As I watched Carlos Gomez step into the box last night down by one in the first inning I found myself almost expecting a homerun. Boslinger preceded to cork a get-me-over fastball right down the middle and Gomez unloaded on it. As soon as I saw Gomez connect with that ball I sat up and said "that's gone" like it was beyond the shadow of a doubt. Boslinger was out there thinking that a leadoff hitter is going to take a few pitches and work the count, but what he forgot is that Gomez is not a prototypical leadoff hitter and the Brewers are not a prototypical major league team.
The Brewers have defied all conventional baseball wisdom to run out to the best start in baseball. If you just looked at the stats where the Brewers are 6th worst in on-base percentage (.304) and have the 5th fewest walks (83) you'd think they are a losing club. Their mindset is that it doesn't matter what count it is, they're just looking for good pitches to hit. I remember a quote Prince Fielder had one season in Milwaukee when he was slumping where he said that you don't hit homeruns, they are thrown to you. This seems to be the mantra of this years team because when they see a pitch they like you can bet they are hacking.
In today's game the bullpens are tougher on average than starting pitching, so the strategy of running up pitch counts to chase starters may be becoming outdated. Averaging 2.52 walks per game this season would rank second worst in team history if the season ended today. Khris Davis and Jean Segura having three walks in 236 plate appearances doesn't help that stat much, but they're both having good seasons regardless. Big hits outweigh walks in the win column which we saw with Davis in St. Louis and Segura last night.
The pitching remains a huge aspect as to why this formula is working for the crew. They are still yet to be defeated when scoring more than four runs (18-0). As long as the lineup puts runs on the board we could really care less how they get on base. Carlos Gomez is batting a mind-boggling .520 when he swings at first pitches and has three homers. When it comes to sortable batting stats the Brewers could care less. The only stat that matters is the number in the W column, and right now it's a league best 22.
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