Seattle Mariners at Milwaukee Brewers

They toil in relative obscurity on good days and stand in the spotlight on bad days, like an offensive lineman who lets an edge rusher reach the quarterback in the fourth quarter. When they do their job, you might not notice them. When they have a hiccup, *everyone* notices them. So, let us pause to appreciate the Brewers’ bullpen, which shined in Thursday’s 7-4 win over the Mariners at American Family Field to finish a perfect series for those unsung heroes on the bench in left-center field. “When we’re getting zeroes,” said center fielder Garrett Mitchell, “it keeps it light for us. I think this was a team win today, for sure.” The backbone of a good team is its bullpen, and the Brewers’ has been very good of late despite being without ace setup man Abner Uribe (10-day IL with a right forearm strain) and despite the heavy workload that comes with carrying an especially young starting rotation -- and even the occasional veteran stumble like Dustin May’s two-inning dud on Wednesday night. The relief corps rose to the task, combining to pitch 16 1/3 scoreless innings in the three-game series against Seattle, capped by 5 1/3 innings in the finale from Chad Patrick, Aaron Ashby and Trevor Megill after left-handed starter Robert Gasser looked like he was going to give back all of the runs the Brewers had scored in the first inning. Mariners starter George Kirby was also shaky, surrendering two-run doubles to Gary Sánchez and Mitchell as four different Brewers drove in a run and six different players tallied hits. Milwaukee, two days removed from a record-setting 22-0 win in the series opener, appeared off and running again. Instead, they were in for a grind of an afternoon, because Gasser responded to that scoring outburst by walking Taylor Ward to start the second inning on a full-count fastball way out of the zone. It was one of three times in Gasser’s 3 2/3 innings that he put the leadoff hitter on base, and after the Brewers’ lead shrunk to 6-2 in the second inning and 6-4 in the fourth, manager Pat Murphy lifted the left-hander in the middle of an at-bat against Randy Arozarena. Patrick took over with a 2-0 count. “I was kind of hot. I was a little too emotional right there,” Murphy said. “You can’t walk guys.” Patrick settled things down by recording seven critical outs, then left-hander Ashby got six, and after Mitchell’s solo homer in the eighth stirred a crowd of 35,909 on hand for a weekday matinee, Megill got the final three. Mitchell made a pair of