Brewers catch fire after Shaw tells fans to ‘chill’

Published

Milwaukee Brewers fans might have wiped the four-game sweep by Chicago Cubs in late April from their memories.

It was an ugly business trip. Chicago held the Crew to two runs the entire weekend, and Milwaukee slipped to fourth place in the National League Central with a 16-13 record.



Instead of panicking, third baseman Travis Shaw, who collected two hits in 13 plate appearances that weekend, went to Twitter after the series finale to ease the minds of the Brewers faithful.









While Brewers fans may have listened to the “Mayor of Ding Dong City” and chilled out, Milwaukee’s bats decided to do the opposite. Since the sweep at Wrigley, the Brewers have gone 10-5, including 8-2 on the road.

The Crew’s offense woke up.

In its last 10 road games, Milwaukee ranks first among NL teams in batting average (.283), slugging percentage (.490) and stolen bases (12) while scoring 6+ runs in six of 10 contests.















































































































MLB rank NL rank
Record 8-2 (.800) 3rd 3rd
Runs/Game 5.50 t-4th t-2nd
Batting Avg. .283 4th 1st
On-Base Pct. .338 6th 2nd
Slugging Pct. .490 2nd 1st
Home Runs 17 3rd 2nd
Stolen Bases 12 1st 1st




Shaw has done nothing but back up his tweet as well. In the past seven games, Shaw is 10 for 27 (.370) with three home runs, three doubles and seven RBI. On the season, the 28-year-old leads the Brewers in doubles (12), homers (10), RBI (26), slugging percentage (.516) and total bases (81).

The Crew travels to Minneapolis on Friday to take on the Minnesota Twins for three games at Target Field, a series that will wrap up Milwaukee’s longest road trip of the season.

NOTABLE

-- Milwaukee is 14-1 against teams with a sub-.500 record this season. The Twins have a 18-21 record but are 9-6 in the month of May.

-- Twins first baseman Joe Mauer owns a career .335 batting average against the Brewers, which ranks second among active players with at least 200 plate appearances. Toronto shortstop Troy Tulowitzki is first with a .406 average.

-- The Brewers are 18-0 when leading after six innings and have allowed just 36 runs in the seventh frame or later, the lowest total in MLB.

-- Brent “The Raptor” Suter will make his second start in May this weekend. He owns a career 3.70 ERA as a starter in the first four innings, but that number balloons to 7.20 in the fifth inning and beyond.

-- Twins outfielder Eddie Rosario has nine multi-hit games in May, tied for the most in the American League and one behind Nick Markakis for the most in baseball.

Statistics courtesy STATS