Live by the homer, die by the homer.

That, in a nutshell, sums it up for the Brewers, whose offense sputtered for extended periods of time during the 2008 season - most notably in September, when an all-or-nothing sprint to the postseason came down to the season's final day because of a prolonged offensive slump.

It was the home run that got the Brewers into postseason contention and it was the home run that kept them from advancing.

Milwaukee batters hit 198 homers during the regular season, the third-best mark in the National League. The Brewers homered in 120 games during the season, winning 74 times. In games in which they didn't homer, they were 16-26.

They got their first long ball of the postseason on Sunday, when Prince Fielder went deep in the seventh inning against Philadelphia's Joe Blanton. Unfortunately, it came with the team down, 5-1 and with nobody on base.

When Dale Sveum was named interim manager, the team was mired in its worst offensive slump of the season. He put an emphasis on playing "small ball," incorporating more sacrifices and had his players bunting and using the hit-and-run more often.

"We live and die by the home run, and hopefully we pop them when we get people on base," Sveum said. "We've got to change that. We've got to start learning how to manufacture runs and do things and put the ball in play and have really, really good at bats going into next season."

The Brewers' reliance on the home run was obvious in the final two months of the season. Milwaukee went 20-7 in August, when batters homered once every 26.91 at-bats, averaging 1.30 long balls per game. In September, the Brewers went deep once every 41.19 at-bats -- hitting 0.81 per game.

Hitting coach Jim Skaalen has stressed the importance of taking a patient approach all season. It paid off in Game 3 of the National League Division Series, when the Brewers forced Phillies starter Jamie Moyer deep into the count all day and clawed their way to a 4-1 victory.

"There have been too many days, especially in pressure situations, where we over-swang a little bit. That more than anything contributed to the inconsistencies down the stretch," Skaalen said. "Say what you will, we simply tried to do too much. As soon as September hit ... guys were pressing a little bit, wanting to do so much and got away from themselves a little bit."

Sveum thinks the players are capable of adapting. And he thinks they enjoy manufacturing runs just as much as they enjoy belting tape-measure shots to the bleachers. If he's back as manager next season, he plans to drive that point home.

"You start out in spring training and get them to understand, so they can have a lot of fun playing this game," Sveum said. "There's a lot more to this game than just waiting for the three run homer.

"Players really understand that, and they get a lot of satisfaction out of sacrifice bunting. When they get a sacrifice bunt over, when they hit and run and they get it on the ground, believe it or not, they get a lot of satisfaction out of that, and it's a lot of fun to play the game."

Decision time: The front office will have a lot of big decisions to make in the next few months, starting with the futures of general manager Doug Melvin and interim manager Dale Sveum.

Owner Mark Attanasio plans to sit down with Melvin, who has one year remaining on his contract, in the coming weeks about a possible extension. He plans to defer to Melvin when it comes to replacing or retaining Sveum, who took over on Sept. 15 and stabilized a free-falling team while leading the Brewers to their first playoff berth since 1992.

"We definitely want to keep Doug Melvin," Attanasio said.

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Recent Talkbacks ...

Posted by WestSideWillie on Oct. 6, 2008 at 1:11 p.m. (report)

Doug, don't buy any green bananas until the ink is dry on your extension. You deserve it but after the way the owner handled the Yost firing, not sure of anything. As for the team, The Phillies were a better team, 3 MVP's in Utley, Rollins, Howard, did not match up to our Braun. Brewers advantage was catcher and starting pitching, ever other position was even or advantage Phillies. Do not blame Suppan. Only two runs scored.......Wait til next year.

Posted by TosaJimBob on Oct. 6, 2008 at 9:35 a.m. (report)

Explain this to me please...how can a whole team hit so well in one month then go soooooo cold the next?.....are pitchers getting smarter or our batters reading too much about how good they are?.....