MILWAUKEE — With the Brewers offense struggling mightily and the team having lost three of their last four road games to the Mets and Astros, manager Ron Roenicke's frustrations mounted on the team's lineup card on Friday night.
Roenicke said he'd been thinking about making a change for a few days now, but on Friday, the Brewers manager made drastic changes to the team's lineup for the first time this season, prior to their 11-3 drubbing by the Twins. In all, Roenicke moved right fielder Corey Hart into the leadoff spot, center fielder Norichika Aoki into the second slot, Jonathan Lucroy into fifth, and dropped Rickie Weeks all the way from first to sixth in the order.
With the lineup performing how it has in the past few weeks, Roenicke was left with few other choices.
"You have to do that," third baseman Aramis Ramirez said of the changes. "We're not scoring runs the way we like to. Is that the reason we're losing? I don't think so. We haven't pitched the way we like to either. We just have to get better in every category."
But it was Weeks' drop in the lineup that caused the most intrigue. In his career, Weeks has made 2,753 plate appearances in the leadoff spot, while his next most appearances came in the two-hole, where he's had just 339 appearances. But that inexperience likely didn't factor too much into Roenicke's decision, considering the slump Weeks has been in. Through 39 games, the All-Star second baseman is batting a paltry .159.
Weeks and Roenicke met before the game on Friday to discuss the lineup change, and although Weeks refused to convey to the media what was said in the meeting, Roenicke said it was a constructive one.
"He's a team player," Roenicke said. "He's very professional in what he does. And I think he realizes that, even though he's got a lot of pride and he knows he's going to hit, he was okay with me doing it."
Roenicke said that Weeks and hitting coach Johnny Narron had worked on a few things before Friday's game, as well as a few hours before Thursday's game against the Astros. He mentioned that, although he didn't know the exact goal of the sessions, Weeks had been working on getting his hands in a more comfortable position.
Caught in arguably the worst slump of his career, Weeks remained confident about his ability to bounce back.
"It's been frustrating obviously," Weeks said. "But other than that, you got things you got to deal with and you just keep working and try to get through this. ... It's part of the game. It's a natural habit to (press). You feel like you're better than what the numbers say, so you try to do something else."
Doing something else with the batting order seemed to work right away in Friday's game for the Brewers, as Hart and Aoki both got on base in their first plate appearances, and Braun drove in Hart to cut the team's first-inning deficit to one run.
In fact, the top two spots in the order -- which had been especially unproductive so far this season -- seemed to be in good hands with Hart and Aoki all game, as the pair combined for four hits, two runs, and an RBI and allowed Ryan Braun to tally two RBI. When all was said and done in Friday night's loss, the only runs the Brewers scored came from the top three spots in the order.
"The first three guys I thought swung the bat well," Roenicke said after the game. "We'll see if we can go with that lineup depending on lefties or righties. . . . But to let games fall apart in the late innings like we're doing, it's hard to watch."
The lineup change might've been one of the few positives to come out of Friday night's matchup with Minnesota. But for a team that seems to be in a tailspin as of late, there may be many more changes to come.
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