3 takeaways from the Brewers' 1-0 loss to Cardinals: Milwaukee's offensive struggles reappear against Adam Wainwright

ST. LOUIS – Which was more deflating?

Losing a game in which your pitchers combine to throw 10 no-hit, scoreless innings?

Or losing 1-0 while getting absolutely carved up and stymied by the 2023 version of Adam Wainwright?

Whatever your answer is – and both are viable choices – this much can be agreed upon: For as good as the Milwaukee Brewers are, for as dominant as their pitching and their defense can be, there are still distressing signs from the offense only two weeks before the first pitch of their likely wild-card series is thrown.

Getting shut out over seven innings by Wainwright – whose earned run average nearly touched 8.00 entering the day – as he picked up his 200th career win in a 1-0 St. Louis Cardinals victory on Monday at Busch Stadium was the latest tough pill to swallow.

Here are three takeaways from the loss, which left the Brewers 84-66, six games ahead of the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds in the National League Central Division standings.

Adam Wainwright carved the Brewers up, but their approach was also shaky

There’s a reason Wainwright’s nickname is Uncle Charlie. His curveball has been his signature pitch throughout his 18 seasons in the majors, cemented into baseball lore for how it buckled Carlos Beltran’s knees for the last out in Game 7 of the 2006 National League Championship Series.

That curve, though, doesn’t have the same luster it used to. Opponents were slugging .493 with an expected slugging percentage of .559 against it this year.

But the Brewers couldn’t figure it out at all. And it led to a long, frustrating night.

Wainwright threw 28 curves, getting seven called strikes, one whiff and a litany of bad swings. Milwaukee put seven of them into play for an average exit velocity of just 78.7 mph.

“That’s his pitch and we certainly had a hard time with that pitch,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “The first inning, he didn’t really have it going and then he got it going after that.”

Brewers catcher William Contreras said the Brewers needed to make an adjustment against Wainwright’s diminished velocity – his fastball averaged 85.8 mph – and the curve but, one through nine, didn’t.

Why was that?

“A little bit of everything,” Contreras said. “He’s able to throw everything for a strike and he had his curveball working today. We were just taking big hacks instead of trying to put the ball into play and make better adjustments. I felt like we just weren’t connected today and were just kinda out of it. But that’s part of baseball – you can’t have it every day. You just got to turn the page and go after it tomorrow.”

Despite the Brewers having eight balls in play hit 85 mph or lower and just one over 100 mph against Wainwright, first baseman Carlos Santana indicated he thought the offense suffered some bad luck.

“We had a lot of good contact and hit into a couple of double plays,” Santana said. “But this is the game and that happens.”

But Santana and the Brewers, many of whom remained in the dugout after the game as Wainwright was honored on the field, also made sure to tip their caps one final time.

“He’s had a great career,” Santana said. “I think he’s played (almost) 20 seasons. Forty-two years old. You don’t see that. Great career. Congratulations to him.”

The concern over the offense isn't limited to just this game

The Brewers offense is officially an enigma wrapped inside an enigma.

How else do you explain their continuous run of hot-then-cold performances?

Since Mark Canha produced four runs with one swing of the bat in a dramatic go-ahead, eighth-inning grand slam Saturday, the Brewers have scored one run and driven one extra-base hit in 20 innings.

“We didn’t do a very good job offensively,” Counsell said Monday.

This isn’t a one-off occurrence from the Brewers, either.

In its last four losses, Milwaukee has scored one run without the benefit of extra innings and the automatic runner on second.

Brewers pitchers have allowed five total earned runs in those games. They have permitted only four runs in regulation.

The Brewers lost when their pitchers threw 10 no-hit innings. They lost 2-0 to the Marlins three days later. They lost to the Washington Nationals when they allowed four hits in 11 innings Sunday. They lost when the Cardinals had only two runners touch second base safely Monday.

Then, of course, come the offense’s outbursts, which have been more than sporadic over the past month. Twelve times since Aug. 18, the Brewers have scored seven or more runs. They entered the Cardinals series 10th in the majors in runs in that span.

But there is still an overarching concern regarding the offense even despite the generally solid production over the last month. It flashed its ugly head Monday – and Sunday, too.

They still aren’t hitting the ball hard with any regularity; they have the fourth-lowest average exit velocity since Aug. 18.

And if you’re not an aficionado of batted-ball data, how about raw results? The Brewers in that time have hit the third-fewest homers (25) and third-fewest extra-base hits (75).

What's the status of Christian Yelich?

Christian Yelich was out of the Brewers lineup again Monday, marking the ninth time in the last 10 games he did not play due to a back ailment.

Yelich missed six games initially after being scratched from the lineup on Sept. 9 against the Yankees, played Friday but was removed after seven innings and hasn’t appeared since.

If he had been placed on the 10-day injured list initially, Yelich would be eligible to come off at any point now. But because he played Friday, he wouldn’t be eligible to come off until after the conclusion of the Brewers’ seven-game road trip.

Because teams can only backdate IL moves up to three days, the Brewers are planning on making a decision Tuesday so they aren’t effectively playing down a man (it could be argued they’re two men with the never-used Brian Anderson still on the active roster).

“Look, we’re in a little bit of a tricky spot,” Counsell said. “He’s better and he’s getting better. He also hasn’t played in a couple of days. We’re going to have to make a decision (Tuesday) on this, what we’re going to do and where we see it. He feels good. He did a lot today. He’s not 100% yet and that’s kind of where we’re at.

“We just have to decide, do we think he’s going to be 100% in two or three days or is it just better to maybe wait until we get off the road trip? That’s essentially the decision.”

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 3 takeaways from Brewers' loss to Adam Wainwright, St. Louis Cardinals