Arizona Diamondbacks VS Milwaukee Brewers Series Review

Brew’d Up A Series Win

Coming off a series win over the Baltimore Orioles to start their 6 game homestand, the Snakes welcomed the Milwaukee Brewers, who were 7-2 over their last 9 games prior to this series, into Chase Field for a 3 game series to finish off this quick homestand. The first 17 innings of this series did not start off how really any Diamondbacks fan might have hoped, they still were able to take the series with back to back comeback wins on Saturday and Sunday as they were able to head down to Miami with high spirits and good vibes, and gave the Fellas plenty to be happy about as they discussed this series that seemed to have it all.

Key Takeaways from this series

Offense Was Offensive To All Eyes

After putting up a 9 spot on Dean Kremer and the Orioles in Wednesdays 9-0 shutout win, the Dbacks seemed to have forgotten the ability to hit as they got shut down by veteran LHP Jose Quintana over 7 shutout innings as the Snakes barely made him break a sweat with only 1 runner reaching 2nd base the entire game. The crew discussed whether it was Quintana just being effective and doing his job in missing barrels, or if it was more on the D’Backs offense having a poor approach throughout the entire 9 inning affair.

Mantiply = Multiply

While the offense was very much lacking to start this 3 game series, a 3 run deficit is nothing impossible to comeback from, especially for this offense who seems to do a bulk of their scoring in the back end of games here early on, but that hope was quickly dashed as Joe Mantiply allowed 4 runs in the top of the 9th as he has not looked very solid at all to start his 2025 season (12.71 ERA in 5.2 IP). The fellas wondered if Joe is starting to run out of opportunities to prove that he has value to add to this bullpen as Jalen Beeks and AJ Puk are showing that they can be effective against both left and right handed hitters, and with Kevin Ginkel and Kendall Graveman not too far from a return there might need to be some tough decisions to be made about the Dbacks crafty lefty.

The Burn(es) of the Valley of the Sun

With 2 starts as a Diamondback under Corbin Burnes’ belt, he made his Dbacks Home debut look a little more Burnes-esque as he logged his first Quality Start of 2025, going 6 IP with only 3 ER on 88 pitches. The fellas discussed what they saw from Burnes in this start as well as what adjustments they believe he might have made that lead to him turning things around from his last lackluster start against the Washington Nationals

I Didn’t Hear No Bell!

While Burnes’ home debut was good enough to keep the team in the game, the bats didn’t seem to want to reciprocate that energy as they were silenced for the first 8.1 innings, bringing their scoreless streak to 17.1 IP (even though it felt much longer than that). Thankfully in baseball there are 27 total outs and the Dbacks waited until they were down to their final 2 to make some noise, eventually putting up 5 in the 9th and walking things off via a Lourdes Gurriel Jr Sac-Fly to RF. The crew explained what was running through their minds as the Answerbacks lived up to their nickname and put up a 5 spot on the Brewers bullpen.

Icy Hot Offense

While winning is all that really matters in the end, the Snakes offense has had clear producers and clear duds throughout this entire series and homestand in general.

• Hitters 1-4 (Including Alek and Grich PH’s): 6-14 with 2 2B (Pavin and Carroll), 5 BB’s (Perdomo had 3 of them) and 3 RBI
• Hitters 5-9: 1-15 with 2 BB and 1 RBI.
• All 5 Batters struggling to start 2025
• Gurriel Jr: .145/.183/.291 > .474 OPS
• Suarez: .145/.277/.455 > .732 OPS (2-25 Last 7 Games)
• Jake: .091/.184/.121 > .305 OPS
• Tawa: .214/.250/.286 > .536 OPS
• Herrera: .176/.222/.353 > .575 OPS
• Team w/ RISP: 2-13 this game, 4-24 this series, 7-52 this home stand

This hot and cold streaky offense had the fellas wondering if this is just part of the game of baseball (opposing pitchers are paid to get our hitters out after all) or if this is something that is somewhat of a concern and should have tabs kept on as the season continues to truck on.

Call It A Dawg-Pen Cause It’s Full Of Nothing But DAWGS

In many years past, the D’Backs bullpen (especially the backend) has given us one too many heart attacks to be able to count on just our hands, but that might not be the case this year, as the group that D’Backs GM Mike Hazen has assembled is looking extremely good through 15 Games (outside of Joe Mantiply that is).

• Shelby Miller: 1-0, 0.00 ERA in 6 IP with 5 K, 1 BB, 1 HBP for a 0.17 WHIP
• A.J. Puk: 0-0, 3.60 ERA (3 straight scoreless APP), 3 Saves in 6 IP with 10 K, 2 BB, 5 H, 1 HBP for a 1.17 WHIP
• Jalen Beeks: 1-0, 0.87 ERA in 10.1 IP with 4 H, 2 BB, 9 K for a 0.58 WHIP
• Ryne Nelson: 1-0, 4.50 ERA (1 R over his last 8.2 IP) in 10 IP with 8 H, 1 BB, 10 K for a 0.90 WHIP
• Justin Martinez: 1-0, 0.00 ERA in 5.2 IP with 3 H, 0 BB, 9 K for a 0.53 WHIP

The performances we have seen from these dawgpen arms had the crew discussing whether or not this group is the best, or has the best chance to be the most well rounded group of arms that we have seen in the Desert.

Miami Woes

The fellas wrapped things up discussing their upcoming series against the 7-8 Miami Marlins down in Miami. The Snakes over the last few years have always seemed to struggle against the Fish (a few No Hitters in years past and a few series loses that were painful to watch) and the crew discussed how taking at least 2 of 3 from the Marlins is crucial, as the NL West and NL in general seems to be much stronger than in years past and winning a series in Miami before heading to the Windy City is very huge in keeping momentum going through the rest of April.