This was the beginning of a very important road trip for the Brewers. If they are to win the NL Central or a Wild Card and make it to the playoffs for the first time since 1982, they would have to learn how to play well and win on the road. After the acquisition of Johan Santana (and despite the early injury to Pedro Martinez) a lot of people are picking the Mets to win the NL East. This series would show how we match up against one of the supposedly best teams in the NL. I personally don't think the Mets are that good, especially since some of their guys (Delgado, 35 and Beltran, 31) aren't getting any younger. And also their best player, Jose Reyes, is sidelined with a hamstring injury. It still is tough to play in New York in front of some of the most hostile fans in sports, but I had a feeling that the Brewers were going to come out of this one alright.
Game 1 (Friday) - Manny Parra vs Nelson Figueroa
The Brewers offense just couldn't figueroa Nelson out. This ex-Brewers pitcher (2002) hadn't pitched in the majors since 2004 and was only activated to momentarily take the place of the injured Pedro Martinez. The Brewers only managed 2 hits the entire game, but they made the most of them by scoring 2 runs with those hits. Parra pitched alright, but was pulled in the 5th after only throwing 74 pitches so that Joe Dillon could take some swings and hopefully spark the sputtering offense. It didn't help. Yost was also trying to get the lead in the game by pulling the pitcher early because rain was supposed to come and postpone if not cancel the game. If the game is called because of rain and a certain number of innings have been played (I think it is 6 but don't quote me, I'm too lazy to look it up) then whoever is leading (if they are unable to resume the game) is declared the victor. Yost was trying to win before the rain came. But it never came, and it didn't matter because the Brewers' offense took the day off. As Harry Doyle (Bob Uecker) in Major League would say, "Two runs off off...two hits? That's all we got - two God Damn hits?" Needless to say, we lost. Mets 4, Brewers 2.
Brewers record: 6 - 4
Game 2 (Saturday) - Ben Sheets vs Johan Santana
This is the match up that got me really excited. We always know that Sheets will most likely be getting match up against the other team's ace (as he did against Zambrano for the Cubs and Zito for the Giants) but this one in particular got me jazzed up because the Brewers always played well against Santana when he was with the Twins. Santana would be making his home debut at Shea, and even though he would never admit to it, I bet there's pressure on him to earn the record contract to which he signed in the offseason, such as the case was with Jeff Suppan last year (although he's only a #3 pitcher, .500 pitcher who eats up innings and keeps you in the game. Milwaukee fans were way too hard on him to live up to is hype/contract. A guy of Suppan's talent makes $10 million a year now. That's the going rate for a pitcher of his caliber). Sheets gave up his first runs of the season in the 1st inning, and I got worried real fast that this would be a disaster and our offense wouldn't be able to come back, but Sheets settled in and retired 18 in a row until the 8th inning. The offense did just enough, scoring all 4 of their 5 runs via the home run (Hall, Weeks and Kapler each hit one). Sheets pitched in with a RBI sacrifice bunt that scored Corey Hart when Santana threw to first to get Sheets out. It was some clever base running for Hart, who is right up there with Jose Reyes as the best base stealer in the National League. Gagne came in and recorded his second save of the season, and the rest is history. Final score Brewers 5, Mets 3.
Brewers record: 7 - 4
Game 3 (Sunday) - Jeff Suppan vs Oliver Perez
After winning the opener in the series and splitting the middle game, the series would come down to the Sunday finale. Both Suppan and Perez had been pitching well this season, so we knew that it would come down to which ever offense could score the most runs. We had no idea that it would take 9 runs to barely edge the Mets and take the series victory. Suppan was off of his game today, giving up 6 runs off of 9 hits and 2 walk in 4 innings. The bullpen did a nice job the rest of the way and Gagne got his 2nd save in as many days, to bring his season total to 3. But the real story was the offense, who hit up the Mets for 9 runs off 11 hits. Rickie Weeks and Gabe Kapler each hit a home run for the second consecutive day, and the offense looked it's best since the home opener on April 4th. If you like watching an offensive showdown, then this was the game for you to tune into. I was excited to see that life had seemed to return to the Brewers' bats, but they could use some more hits and soon, so that the batting averages could get back to an acceptable number. But screw those stats, the only one that matters is the W, and they earned that one today. Final score Brewers 9, Mets 7.
Brewers record: 8 - 4 ( 2nd place NL Central)This was a huge series win for the Brewers, who needed to prove that they can win on the road if they wish to be successful in 2008. Like I said before, many had predicted the Mets to finish on top of the NL East, so this series gave us an opportunity to see how we stack up against the other good teams in the league. Our pitching is decent (with tons of room for improvement, thanks to the unproven arms of Gallardo, Villanueva and Parra) and our offense is way better than they have been playing so far this year. We're 8-4 right now, without all of the cylinders firing at that same time. Once everything starts clicking all at once, we'll be an unstoppable force brewing in the NL Central and heaven help any team that comes up against us.
Next up - Brewers @ Cardinals April 15 (Tuesday) - April 17 (Thursday) at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, MO
- pookon -
http://www.pookon.com/
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