Milwaukee Brewers: Pat Murphy sounds off on Brandon Sproat after 4-walk ninth inning vs Cubs

The Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Chicago Cubs to complete the sweep on Wednesday night. They got off to a hot start thanks to Christian Yelich hitting a three-run home run in the first inning. Milwaukee also put up three runs in the second after home runs hit by Jackson Chourio and William Contreras .

Indeed, the final regular season matchup between the Brewers and Cubs in 2026 was not even close. Well, until it unnecessarily was.

Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy sounds off on Brandon Sproat

Thanks to the stellar pitching (once again) of Logan Henderson , Milwaukee was in complete control of the game all night long. That is, until the ninth innning.

JJ Romero pitched scoreless frames in the sixth and seventh innings. With the Brewers up 8-1 at that point, manager Pat Murphy decided to bring in Brandon Sproat, who had been called up earlier this week when Grant Anderson went on the injured list.

Sproat pitched a scoreless (but not clean) eighth inning, so Murphy decided to leave him in for the ninth. He promptly walked four consecutive batters, leading to a run. Abner Uribe was brought in with the bases loaded and one out, but could not limit the damage.

In the end, Milwaukee came away with an 8-6 win and a now ten-game lead over Chicago in the National League Central Division. However, Murphy was far from pleased with Sproat's performance.

"It's unacceptable. You got to throw the ball in the plate or you can't be a major league pitcher," he told reporters after the game.

As fans will recall, Sproat started out the year with the Brewers as a member of their starting rotation. However, the same control issues that plagued him on Wednesday night led to his eventual demotion to Triple-A.

When the dust settled at American Family Field, Sproat was tagged for four earned runs in 1.1 innings pitched, raising his season ERA to 5.57. That simply is not good enough for a team that has the best record in baseball and World Series aspirations.

In short, it will be very surprising if Brewers fans see Sproat pitch again for Milwaukee this year. If Murphy cannot even trust him with a seven-run lead, there is no way he should be used in any other situation going forward.

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