against to .239. Only once has he given up more than three runs in an outing this season and is starting to find his rhythym as a starter.

“I wasn’t too worried about it when we made the transition just because my role in the bullpen was kind of like that longer relief so it felt like, you know, we were right there to kind of just bridge into it,” Drohan said. “But yeah, definitely kind of figuring it out I feel like, attacking the zone really, really well, throwing a lot of strikes.”

Braden Shewmake Endears Himself to the Brewers Faithful

Infielder Braden Shewmake wasn’t even a week into his Brewers tenure when he received a last-second start in place of second baseman Brice Turang, who had fouled a ball off his foot the day before. It didn’t take long for the new Brewer to endear himself to the fanbase.

Shewmake pushed Milwaukee’s first run of the day across with a 99.6 mph sac fly in the second. He scorched a 110.5 mph double in the sixth and scored the tying run three batters later, then scored again in the eighth after reaching base on a Kyle Stowers error at first base.

The former 21st overall pick of the Atlanta Braves had been designated for assignment by the Houston Astros on the 10th after slashing .256/.272/.423 over 30 games this season. Houston was the fourth team to designate Shewmake for assignment in a year and a half. Suffice to say, Shewmake is enjoying his new home.

“It’s just nice to be in this clubhouse. This is a team that knows how to win and it’s really good to be part of a group like that,” Shewmake said. “It’s full of great guys and good baseball players. Everybody in here contributes every single day. Whether it’s your work pregame to on the field success, everybody is always talking, communicating. I think that is a big part of this team.”

Shewmake also had his first steal of the season on Saturday, part of a seven-steal day for the team that tied a season high. He expressed gratitude for finally being a part of the group of speed demons instead of against it.

“I’m glad to be on this side of it,” stated Shewmake. “When I was in Houston, we were worried about that because you run wild over here, high percentage, pick good times to run and putting pressure on defenses. Being on this side, it’s a lot more fun.”

Garrett Mitchell Continues to Rake

The Brewers have had two great things transpire with outfielder Garrett Mitchell this season: he’s finally been fully healthy, and he’s showing exactly why the team was ecstatic when he dropped all the way down to the 20th overall pick in the 2020 draft.

Mitchell’s defensive prowess was what helped the Brewers first on Saturday. He made a perfectly timed jumping catch at the wall on an Otto Lopez fly ball in the second that turned a possible multi-run hit into a simple sacrifice fly, limiting the damage to three runs in that inning.

Then came the offense. He kicked the bottom of that same frame off with a single and later came around to score Milwaukee’s first run of the day. He singled in his next at bat before doubling in the sixth to drive in two runs.

Mitchell also showed off his elite speed on the basepaths by collecting one of the team’s seven steals on the day. As comfortable as Mitchell may be feeling about his game, Brewers manager Pat Murphy thinks it’s something else altogether.

“Yeah, I don’t know that the word would be ‘comfortable,’ you know. Confident,” Murphy stated. “Confident, feeling safe, feeling wanted. Yeah, hopefully this vaults him into a lot more.”

On the season, Mitchell is slashing .283/.370/.466 with a 132 wRC+. He’s already tied a career high with eight homers and set new ones with 43 runs scored and 47 RBIs while being on pace for a career high 11.6% walk rate.

He still strikes out a ton and is at a whopping 33.1% rate on the season. You have to take the good with the bad when it comes to Mitchell, though, and the fact of the matter is that there has been way more good than bad with him this season.