It didn't take long for that favorite tag to look earned. Milwaukee put up 6 runs in the first inning and cruised from there, with Seattle chipping away for 2 in the second and 2 more in the fourth before the Brewers tacked on an insurance run late to make it 7-4.
That's the Cliffs Notes version of where these two clubs are right now. Milwaukee (79-49) owns the best record in baseball and just took 2 of the first 3 in a series that included a 22-0 win that matched the largest shutout of the modern era. Seattle (60-68) is playing out the string well outside the race, and Thursday's loss dropped them to 1-2 in the set after Wednesday's feel-good 7-5 win kept things from getting embarrassing twice.
Neither bullpen is exactly fresh. Milwaukee's missing JoJo Romero, Abner Uribe and Joel Kuhnel, on top of a rotation that's already lost Brandon Woodruff and Quinn Priester for the year. Seattle's pitching depth chart reads like a hospital ward at this point, which is as much a reason Kirby's workload matters as anything he did against Houston last time out, when he lasted just 4.2 innings in a rocky outing.
Both sides get to regroup now — Milwaukee onto its next series as the runaway favorite in the National League, Seattle back to auditioning arms for 2027 while it waits on its walking wounded.