The 'silver lining' for the Brewers in their first two games in St. Louis was Travis Shaw's bat

ST. LOUIS – In a series where not much has gone right for the Milwaukee Brewers, at least they can point to one key player finally righting the ship a bit offensively.

Third baseman Travis Shaw, who entered Monday hitting just .178, homered in the ninth inning Monday and twice more Tuesday against the St. Louis Cardinals to bring his average just shy of the Mendoza line at .198. 

"Without a doubt, the silver lining the last two nights is Travis swinging the bat," manager Craig Counsell said.

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Shaw was one of the Brewers' more reliable run producers in 2018 with 32 homers and 86 RBI. His average dropped from .273 in 2017 to .241 as he struggled to hit left-handed pitching, but he still managed to keep his on-base percentage nearly the same thanks to an improved eye at the plate.

But it's been a struggle from the get-go this season for the 29-year-old, as his average sits at an even .200 after going 1 for 4 in Wednesday's 5-2 loss to go along with a team-high 32 strikeouts. Against lefties, he's hitting .143 with one RBI.

One of the most stoic players to don a Milwaukee uniform in recent years, Shaw has at least been able to enjoy a little payoff for all his work. He referred to Andy Haines as being more of a life coach than a hitting coach of late, shining a light a bit on the depth of his struggles.

"It’s getting there," Shaw said. "The strikeouts are still pretty frustrating for me. I felt like I made pretty good strides in that department last year, and this year it just hasn’t been happening.

"But the past two days, to be able to feel some backspin off the bat has been pretty good. Me and Andy have been talking a lot – not really working through mechanics, just kind of talking things out – and he’s helped me a lot the last couple days."

Shaw certainly hasn't been alone in his struggles in the middle of the Brewers' lineup.

Jesús Aguilar, an all-star in 2018, is hitting just .132 and has yet to homer through 21 games. The Brewers are so hungry for production at first base that Counsell started catcher Yasmani Grandal there Tuesday, just to keep his bat in the lineup while giving him a night off behind the plate.

Ryan Braun has homered five times and driven in 16 runs but is batting just .202 with a .655 OPS. And while Mike Moustakas has six homers and 10 RBI, he still wasn't totally locked in at the plate before a fractured finger sidelined him over the weekend.

"We’ve got to get the middle of the order producing," Counsell said. "We’ve got a lot of very capable offensive players in there. Getting Travis going – and we’re not too far from getting Moose back in there – those are big steps for our offense."

The Brewers were able to offset the slow starts of Shaw, Aguilar and Braun thanks to the white-hot hitting of Christian Yelich. But the Cardinals and the Dodgers before them finally smartened up and stopped giving him anything to hit, instead forcing those behind him to step up.

And they have yet to do so on a consistent basis.

"There’s no hiding that Christian has carried us so far this year, and the last five-six games teams have made sure that Christian doesn’t beat them," Shaw said. "It’s time for the guys behind him – myself included – to step up and pick up the slack a little bit because he’s getting pitched tough and not getting very many pitches to hit.

"And they’re going to continue to do that until someone else can start doing it consistently like he was."

Take a break

Yelich was out of the starting lineup for Wednesday's series finale, the first time he has sat in the Brewers' 26 games.

"I mean, I love to play every day," he said. "I like being out there. I think it’s important to be out there, or at least be available every day. It’s just the way things are now and the way people look at it, it’s really hard to do that and if you wanted to it probably wouldn’t be an option.

"I’d love to (play 162), but it doesn’t work out that way. Hopefully I’ll be in there at some point today."

Yelich has been a relative iron man since becoming a regular player in 2014, playing 144, 126, 155, 156 and 147 games entering the season. He missed eight games with an oblique strain last year.

Counsell likes to map out potential days off for his regulars well in advance, and he said he'd pegged Wednesday for Yelich last week for several reasons.

"This is the spot that I thought gave him the biggest benefit -- a quick turnaround game with an off-day on the road," he said.

"Days off, they’re about the long term. They’re always about thinking a little bit bigger than one day. With a player like that, that’s what you’re thinking about, the bigger picture."

Counsell pointed out that during his 16-year career in the major leagues, Prince Fielder was the only teammate he'd had who either played 162 games or made it a big priority to try.

"It’s rarer than we think," he said. "I think, just knowing Christian for a year, he’s a player that benefits from days off. I think as a whole, everybody does. The only guy I’ve been around was Prince. That’s the only guy."

Yelich did  pinch-hit in the ninth, but struck out against Jordan Hicks with the bases loaded as the potential go-ahead run.

Mental reset

While it's difficult – at least from a production standpoint – to take Yelich out of the lineup, the decision to sit Aguilar down again Wednesday was an easy one.

Mired in a season-long slump, Aguilar is actually going to be held out of the lineup for the entire week in hopes of helping reset him mentally. (He did fly out as a pinch-hitter in the fifth.) Counsell said the plan now is to start Aguilar again Sunday at Citi Field, in the finale of the Brewers' series against the New York Mets.

"Really, what we’re doing is taking away the performance, the competition part of it, as much as we can. Because that’s part of going through a slump – it never lets up in baseball," Counsell said. "That’s the difficult part about it.

"He’s going to probably have off from the lineup through Sunday. I think it helps him, takes a little pressure off him, lets him sleep a little easier, lets him practice a little differently without having to take it into the game immediately after and worrying about the performance.

"One of the hardest part about a baseball schedule is that when these guys try to make changes, the feedback comes, like, two hours later. And if the results aren’t good, it’s really hard to stick to things. Really hard to stick to things, because you’re competing and fighting every day to try to produce.

"So hopefully this takes a little bit of the pressure of that off. It’s a little bit of a mental break, too, where he can refresh and not worry about things so much."

Eric Thames started for the second time in the St. Louis series on Wednesday.