The funny thing about the early part of the season is that there are so many surprises. Many people had picked the Mets to win the NL East (solely based on the addition of Johan Santana) with the Braves and Phillies fighting for second place / the NL Wildcard. Nobody expected the Florida Marlins to be leading the division at 22 games into the season. The Marlins have been pitching well and hitting well, so naturally they have been winning games. By now we're all familiar with the way the Marlins organization goes about it's business - put together a winning team, win a championship, then sell off the team for prospects. It worked for them in 1997 and 2003, and recently they traded away Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera for six prospects. How can you possibly be a fan of the Marlins when they trade away their best players as soon as they start to cost money through salary arbitration? It's no wonder that they only draw an average of 16,000 fans at Dolphin Stadium (a football venue that seats 76,500, although they limit the seating capacity to 38,560 for baseball games). The place is so big that it looks like nobody goes to see the Marlins play whenever I watch the Brewers play against them in Miami. Given the way that the owners run the team, I completely understand. But enough of that for now (we'll save the talk for when the Brewers play in Miami from May 6-8) because they are playing at Miller Park, where the crowds get all rowdy in the parking lot and bring the noise inside the closed roof in the final weekend of April.
Game 1 (Friday 25th) - Yovanni Gallardo (0-0, 0.64 ERA) vs Scott Olsen (3-0, 2.06 ERA)
I'll start out by addressing three things. 1 - with Sheets still ailing because of the triceps injury, Gallardo is now the ace of this staff. He would need to pitch like an ace to hold the Brewers together until Sheets returns. 2 - I would be able to watch the majority of this game because I was getting off of work at 7:30 pm (instead of the usual 10:00 pm). And 3 - I put $5 on the Brewers to win this game, which by most standards is not a lot for wagering. But I think like Mr Wendel, and $5 may mean a snack to you but it means a big deal to me. I really couldn't afford to lose that money. I bet you can see where this one is going. 1 - Gallardo did pitch very well (7 innings, 6 hits, 0 earned runs!, 5 strikeouts) and on any other day would have qualified for the win, but...the Brewers offense couldn't put any runs across the plate. Which leads me to my next point, 2 - I got home around the 5th inning and got to watch the remainder of the game but I guess it didn't matter. The Brewers scored 0 runs off of 6 hits. That's right - they got shut out. Which leads me right into my third point, 3 - I lost that $5 and I hold the Brewers accountable for paying it back someday. The game was semi exciting, as it saw both teams deadlocked at 0-0 at the end of regulation, and once again, the Brewers were going into extra innings. Guillermo Mota came in on the 10th and basically gift wrapped this one for the Mets by allowing them to score 3 runs off of 2 hits and 3 costly walks. I don't really blame Mota (although he does get partial credit, as well as a big L on his stat sheet) because the offense just really sucked it up. Mark Attanasio - if you're reading this, even though I knew it was a gamble, I want my $5 back. Final score Marlins 3, Brewers 0.
Brewers record : 13 - 10
Game 2 (Saturday 26th) - Carlos Villanueva (1-2, 4.66 ERA) vs Mark Hendrickson (4-1, 3.68 ERA)
Today was a big day. Perhaps the biggest day on the Milwaukee CHBPL calendar - Brodey's Brewer Funday Extravaganza, or BBFE. This was the 8th incarnation of our annual beer pong/get drunk and go to the Brewers game event, aptly titled "The Ocho", a reference to the ESPN channel that features obscure sports, such as dodgeball, in the movie of the same name staring Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller. Now I love the Brewers (some would say that I love them more than life itself) but there was no way in hell I would be able to pay attention to the game today. We started playing the beer pong tournament at Live (a local bar) around 11:30 am, and the tournament lasted until 3:30 pm. During that time, I played over 6 games of pong, did 3 shots, and drank a few side beers. I was good to go, and we still hadn't reached the parking lot for pre-game tailgaiting. Once there, I drank a few more beers, ate some food, and hang out with some new and old friends. Inside the stadium, I bought another beer then met my friend Keith at Friday's for a long island ice tea. So what's the point of all this? I just wanted to prove that I drank too much and that I wasn't able to follow the game at all. I don't remember anything about the game. I remember all of the other events, but as soon as I stared down onto the field from high up above in Bernie's Terrace, I couldn't focus or pay attention. I meant to tape the game so that I could actually watch the game, but I forgot. I remember by the time I walked into the stadium (and I was there almost on time), we we already down 1-0, so I was worried we were in for a disappointing loss (like yesterday). I read later that night that the Brewers responded well, scoring 3 runs total in the 2nd and 3rd innings, and it was quickly 3-1 Brewers. The Marlins tied it up at 3 in the 8th, but Fielder hit a solo home run to dead center (I do remember that) in the bottom of the inning and Gagne worked the 9th for his 7th save. I did go sleep, excuse me, pass out that night with the happy feeling that the Brewers had won and another successful BBFE had occurred. All of the happy feelings left me however when I bowed down to the porcelain god and said my prayers from 4:00 am until 5:00 am. That's right ladies and gents - I blew big chunks. Small price to pay for an evening of fun with 50 of your closest friends. Man I love BBFE. Final score Brewers 4, Marlins 3.
Brewers record : 14 - 10
Game 3 (Sunday 27th) - Manny Parra (1-1, 4.94 ERA) vs Ricky Nolasco (1-2, 5.13 ERA)
I was once again in attendance for this game, as I was scheduled to work in the club level as I do for every Sunday home game. I love working at Miller Park on Sundays because business is usally slow (despite large crowds, an enigma) and I get to watch the majority of the game. It's nice when the Brewers actually play well, because if they're sucking it up, then I would be upset that I'm watching a crap-load of a game. Everything was going alright, and besides the Brewers offense once again taking the day off, the pitching was going above and beyond to keep the Brewers in the game. 1 person who felt like screwing everything up was our resident Wild Thing Derrick Turnbow. With the Marlins holding a 2-1 lead in the 7th, Turnbow was summond to hold the lead. He must not have gotten the message correctly. He did everything in his power to blow the game, including walking 2 and giving a hit to load the bases with no outs. Thankfully, Yost pulled him (how quickly the boos can turn to cheers) and Mitch Stetter, the young lefty, came in a pulled one of the most dazzling escape acts I've seen. He struck out 2 batters and got the last to foul out, ending the inning. Bill Hall came in when Stetter did as part of a double switch, and Hall made his presence known in the bottom of the inning by hitting a solo home run that tied the game at 2. It stayed that way until the 10th (another extra innings game) when WES FREAKING HELMS hit a homerun off of Seth McClung to give the Marlins the lead. That pissed me off so much because Helms sucks. That was garbage, and I still think that McClung should not be on this team. In a related note, Dave Bush was sent down to AAA to clear a roster spot for Mike Cameron, and I think that is also garbage. Bush should be kept in the bullpen and we should get rid of the trash in the bullpen (Turnbow and McClung) because as evidenced in this game, both of them suck balls. Big balls. Something should be done soon with either of them (in all fairness, McClung hasn't been that bad) because we can't keep worthless pitchers on the roster if we expect to win this year. Final score Marlins 3, Brewers 2.
Brewers record : 14 - 11
The Brewers ended this 7 game homestand with a dissapointing 3-4 record. Although the sample size is rather small because they are not playing a lot of home games, they still are not dominating people at home like last year. They currently sport a 7-6 home record, but once again (the theme for the month of April) it is still early and there is no cause for panic. Let's face it - the Brewers kind of suck right now. Look at the final scores from these past few games. The pitchers have been doing a decent job keeping the team in the game by giving up 5 or less runs for the majority of the season. When that happens, it is up to the offense to score more than the opposition for the win. We're not winning because we're not scoring runs. It's as simple as that. We should be lucky to be 14-11 right now, considering how bad the offense is playing. I'm not going to rattle of stats such as hitting with runners in scoring position or the individual batting averages of every player. I'll just say that everyone is to blame because there is not one player who is playing well - everyone is just average or worse. There's no way that they keep hitting this bad all year, and I hope they break out of it against this series in Chicago, where they cannot afford to lose to a NL Central opponent that is ahead of them in the standings. I sure hope they sweep the Cubs as well (or at least take the series) because a victory tastes so much sweeter when it's at the expense of those FIB Cubs.
Next up - Brewers @ Cubs April 29 (Tuesday) - May 1 (Thursday) at Wrigley Field in Chicago, IL
- pookon -http://www.pookon.com/
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