Series 17 - Milwaukee Brewers @ Washington Nationals at Nationals Park in Washington D.C.During Memorial Day weekend, the Brewers were be in our Nation's Capital to spend the weekend honoring our servicemen by hitting some baseballs around the yard. I honestly can't think of a better way to honor the War Veterans than by partaking in America's pastime. This was a four game series against arguably the worst team in the National League (the San Francisco Giants come close, but they have some stellar young pitchers in Tim Lincecum [on my fantasy team] and Matt Cain [on your Mom's fantasy team] and we all know that pitching and defense wins games [although some would say that it is Bill Hall]). If they can't win here on the road, then they can't win at all. I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired of watching the Brewers play road games. When are we going to get some good old fashioned home Brew? I'll tell you when - as soon as these Washington diplomats stop filibustering and get some work done instead of wasting the taxpayers' money. For those of you who aren't savvy to political jargon, that means at the end of this series.
Game 1 (Friday) - Jeff Suppan (2-4, 4.47 ERA) vs Odalis Perez (1-4, 4.13)
Today was a rather disappointing day. You wouldn't expect one error to completely unravel a good team, but that is just what happened in today's game. Suppan was pitching well until the 6th inning, when the normally sure handed JJ Hardy misplayed what should have been an inning ending double play and allowed the inning to continue. The Nationals would go on to score 4 runs in the inning (all pf which were unearned thanks to the error) and the Brewers never recovered. It certainly didn't help that the offense fell asleep at the wheel and that the only RBI came from Jeff Suppan on his 1st hit of the year. The pitcher raised his batting average for the year from .000 to .050 and drove in the only run. That is how you can tell that the offense is stagnant again tonight. Once again, the Brewers collected a good amount of hits (8) and walked 2 times, but they left 7 men on base and hit into 2 double plays. They continued to struggling with runners in scoring position and made this game difficult to watch. There's not more that I can say about this game except for I long for the days when we get to watch the Brewers play at Miller Park again. This is turning out to be one rough road trip. Final score Nationals 5, Brewers 1.
Brewers record : 22 - 26
Game 2 (Saturday) - Seth McClung (2-1, 3.55 ERA) vs John Lannan (4-5, 3.57 ERA)
Seth McClung made his first start of the season, and to be quite honest with you, I was very surprised with his performance. I've been real down on Seth McClung since he joined the Brewers, mostly because I felt like he was a taller, red headed, Irish Turnbow - hard throwing, wild and erratic. And like Turnbow, if he can find the strike zone, he can be very effective. If not, he'll walk a ton of batters and watch as his ERA skyrockets. I never really understood why Melvin and Yost were so high on McClung, and how they chose him to remain in the bullpen as the long reliever. While he isn't a true long relief man, nor is he a starter, he does a good enough job as both to remain on this team. So far, he has an ERA under 4 for the season, and in his start today, he went 5 innings giving up 2 runs, 4 hits, no walks (the key stat), and struck out 4 batters. He only threw 68 pitches, but seeing as this was his first start since spring training, Yost did the right thing by pulling him after 5 innings. Villanueva made his first appearance out of the bullpen, and tossed a scoreless inning, and looked like the Villanueva that we remember from the 1st half of 2007. Hart and Cameron each hit home runs to back McClung and the boys, and Gagne's replacement, Salomon Torres, came in for the 9th to record his 2nd save of the year. It was an all around good game, but don't get too excited because it is just the Nationals. We're supposed to beat teams that suck more than we do. But a win is a win, and a win on the road is huge for a team that still doesn't know how to consistently do it. Final score Brewers 5, Nationals 2.
Brewers record : 23 - 26
Game 2 (Sunday) - Manny Parra (2-2, 5.11 ERA) vs Tim Redding (6-3, 3.59 ERA)
This was one of those classic roller coaster games. Manny Parra wasn't incredibly effective, and he ended up being replaced by recent call-up Mark DeFelice in the 5th inning after giving up 6 runs. The Brewers had yet to muster up anything at all offensively, and it looked like they were just going to go out quietly and lose yet another road game. Then the super exciting 6th inning happened. Fielder led off with a single. Corey Hart then hit a 2 run home run. Russell "the Muscle" Branyan then powered a double to right, but Mike Rivera and Craig Counsell obviously didn't get the memo that the Brewers were trying to rally back, as they both recorded outs. Thankfully, big Joe Dillon hit a 2 out single to score Branyan. Weeks got hit by a pitch, and followed Dillon home on Cameron's double. Then, Gabe Kapler slapped a single into right that scored Cameron, and suddenly were were tied at 6. Fielder returned to the plate for the 2nd time in the inning, and lined to right for the final out. And just like that, the Brewers were right back in this game. Recent call-up Tim Dillard did a wonderful job holding the score tied at 6 by tossing 2 scoreless frames, but then things quickly got sour in the bottom of the 9th. With the score tied at 6 in the 9th, Yost made the right move by putting in Guillermo Mota, his set up man. You have to play trying to get to extra innings, and the closer needs to be save for the save opportunity. Mota didn't get the job done, and the winning run scored on a wild pitch an I once again felt the sadness overcome my body. That was a rough one, and I know I sound like a broken record, but that was a game that we need to win on the road, but because we suck on the road, we end up losing all of those close ones. It's rough, but the light is starting to peak over the horizon because soon we will be back home at The Keg and we will tap that shit for some cool refreshing home Brew. Final score Nationals 7, Brewers 6.
Brewers record : 24 - 27
Game 2 (Monday) - Ben Sheets (5-1, 2.93 ERA) vs Jason Bergmann (1-1, 4.50 ERA)
It's always a relief to see Ben Sheets take the mound in a must win situation. With the win today, the Brewers split the 4 game series and make it a 4-6 road trip. That's not good, but it certainly could be a lot worse seeing as how we limped out of Boston and dove into our own personal Hell known as PNC Park. It certainly won't get any easier when we get back to Miller Park to face the Atlanta Braves, Houston Astros, and Arizona DiamondBacks, but at least we'll be at home. Sheets was going strong, but was pinch hit for in the 7th inning because the Brewers were in the midst of a rally that eventually tied the game at 2. Sheets pitched 6 complete innings, giving up 2 runs and striking out 6. He only threw 86 pitches, and would have gone a few more innings if the Brewers would have been able to score some runs earlier in the game. The big story of the night was Carlos Villanueva completely dominating out of the bullpen, much like he did in the 1st half of 2007. Carlos says that he prefers so start (as most pitchers do) but in order to have great success, he needs to be in the role that he most excels in, and for now, it's the bullpen. He pitched the 9th and 10th innings with the game tied at 3, and struck out 5 of the 6 batters he faced. Maui-Wowee! Hatchi-Matchi! Scooby-Dooby! Fielder led off with a double in the 11th inning, and Corey Hart bunted him over to 3rd. Russell "The (home run or strikeout) Muscle" did that latter and left Fielder at 3rd with 2 outs. But then pinch hitter Gabe Kapler came through big again and hit a single to give the Brewers the lead. Salomon Torres came on for a perfect 3 up, 3 down inning and record his 3rd save of the year. As far as I'm concerned, Gagne can ride the pine on the DL for as long as he wants. Torres doesn't seem phased at all in the final inning, and doesn't seem to have command issues. Granted it is still early in the season (I can still say that for a little bit longer) but he has pitched 33 innings, 25/13 K/BB ratio, 29 hits (1.27 WHIP), an ERA of 2.73, and 4 wins 1 loss with 3 saves. That's pretty darn good for a closer. We can see if Canada wants Gagne back, but seeing as how they've already deported all of their comedians, singers, and athletes (we have all of their hockey players), it's obvious that Canada doesn't want anyone except bears. So that means we're stuck with him, so once he's healthy he better be good. But he's gonna have to earn the closer job back from Torres, because for right now at least, Torres is doing a damn good job. Final score Brewers 4, Nationals 3.Brewers record : 25-27
It could have been better (because even when we're not playing well, I still think that we're better than the Nationals) but then it could have been a whole lot worse. All you ever hope for is to play .500 ball on the road, and currently the Brewers are 13-18, which is obviously below .500. You then hope to play above .500 at home and finish with a winning record and maker the playoffs. Sounds easy, right? It's easy for most teams, but it hasn't been easy for the Brewers since they are still chasing their first return to the playoffs since 1982. It's times like this that really frustrate me because I know that he Brewers are better than a sub-.500 team. We've come too far (I've come too far) and they've put too much effort in (I've put too much effort in) to accept failure at this point. Sure, our goals and expectations are looking like they're a little bit lofty at this point versus where they were before the season, but if you don't set the bar high, then what's the point? We shouldn't settle for mediocrity, so at what point do we start getting upset that the Brewers aren't living up to their potential? I'm going to give it a few more weeks before I get worried. I refuse to throw in the towel until we're mathematically eliminated, and seeing as how that can't happen until September, we're still in it to win it baby. I don't like to make excuses, but so far, the Brewers have played the least amount of home games of all 30 Major League teams! The schedule definitely works out in our favor in the 2nd half of the season, so I'm hoping that the recent trend of starting off hot and fading after the All Star break gets reversed this year and the Brewers will be turning up the heat from July - September and play some kickass October baseball games.
Next up - Milwaukee Brewers vs Atlanta Braves May 27 (Tuesday) - May 29 (Thursday) at Miller Park in Milwaukee, WI
- pookon -
email: pookondotcom@gmail.com
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