And whether it had anything to do with the Brooklyn players' frustration with their manager's emotional outbursts or not, the 2 game series against Denver gave Luis Morelos plenty of reasons to rage and smash things.
In game 1, the Brewers built an early lead behind starter (and team captain) Matt Helm and then increased that in the 6th and 7th innings to a comfortable margin which resulted in a 7-2 victory. Helm pitched 8 2/3rds innings before needing a little help from Eric Marino to get the final out. Helm allowed 2 runs on 9 hits and improves to 2-1 with an 0.92 ERA. Ryan Rodgers, at 35 years of age, continues to be a force on offense. Rodgers (.491/.591/.604) went 3 for 5 with 2 runs scored, 1 RBI, and hit his 4th double of the season. Chad Brown (.256/.283/.256), off to a poor start at the plate in 1974, showed some signs of life with a 2 for 4 game and drove in 1 run.
The Brewers nearly blew an early 4-0 lead in the second game but managed to hold on for a 7-6 win to get the short series sweep. Harry Lyerly continues his struggles with the long ball- giving up 3 HR's in this one- but managed to get the win in spite of allowing 5 runs (4 earned) on 10 hits in 6 innings pitched. Lyerly improves to 2-2 but his ERA remains a very high 7.54. Jaden Francis nearly blows the save in the bottom of the 9th but is bailed out by probably the biggest play of the game when Joe McPhillips threw a perfect strike to home plate to prevent the tying run from scoring. It was the second Brooklyn runner McPhillips had thrown out at home in the game. In addition, McPhillips (.325/.391/.584) went 3 for 5 at the plate, scoring twice. While a very strong argument could be made the he was the Player of the Game, that honor went to Bobby Erbakan (.284/.387/.552) who went 2 for 5, scoring 3 runs and driving in 3 while hitting his 7th double and 3rd HR of the season. He also picked up his 3rd stolen base (with no CS yet.) Oh, and Ryan Rodgers is just hitting .500 at this stage of the season, having gone 3 for 5 again in this one and hitting his 2nd triple of 1974.
With the mini-sweep the Brewers move to 3 games ahead of Phoenix and Oklahoma City, 3 1/2 ahead of Brooklyn, and 4 1/2 ahead of their next opponent, L.A.