MILWAUKEE -- If one loss could sum up one of the worst months in Milwaukee's franchise history, Tuesday night's setback was it.
Through all the positives - and there were positives - the Brewers just couldn't find a way to win. A base hit away a few times from securing a win that possibly could have been the one needed to jump-start the club, Milwaukee fell 6-5 to Minnesota in 14 innings, securing May as one of the worst months in franchise history.
Dropping to 5-20 for the month, the Brewers win two of their next three games to avoid the worst winning percentage in a month in team history.
"I'm only counting the wins, and we don't have too many," Brewers third baseman Aramis Ramirez said. "I don't know. Right now we just can't get anything going offensively. Our starters, it seems like we have to come back in every game. They have to pick it up. We have to pick it up offensively. It's a team effort. We have to play better."
"Every aspect of the game. We have to hit better. We had a lot of opportunities. We have to hit better with men in scoring position. Good teams do that and that's how you win games."
It felt like Milwaukee had to win Tuesday's game because of all the positive things it did. Spot starter Alfredo Figaro gave the Brewers five innings, shortstop Jean Segura became the first player since 2009 to have six hits in a game, and the bullpen allowed just two runs in nine innings.
Down 5-4 in the ninth inning, Segura lined his fifth hit of the day to center to score pinch hitter Jeff Bianchi with the tying run. With the winning run in scoring position with just one out, Ryan Braun smoked a ground ball that should have been an easy double play, but Twins shortstop Pedro Florimon bobbled enough for Braun to break up the twin killing.
That gave Ramirez a chance to win the game with a base hit, and he walked to load the bases. Carlos Gomez ended up grounding into a fielders' choice to end the inning.
"It's a tough loss," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said. "Any time you go that many innings and lose, it's tough. We played well, came back to tie it in the ninth, but couldn't put together any offense after that."
Working on just two days of rest, Mike Fiers worked three scoreless innings to give Milwaukee's offense a chance to win the game. The first 14 Brewers went down in order in extra innings, as Minnesota's relievers needed just 26 pitches to work three innings.
"In extra innings, the problem is - when you are at home - somebody tries to win it with a homer," Roenicke said. "When you're not scoring for a while, people are trying to hit a home run. When you try to hit home runs, it doesn't usually work that way. We didn't have a lot of good at-bats in extra innings."
Ramirez admitted it's hard to avoid falling into the lure of a walk-off home run.
"Especially when you know you can hit a home run because you've done it before and you are one of those players that can actually win the game with one swing," Ramirez said. "It's hard not to try. I did. I tried in my last at-bat, and I missed a pitch."
The Brewers hosted two teams on this homestand just as desperate for wins as they are in the Dodgers and Twins. Milwaukee went 1-4 against those two teams and 2-6 over the course of the eight games at Miller Park.
"It's been a rough month," Roenicke said. "Yeah, I do (see an end in sight). There better be. We'll get it going. but this is tough. It's tough going through when your bullpen is doing a pretty good job keeping up the zeroes. They score once in a while on them but they've been doing a good job. Our starters will pitch better and we'll start hitting better with people on base and getting big hits. We did that a couple times tonight but we just didn't continue to do it."
Though the clubhouse has begun to show signs of frustration, Ramirez doesn't see any problems with the team's attitude or effort.
"That shows it in the ninth inning when we came back off a pretty good closer," Ramirez said. "We never give up. We just haven't finished. We have to finish the games."
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