What Goes Up...

I’m not sure what else can be said about the Brewers that hasn’t already been said.

Monday night’s game against the Dodgers saw all of the ingredients of a championship caliber team. Outstanding pitching, incredible defense, and timely hitting.

As my friend and colleague, 540 ESPN’s Drew Olson pointed out via Twitter tonight, on this current 4-game homestand, the Brewers have pitched 37 innings and surrendered 3 earned runs. That’s an ERA of 0.72. In the last month, the Brewers have gone 22-6, and separated themselves by 6 games in the NL-Central.

All of these are incredible numbers. All of these statistics are what championship teams are made out of. All of these statistics don’t lie. They tell the story of a team that has legitimate talent, believes in one another, has incredible chemistry, and would run through a wall for their low-key manager.

But they can’t keep this up.

Brewers fans need to brace themselves for the inevitable lull. At some point within the next six weeks, this Brewers team will hit a funk. They may lose four or five games in a row. They may see their lead in the division shrink as the Cardinals go on a tear.

My message for when (not if) this happens: Chill. Relax. It’s baseball.

Before the angry e-mails start flowing my way, please know that I still think the Brewers are the best team in the division. I also think they’re better than every other team in baseball except for the Phillies, Yankees, and Red Sox. They’re on par with Atlanta, but that’s rarefied air. Even though the Crew still has a slump left, wrap your minds around this:

The Milwaukee Brewers have a very legitimate chance to play in the 2011 World Series.

That doesn’t mean they won’t need to snap out of a funk before we see October. Let’s step into the “wayback machine” for a moment, shall we?

Remember when the Brewers got out to that rancid 0-4 start? Remember all of the panic buttons pushed all over town? It’s human nature. Don’t forget that the Boston Red Sox went through the exact same thing, only worse in April. Just as Brewers fans were lining up to jump off the Hoan Bridge, the Red Sox 0-6 (and then 2-10) start had Bostonians lined up at the Bunker Hill Bridge. Seems the Red Sox bounced back pretty nicely.

What gets me about poor starts are even the educated baseball fans and analysts pushing the panic button. Even the New York Times ran a headline that stated the Red Sox were “Doomed in April.”

No team is ever doomed in April.

My point of all this is simple. Enjoy the ride. This has been fun. However, in the last month, the Brewers have played .786 baseball, which is impossible to sustain over an entire season. Mathematically, that’s winning between 127-128 games in a single season. It’s never going to happen.

The slump? The lull? The funk?

It’s coming. It’s inevitable. But you know what else it is? It’s ok. And it’s baseball. It’s just part of the game.

So I suggest you enjoy the ride.