The launch-angle revolution changed baseball. Are the Brewers a sign it's changing back?

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The slogan that appears on posters all over American Family Field exemplifies the unique approach the three-time reigning NL Central champion Milwaukee Brewers have taken as they chase their first World Series title.

Win Our Way.

The Brewers produced the best record in the major leagues and won a franchise-record 103 games with a statistical profile that hadn't been seen in over six decades. Milwaukee scored the second-most runs in Major League Baseball despite matching the second-lowest homer total of any team.

Sportradar says the Brewers are the first club since the 1960 Chicago White Sox to finish a season among the top three MLB teams in runs scored and among the bottom three in homers. The Brewers host the San Diego Padres in Game 1 of an NL Division Series on Saturday.

“Home runs come and they’ll help you win games,” Brewers second baseman Brice Turang said. “And so do stolen bases. So do walks, playing defense. All that matters as well.”

Milwaukee scored 832 runs while hitting 154 homers. Only the Chicago Cubs scored more runs. Only the Toronto Blue Jays had fewer homers.

That combination has generated plenty of conversation, much to the amusement of two-time reigning NL manager of the year Pat Murphy.

“I just love this narrative, like we’re purposely not hitting homers,” Murphy joked.

But there's no question the Brewers are succeeding with a different style. In an era when most franchises emphasize hitting the ball in the air and into the seats, the Brewers posted the best record in baseball while having by far MLB's lowest launch angle at 9.2 degrees.

“You notice their team, they’ve gone after a different kind of ballplayer — high contact, low strikeout, works walks, different things like that,” said New York Yankees third baseman Ryan McMahon, whose team was swept in Milwaukee back in May. “And then they really pitch."

Since 1989, the only other teams to win at least 100 games while hitting fewer than 155 homers were the 2011 Philadelphia Phillies (153) and the 2015 St. Louis Cardinals (137), according to Sportradar. The Brewers went 35-30 in games in which they didn’t homer, making them the first team since the 2022 Los Angeles Dodgers to post a winning record in such contests.

The Brewers aren't alone in showing it's possible to win without elite home-run power.

Of the five teams that hit the fewest homers in the majors, three reached the playoffs. The Boston Red Sox hit 153 homers to rank 26th in MLB. The AL Central champion Cleveland Guardians were 27th with 162.

Sportradar says that never before in a non-pandemic year have the playoffs included three of the bottom five teams in homers during the regular season.

“You see the clock kind of turning, where teams don’t want nine guys who are going to try up and hit a homer with a 40% strikeout rate,” Brewers outfielder Sal Frelick said. “They don’t want that anymore. You want nine guys who, with a runner on third and less than two outs, you know a ball’s going to go in play. That’s valued more. We’ve been doing that for a while.”

While all three teams rank among the top eight clubs in ERA, Boston and Cleveland needed strong pitching to compensate for average lineups. Boston ranked 23rd in runs (689) and Cleveland was 24th (678), whereas Milwaukee has scored in bunches.

Milwaukee led MLB in batting average (.258) and on-base percentage (.341). The Brewers also swung at the lowest percentage of pitches outside the strike zone of any MLB team.

“It’s part of the culture,” Frelick said. “You won’t play if you chase here. Murph kind of instills that and we all know as hitters that, especially on ball-three counts, if you swing at ball four, you’re not going to play.”

That ability to grind out at-bats takes a toll on a pitcher.

“These guys know at the very least we can make it difficult on him beyond just their at-bat,” lead hitting coach Eric Theisen said. “The more difficult your at-bat is on that guy on the mound, the better the situation the next guy steps into.”

Milwaukee stole 162 bases in the regular season to rank fifth in MLB. The Brewers’ ability to bunt runners over and wreak havoc on the bases enables them to produce big innings with a flurry of singles.

The Brewers' emphasis on hustle became apparent last week when Murphy removed William Contreras from a game after the three-time All-Star catcher didn't run sufficiently hard to third on a grounder to the left side. In Milwaukee's next game, Contreras dove head-first to first while again grounding out.

“They play the game the right way,” Cardinals pitcher Michael McGreevy said. “If there are potentially double-play balls, they’re not dogging it down the line. They’re hustling, which is exactly what you want to see in terms of being a baseball fan. They give you hell.”

The way the Brewers see it, pitchers encounter more trouble if they have more concerns than whether a particular individual might hit a homer. They want that pitcher also worrying about whether a guy at the plate might bunt or if the runner on base might steal.

“That leads to mistakes in pitches, whether it’s walking a guy or forcing him to throw something in the zone and getting someone a better pitch to hit,” outfielder Garrett Mitchell said. “The way we do things, it’s our brand of baseball. That’s what we love.”

Even if a hitter gets retired, he's made an impact if he works a full count.

“Not every out is the same,” hitting coach Guillermo Martinez said. “Our outs are tough outs, and it drains pitchers and puts them in a position to make a mistake way more often. That’s where we capitalize.”

Now it’s a matter of getting that approach to work in October.

The Brewers had a somewhat similar approach last season, when they went 97-65 and had MLB’s third-highest run total while ranking 22nd with 166 homers. That team got swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL Championship Series while scoring just one run in each of the four games.

A little over a decade ago, it wasn’t uncommon for teams to have postseason success without many home-run threats.

The 2012 World Series champion San Francisco Giants — playing home games in a notoriously pitcher-friendly ballpark — hit 103 homers in the regular season, the fewest of any MLB team. The St. Louis Cardinals won an NL pennant in 2013 while ranking 27th with 125 homers.

The Kansas City Royals had an MLB-low 95 homers when they reached the World Series in 2014. One year later, they won the World Series while hitting 139 homers to rank 24th. Cleveland got to the 2016 World Series after hitting 185 homers to finish 18th.

But the last nine World Series have included only one team that finished in the bottom half of MLB in homers during the regular season. The Arizona Diamondbacks tied for 22nd with 166 homers while going 84-78 in 2023 before making their surprising run to the NL pennant.

MLB Network analyst Eric Hosmer played for Kansas City from 2011-17 as part of a 13-year career. Hosmer sees parallels between his Royals teams that reached the World Series and this Brewers squad in how they can “flip the script” by hitting homers but also manufacturing runs if necessary.

“We had that ability, and I think Milwaukee does, too,” Hosmer said.

Hosmer noted that players at the bottom of Milwaukee’s lineup can pressure a defense with their ability to bunt and steal. That creates opportunities for the guys atop the order.

Jackson Chourio has a 1.044 OPS in 12 career playoff games. Turang had 21 homers and 100 RBIs this year, making him the only MLB player to drive in at least 97 runs while going deep fewer than 26 times. Contreras was the only player to have over 90 RBIs without hitting 20 homers.

“I think they have a real shot,” Hosmer said. “I definitely think they have enough offense. You can build around Chourio, Turang and Contreras. And the other guys, they know how to play the game.”

They believe that brand of baseball can produce a deep October run.

“It’s baseball,” said first baseman Jake Bauers, who hit a team-high 26 homers. “You can win (103) games in a regular season, there’s no reason you can’t win in the postseason doing the exact same thing.”

AP Baseball Writer Ron Blum contributed to this report.

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