Brewers Notebook: Gasser, Harrison, Mitchell

As the days of September count down, the Milwaukee Brewers have been looking to reduce the magic number for all of their different playoff scenarios. Last weekend’s home series against the Cincinnati Reds brought one to zero and some others even closer.

Friday’s series opener was all Brewers, quite literally. Dustin May went six shutout innings for his best start in a Milwaukee uniform, and the Crew cruised to a dominant 20-0 victory over the Reds, clinching a playoff spot for the fourth straight season.

Every Brewers starter had a hit by the fifth inning, with Jackson Chourio and Joey Ortiz collecting four apiece. William Contreras had six RBIs, while Brice Turang and Garrett Mitchell each had four. Milwaukee became the first team ever to score 20+ runs in a shutout twice in the same season.

Saturday saw another offensive explosion from the Brewers, though this time the Reds made a bit of a game of it. Milwaukee kicked things off in the first with two-run homers by Turang and Mitchell. After some back and forth, Cincinnati would tie things up at five on a JJ Bleday RBI double and Juan Brito homer in the fourth.

The Brewers would jump right back out front on a three-run homer by Contreras in the next half inning and stretch the lead out to 13-5 by the bottom of the fifth. But the Reds would make one final push in the eighth with four runs off starter-turned-temporary-reliever Kyle Harrison before their rally was ultimately quashed.

Mitchell was once again rock solid on offense, falling a triple shy of the cycle with four hits and another four RBIs. Contreras would add another three for the weekend while Turang and Jake Bauers each collected two.

With the Brewers eyeing a sweep on Sunday, the team jumped out to another early lead with a two-run homer from Ortiz. Outside of that, it was a pitchers’ duel to start the game, with both teams combining for four hits through the first four innings.

Finally, the Reds would take their first lead of the series when Eugenio Suárez hit a three-run homer in the top of the sixth. The Brewers would tie it up on a solo shot by Bauers in the seventh, but a sacrifice fly from Tyler Stephenson in the eighth would give Cincinnati the lead for good and help the Reds avoid a sweep in Milwaukee.

Robert Gasser Churns Out Another Solid Outing

Though the Brewers lost on Sunday, starting pitcher Robert Gasser had himself a solid outing for the team. In five innings pitched, he gave up just one run on three hits and two walks while striking out five.

The start marked Gasser’s fourth straight outing of giving up two or fewer earned runs. One of those was a 5.1-inning outing in New York where he came into the game cold, replacing starter Dustin May. May was removed from the game after being hit by a line drive.

“He was great,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said after the game. “I thought he did a fabulous job against a team that’s been swinging it, you know. And I think he deserves a lot of credit here, keeping us in the game.”

“The sweeper was great,” Gasser said after his outing. “I really like the movement and the angle it was coming in at. And then getting the four-seamer on top in the third inning or fourth inning, whatever it was, was good.”

Gasser has now given up three earned runs or fewer in nine of his last 10 outings and has a 3.42 ERA and a .237 batting average against over that span. He’s dropped his ERA almost a full run, from 5.24 to 4.30, since the All-Star break.

“I mean, [Gasser] has thrown the ball great,” Murphy said of his pitcher’s recent success. “How many times in a row? Twice against the Cubs, another time Cincinnati…and he’s done it against really good teams that swing it well against lefties.”

Building upon consecutive successful outings has helped Gasser get to where he is now. And according to him, the work that he’s done with the staff in between outings has been just as valuable.

“Sticking to the plan and continuing to work,” Gasser said of how he’s seen success as of late. “It’s not really the games I feel like that are the reason why I’m starting to trend a little better, it’s more the work in between.”

Kyle Harrison Is Still Left Searching for Answers

The return of Brewers starting pitcher Kyle Harrison was supposed to be a huge lift for Milwaukee’s rotation. With Harrison joining Jacob Misiorowski and Logan Henderson, it would reunite a three-headed monster right in time for a run to the playoffs.

Harrison looked stellar out of the gate, pitching five scoreless innings on just a hit and a walk with 10 strikeouts. However, he would give up eight runs (three earned) on 10 hits and three walks his next time out, and things have generally deteriorated from there.

Following his most recent poor outing against the Reds two weekends ago (3.2 IP, 9 H, 4 ER, 4 BB, 4 K), the plan was to potentially give Harrison his next opportunity outside of the rotation. That opportunity came in Saturday’s game again against Cincinnati.

It did not go well. Harrison faced four batters and gave up hits to all of them (three singles and a double). All of them eventually came around to score. Though he was lifted from the game quickly, the home crowd still tried giving him some encouraging applause as he came off the field. Murphy’s message in that moment?

“Look, we’ll get this straight,” Murphy recalled. “We’re going through a rough patch, we’ll get it straight.”

If there was any silver lining on the appearance, Harrison’s velocity wasn’t to blame. His four-seamer averaged 96.6 mph, which was 1.9 mph above his season average and what you would hope to see for a starter working as a reliever.

But the execution lacked somehow, leaving the Brewers with a problem and Harrison with more questions than answers. Murphy, though, appears determined to help his pitcher find those answers.

Garrett Mitchell’s Offensive Explosion Against the Reds

With 36 runs scored against Cincinnati (including 33 in the first two games of the series, a franchise record for two consecutive games), multiple Brewers players were responsible for the offensive outburst. Perhaps none was more responsible, though, than outfielder Garrett Mitchell.

Mitchell went a scorching 7-for-11 over the course of the series with a walk, a double, two homers (including the team’s first grand slam of the season), eight RBIs, five runs scored, and a stolen base. His four hits on Saturday tied his career high for a game, which he has now done three times – all since July 1 of this season.

The series was a continuation of a very strong stretch at the plate for Mitchell. Since an early August swoon, Mitchell is hitting .373 with a 1.014 OPS over his last 21 games, including four doubles, a triple, three homers, and 14 RBIs. His 180 wRC+ since August 18 (minimum 70 PAs) is tied for eighth in all of MLB.

“I think for me I just take it a day at a time, not try to do too much,” Mitchell said of his approach. “I’ve said this a lot, if you just take it one day at a time, you’re going to have good days and you’re going to have bad days, that’s part of it being such a long season. Really like I said, just trying to keep it simple, trying to put together quality at-bats and swing at the right pitches, and when I’m doing that, things go well.”

Mitchell has already set career highs in nearly every cumulative stat there is, and that’s about more than just having a good offensive season. For the first time in his career, the 28-year-old has been healthy.

Mitchell’s previous career high for games played in a season was 69, set back in 2024. Since debuting, he’s battled a serious shoulder injury, a fractured finger, and a strained oblique. So his primary objective for 2026 was to be available, and that’s what has played a huge part in his success.

“My goal for the year was to be available for 140 games,” Mitchell said. “I’m coming up on playing 140 games, so I think for me it became less about statistical things and more just about being out there and being a part of this…for me right now it’s doing everything I can to be out there every single day.”