Gamel, Brewers offense coming alive

Ben Gamel’s bat has woken up.

When Lorenzo Cain opted out of the 2020 season, all eyes turned to Gamel, who came into the campaign as Milwaukee’s fourth outfielder behind Cain, Christian Yelich and Avisail Garcia — with Ryan Braun expected to handle the designated hitter duties, of course.

Gamel has started 25 contests in the outfield — 16 in right field, eight in center and one in left.

It’s been a streaky campaign for the long-haired left-handed hitter, who started the season going 6-for-20 (.300) with seven RBI over his first six contests. But then, Gamel slumped. He went just 2-for-36 over his next 12 games with no runs batted in.

Since Aug. 19, however, Gamel has found his stroke again. He’s batting .373 (12-for-32) and has posted a 1.050 OPS.

Milwaukee’s offense is also on the rise.

Only the Arizona Diamondbacks have scored fewer runs in the first three innings of games than Milwaukee, which averages 0.92 per contest. However, the Brewers are slowly changing that narrative.

Milwaukee has plated at least six runs in four of its last six games. In all four of those contests – all wins – the Brewers scored multiple runs over the opening three frames. Since Aug. 27, Milwaukee is averaging 2.2 runs per game in innings 1-3.

Gamel and the Brewers open a three-game series on the road in Cleveland on Friday night.

NOTABLE

— Game-changing swings: Just 35.9% of Cleveland’s home runs have been solo shots, the lowest percentage in the big leagues. If the Indians can finish the season at the same clip, it’d go down as the lowest solo homer percentage since the Washington Senators in 1935 (34.4%).

— With 28 dingers to his name in 120 games, infielder Keston Hiura has a chance to become the second-fastest Brewers player to reach 30 career home runs. Ryan Braun is at the top of the list with 30 homers in his first 94 games of that magical 2007 rookie season.

Statistics courtesy Sportradar, baseball-reference.com