Brewers shut out Mets, David Stearns returns to Milwaukee

MILWAUKEE – David Stearns returned to American Family Field this weekend to find the Brewers postseason-bound once again. He was their president of baseball operations at this time two years ago and now holds the same job with the Mets, whose postseason hopes took another hit with the Brewers’ 6-0 win on Saturday night.

The Brewers, meanwhile, are postseason-bound for the sixth time in seven years. They have no Corbin Burnes, no Brandon Woodruff and no Christian Yelich, players who debuted in Milwaukee on Stearns’ watch and became mainstays. But they do have a youthful roster with players like right-hander Tobias Myers, an unknown in Spring Training who capped his rookie regular season with four scoreless innings Saturday to lower his season ERA to 3.00 in 138 innings.

And they have rookie third baseman Joey Ortiz, whose two-run single with the bases loaded provided the night’s first runs, and whose bases-loaded walk in Milwaukee’s four-run eighth inning helped break the game open, all just a couple of hours after veteran Brewers starter Frankie Montas mentioned Ortiz as the player he’s most excited to see blossom into a star in the coming years.

Is Stearns surprised to see the Brewers set to take their chances in another October?

“Not really, to be honest with you,” Stearns said as the series began. “That’s a really talented team. It’s a really young position player group where everybody has pretty much gotten incrementally better. You could sort of foresee that happening a little bit. It’s a very good defensive unit. They run the bases exceptionally well. They’ve got a really good bullpen and they’ve developed some starters this year that have taken the load so they’ve earned their record.

“No question, they’ve earned their record.”

That record is 93-68 with one regular-season game to go on Sunday afternoon. Already, this is the seventh season in franchise history of at least 93 wins – one more than they tallied in a 2023 season that began with much higher expectations, and with Pat Murphy not as Brewers manager, but as bench coach.

“This is about 2024,” Murphy said. “Whatever happened in ‘23, happened in ‘23. I’m grateful to be part of that, and I’m grateful to be part of this.”

He was grateful that 39,637 fans were part of it, too. Of the 26 players on last year’s NL Wild Card Series roster, only nine or 10 are likely to be on the roster for the first round this year, which made Saturday’s atmosphere as much a part of the tune-up as getting good innings from opener Jared Koenig and the relievers who followed Myers – Joel Payamps, Aaron Ashby, Nick Mears and closer Devin Williams, who began warming up while the Brewers had a 2-0 lead only to take the mound for what was probably his regular-season finale with a 6-0 lead. Williams finished a two-hit shutout.

They all felt the energy, Ortiz said.

“I think that’s the loudest I’ve ever heard the crowd get here,” he said. “Honestly, I was up at the plate kind of shaking a little bit — nervousness, which is awesome. It was pretty exciting.”

Said Murphy: “I think that was great, and telling of what could be next week.”

Myers is ready, even though he has “not a clue” what role he’ll fill. The fact he pitched in bulk on Saturday means he could start a potential Game 3 of the Wild Card Series on regular rest if that’s what the Brewers have in mind. Or, using Koenig as an opener might have meant the Brewers wanted Myers to feel what it was like coming out of the bullpen.

“Whenever they give me the ball, I’m going to do my best to go out there and get the outs they want me to get,” Myers said. “If it’s starting, first inning, second inning, opening, closing, whatever, it doesn’t matter to me. Probably not closing because we’ve got one of the best in the game, but whatever they want.”

There’s still a chance that these Mets-Brewers games won’t be the last in 2024. The Mets face a doubleheader in Atlanta on Monday that could decide the NL’s playoff picture, including which team settles into the No. 6 seed and comes to Milwaukee for the Wild Card Series beginning Tuesday.

“Our focus is on getting into the playoffs,” Stearns said, smiling. “If we get into the playoffs, we’ll play whoever we need to play.”