Rea, like ’24 Crew, keeps pleasant surprise going
Righty leads Brewers to series sweep over Guardians, 5th straight win
Tim Stebbins
MILWAUKEE — Colin Rea is emblematic of the 2024 Brewers: somewhat unexpected but keeps on delivering.
That was perhaps never more evident than on Sunday. Rea turned in a dominant outing to lead the Brewers to a 2-0 win over the Guardians at American Family Field, their fifth straight win. Milwaukee (72-52) completed the three-game sweep of Cleveland to reach a season-high 20 games over .500.
“We’re having fun out there,” Rea said of the Brewers, who also split a four-game set with the Dodgers this week. “We’re playing relaxed.”
Rea carried a no-hitter through 5 2/3 innings before Steven Kwan lined a solid single into left-center field. Will Brennan followed with another base hit, but that was all Cleveland mustered against Rea. He threw seven-plus scoreless innings on two hits, with five strikeouts, zero walks and two hit batters on just 88 pitches.
“We didn’t get hardly anything over the [middle of the] plate to hit today, and he didn’t make any mistakes,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said.
It marked Rea’s longest outing this season. He previously went seven innings three times (June 10, July 3 and Aug. 6).
“I can’t say enough about him,” manager Pat Murphy said. “He’s just gotten better and better as a pitcher. He just keeps doing it, whatever it takes. ‘I gotta go to the Minor Leagues, I go to Minor Leagues. I gotta go to Korea or Japan or wherever I need to go, I’m gonna go, and I’m gonna figure it out and keep knocking at the door.’
“I think that’s the epitome of this club. Just keep knocking at the door.”
Rea, who spent 2022 pitching in Japan, was a steady presence for the Brewers last season after he signed a Minor League deal with Milwaukee before Spring Training. His 124 2/3 innings ranked third on the team behind Corbin Burnes (193 2/3) and Freddy Peralta (165 2/3). The Brewers brought him back on a one-year deal in November, and he’s taken things to a new level in 2024.
Rea has a 3.52 ERA over 135 1/3 innings in 24 games (21 starts). His performance has been huge for the Brewers’ rotation, following the offseason trade of Burnes to the Orioles and for a starting staff that has been ravaged by injuries. Brandon Woodruff is possibly out for the season recovering from offseason right shoulder surgery, and Wade Miley and the Brewers’ No. 5 prospect Robert Gasser each underwent Tommy John surgery this season.
“I think it’s just the way the Brewers do things here,” Rea said of the rotation depth stepping up this season. “They teach us how to pitch. We’re not just throwers out there. We can do a bunch of different things. So I think the guys that we brought in to fill those roles have done a really good job.”
That thought process could be extended to the rest of the pitching staff. Bryan Hudson (trade with Dodgers) and Jared Koenig (Minor League deal) were each lower profile additions in the offseason, but they’ve been impact arms in the bullpen. They followed Rea in relief on Sunday and secured the win, pitching scoreless eighth and ninth innings.
Koenig became the 11th Brewer to record a save this season, the first of his career. Closer Devin Williams was down, Murphy said, after he pitched in three of the previous four games.
“We’ve got a lot of guys that can go out there and pitch in almost any situation, which is hard to come by,” Koenig said of the bullpen depth. “We have a little bit of a luxury right now.”
The same can be said about the Brewers’ lead in the NL Central, which stands at a season-high 11 games over the second-place Cardinals, entering this week’s three-game series in St. Louis. Milwaukee is 11-5 this month, matching its July win total.
As they have all season, the Brewers are taking things day by day.
“We’re in the middle of the fight,” Murphy said. “You go back to your corner and look over and look at the scorecard, that doesn’t help you. Go to the corner, put your head down. You know what’s going on. You know if you’re taking on water, if you’re pressured or whatever. You know the situation, so you don’t need to look over your shoulder and wonder, ‘How many games?’
“You just need to stay the course. You need to stay in the ring. Get some water. Boom, wait for the bell. Boom, go out there and try to win a decision every round you can.”
