The St. Louis Cardinals were picked before the season to finish at the bottom of the division barely above Pittsburgh. They are currently sitting pretty in 1st place and their questionable pitching staff has been outstanding. Anytime that you play the division leader, you need to step it up and bring you A game because it will allow you to make up a whole game in the standings. Granted it is early, so there is plenty of time to make up ground, but a win in April counts just as much for the season total as a win in September, so it is important to win these early ones. We have been a poor road team, and we also haven't played well in St. Louis, so this series could be a struggle for a team that is already struggling. Well, on with the wrap-up...
Game 1 (Tuesday) - Dave Bush (0-2) vs Braden Looper (2-0)
Dave Bush was pitching for his job today. Yovanni Gallardo is days away from returning off of the DL (he was with the team over the weekend in New York just in case the Brewers needed an extra arm if there was a rain delay or a cancellation of a game) but got sent back down to Nashville to make a final rehab start. He will rejoin the team for the next series at Cincinnati, so something will be happening to one of these pitchers. Bush pitched a lot better, going 6 innings and allowing 3 runs off of 6 hits and striking out 5, but the offense completely vanished once again. The only mustered 1 run off of 3 hits, and basically phoned in this performance again. After today, only 1 thing is certain - Dave Bush will still be on this team. He's got too much experience to go down to AAA Nashville, and lest we forget that he throws strikes, makes every start and has won 24 games in the last two years. Some people question whether or not wins matter (because pitchers like Sheets have never gotten more than 12 in a season) but i think they do because it shows that a starting pitcher pitched well enough and long enough to keep his team in the game to win that game. The Brewers offense fell asleep at the wheel, and would need a wake up call or else they would sleep through the remainder of the series. Final score Cardinals 6, Brewers 1.Brewers record : 8 - 5
Game 2 (Wednesday) - Carlos Villanueva (1-1) vs Adam Wainright (1-1)
I had the "pleasure" of watching this one at a sports bar in downtown Orlando by myself sitting at the bar. Thankfully the bar tender was really hot, and I somehow got at least 2-3 beers for free. I needed those free beers to ease my pain and sorrows while watching this game. My Dad was at choir practice, so I was watching this alone, and got to watch the beginning of the game through the 5th inning. Villanueva wasn't very good, giving up 5 runs off of 8 hits (2 home runs) in 4.2 innings of work. Gallardo is on the verge of returning to the rotation, and neither him nor Bush or Parra has locked up a spot in the starting 5. We had to drive back to Melbourne (it was getting late) so I was only able to follow the rest of the game on mlb.com's mobile internet site on my cell phone, which is where I saw the 9th inning comeback against Isringhausen (who is on my fantasy team) that fell 1 run short of victory. The two bright spots were certain members of the bullpen (Torres, Shouse, Riske) pitching extremely well to keep the Brewers in the game and the resilient offense that staged the comeback attempt. They came up just a bit short, and ended up losing the game. Final score Cardinals 5, Brewers 4.
Brewers record : 8 - 6
Game 3 (Thursday) - Manny Parra (1-1) vs Kyle Lohse (2-0)
This game was an important start for Parra, as his job was on the line as well with the iminant return of Gallardo. Parra is starting to show that he cannot go deep into games, although the sample size of data to base this claim upon is small at this time. The Brewers may elect to send Parra down to AAA so that he could work on going deeper into games without it affecting the win/loss total of the major league club, which is in a win-now mode. I still believe that Parra and Villanueva should be starters, and Bush should be a true long man in the bullpen. McClung should be gone, because we don;t have the time to allow someone to try and find their control while they are pitching in major league games. If McClung pitches strikes, he has some good stuff and can fool the hell out of the batters, but like Turnbow, that's a mighty big IF. We don't have room for 2 Turnbows on this team, and we also don't have the liberty of trying things in the NL Central, which is stronger than anyone gives it credit for. I was at the Ocean playing in the surf during this game, so I was only able to get text updates on my phone. It looked bleak for a while, and we didn't score until the 8th inning, putting up 3 runs to tie the game at 3. I was back in Melbourne when the game was tied, and was checking the score on my phone while drinking with the landlord in his backyard while my Dad's dog Percy chased roosters. The lanlord keeps chickens and roosters in a coop, and let them out so the dog could have some fun. I got back to the computer to watch the 10th inning on ESPN's gamecast and saw Prince Fielder hit his long awaited first home run of the season to put the Brewers ahead. I whooped it up like crazy, then realeased a collective sigh qith the rest of the entire Brewers nation. Hopefully the debate about Prince's lack of power (which some people claim is a direct result of him choosing to become a vegetarian and blaim his lack of power on a lack of meat intake) will cease. Gange came in for the 10th inning and notched his 4th save of the season. Final score Brewers 5, Cardinals 3.Brewers record : 9 - 6 (tied 2nd NL Central)
Thankfully we were able to salvage one of the games in this series, as it is important to win against an NL Central team (even more important right now because St. Louis is leading the division.) I have to constantly remind myself that it is still too early in the season to panic or draw conclusions, but so far they are 3-3 on this road trip with three more games to go this weekend against Cincinnati. All that they need to do is play .500 baseball on the road and we'll be in good shape. The Brewers were 51-30 at home in 2007 (48-33 in 2006) good for best in the National League, so as long as we play .500 on the road, we should be able to make the post season and I finally will be able to give a damn about October baseball. It's pnly April, and we are still without 2 of our starters (Mike Cameron in his suspension and Gallardo on the DL) and both will be back soon. We'll see where we are when we're at full strength, but I have no doubt we will be better off when both of those guys join the team. Gallardo should be back this weekend at Cincinnati, so it will be interesting to see how the rotation and bullpen shakes up. I'll definitly be covering that in my next wrap-up, but that will be in a few more days. I'm gonna go to the beach and enjoy this sweet-ass Florida weather. See you next time.
Next up - Brewers @ Reds April 18 (Friday) - 20 (Sunday) at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, OH
- pookon -
http://www.pookon.com/
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