After the Brewers lost 11-7 Sunday to be swept in a three-game series by Boston, left fielder Ryan Braun questioned the approach his teammates had in playing the defending world champions.

"I almost felt like this series, we didn't expect to win," Braun said.

"We were competing; I know everybody tried hard. But it's not about trying hard. You've got to expect to win. I almost feel like we never really expected to win any of these games. I just kind of had that feeling.

"It's just a feeling. Every time we were winning, I just didn't feel we expected to win. It was like we were just content to be there and compete. I don't think we necessarily expected to win."

The loss dropped the Brewers into the division cellar, already seven games behind the first-place Chicago Cubs. With 12 losses in 17 games this month, the Brewers already have had losing streaks of six and five games.

The Brewers had leads in both of the final two games of the interleague series but Braun didn't get the feeling his teammates expected a positive outcome.

"Obviously, they're a great team," he said, referring to the Red Sox. "It's a good gauge of where we're at when we can go out and compete with those guys. For us, as a team, our goal can't be to compete. Our goal has to be to win."

Copyright (C) 2008 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.