This series was anticipated by many people, but for some of us (mostly me) were upset that it was finally here. I had planned to travel out to Boston with my friends Lorge, Casey, Balkman and Denise to check out these 3 games, but for lack of funds and time off of work, I chose to change my plans and go to Florida to visit my Dad instead. While I feel like I made the right decision (I don;t get to spend a lot of quality time with my Dad) I was still upset when the series began because I felt like I could have and should have been there. I bet it was exciting to go to Boston, but I still plan on visiting Fenway before they tear down the place (sadly, I'll never make it to Yankee Stadium). Since I now know the outcome of the Brewers/Red Sox series, I'm glad that I didn't spend all of my hard earned dollars and use all of my vacation time to go out there, no matter how cool it would have been. Hindsight is always 20/20, or something like that. I never got any of those goofy "speak philosophically to sound smart" lines. I'm more of the "say something inappropriate and make a fool out of myself" lines such as watching the Brewers get swept out of Boston would have sucked balls. Big balls. I'm a real classy dame.
Game 1 (Friday/postponed to Sat morning 2:55 pm CST) - Jeff Suppan (2-3, 4.78 ERA) vs Daisuke Matsuzaka (7-0, 2.15 ERA)
When I was sitting at work on Friday, I was watching the weather reports, and it became quite apparent that there was no baseball to be played today in Boston. One of the beauties of have the retractable roof is that you always know the game will be played, despite the weather's intentions to ruin it. The only problem with it is that they don't even crack the roof open until June at Miller Park because they claim keeping it closed can create a more comfortable atmosphere for their clientele. I think that is bogus. Baseball is meant to be played outside, so unless it is snowing or raining, the Keg should be tapped (in layman's terms - roof should be open). The roof on Miller Park does have its flaws, but I won't get into any of the mechanical problems. My biggest problem is that even with the roof and panels open, you still feel like you are indoors. Small price to pay for baseball game assurance, I guess. So I guess it goes without saying that this game was rained out and rescheduled for Saturday afternoon, and the Saturday afternoon game was pushed back to Saturday night. The Nationally televised game would see Jeff Suppan pitch against the Japanese wonder Daisuke Matsuzaka. Suppan struggled early, giving up 4 runs in the first 2 innings. That proved to be too big of a hole for the Brewers offense to dig themselves out of. They did manage to put up 2 runs (albeit none of them earned) against Matsuzaka, who earned his 7th victory of the year and proved that pitching is the most important aspect of a baseball game. You can't win without it, and your offense only has to score 1 more run than the pitcher gives up. When the pitching gives up 3 runs, it's not too hard to nail down the victory, and Milwaukee suffers their 3rd straight loss. Braun did hit his 11th home run of the year off of Papelbon in the 9th, and hit it up over the Green Monster for a majestic, but otherwise unimportant home run as it did not affect the win/loss aspect of the game. Oh well, at least there's another game tonight and most teams usually split doubleheaders, right? Final score Red Sox 5, Brewers 3.
Brewers record : 20 - 22
Game 2 (Saturday/postponed to Saturday night 7:35 pm CST) - Dave Bush (1-4, 6.05 ERA) vs Tim Wakefield (3-2, 4.33 ERA)
The night game Saturday night wasn't televised, so I only had the internet and text messages to update me on the happenings of this game. From what transpired during these 9 long innings, I guess I'm glad that I wasn't able to watch this game. Dave Bush was just kind of blah during this game, going 6 innings and giving up 5 runs on 5 hits. The Brewers offense chipped in a little bit to help bail him out, but the defense struggled mightily and doomed the chances fo winning. The Brewers fell to an early 5-o hole, but 3 runs on both the 6th and 7th allowed the Brewers to take a 6-5 lead. But then the errors started to affect the line score. Nothing ever seems to line up for this team. The pitching was ok, but the offense overcame that, but it wasn't strong enough to combat the 4 ERRORS! committed by the defense. It takes one hell of an offense (which the Brewers really don't have right now) to overcome that Goliath. It always comes down to pitching and defense, which were pitiful. Against the world champions on the road, you just can't screw those things up. It's no wonder that they lost, and unless they start playing better, it's going to be one long ass season. To pick a positive in this game, Corey Hart did join his teammate Braun when he smacked a home run atop the Green Monster in the 6th inning and the Brewers actually had some productive base hits with runners in scoring position. Of course none of that matters because the only stat that counts is the L in the loss column, but we're trying to be optimistic, right? After all, the beer glass is always half full until we drown our sorrows by emptying it. And since this is Wisconsin, there will never be a shortage of beer. Hooray Beer!! We can always look at it as being all the way full because every time we drink it, we can refill it! And when we're drunk, we no longer care about optimism and we just go and pass out. And then we wake up in the morning, puking our guts out with a massive hangover and wonder what the hell happened last night. And then we swear we will never drink again, but then start all over later that night. And that my friends, is the Circle of Life. Oh yeah, final score Reds Sox 7, Brewers 6.
Brewers record : 20 - 23
Game 3 (Sunday) - Carlos Villanueva (2-5, 6.43 ERA) vs Josh Beckett (5-3, 4.67 ERA)
My sister graduated from college (UW-Milwaukee) on Sunday May 18, and I was almost too hung over to attend the ceremony. I barely made it out of bed and settled in at the top row in the US Cellular Arena and thankfully missed the opening 900 speaches from a bunch of professors, doctors, and local politicians. I did get to hear my sister's name called, but I was just a bit late to hoot and holler and shout out "Jenny Reck!" like I should have. I will now chalk that up as one of my biggest regrets in life. As I sat up in the nosebleeds at The Cell, I got constant updates with the score changes. And I mean constant updates. There was so much scoring in this game I thought that it was Prom Night (hey-oh!) but much like my Prom Night, none of the scoring benefited my best interests (bazing!) The Brewers did manage to hit 4 home runs (2 by Braun, 1 by Hart and 1 by Fielder) but the Brewers pitchers combined to give up 11 runs with 4 of those being home runs. Is it too harsh to assume that the Brewers are going to give up a lot of runs and lose every tkme that Carlos Villanueva pitches? I don't mean to be rude, but the guy has a 6.43 ERA. What the hell happened to Carlos? He used to be so good and now he just sucks. I knew that he took the Gallardo injury especially hard because they are very close friends, but enough is enough. Stop pouting and go out there and kick some ass. It's no surprise that he was moved to the bullpen soon after this last dismal performance. Hopefully he can work out the kinks and rejoin the starting rotation, because we desperatly need him to pitch well if we hope to salvage this season and compete for the NL Central title. The Brewers offense finally put a couple of runs on the board and the pitching once again falters. Why can't everything just go right at the same time? It works for every other team (seemingly) so why do we have to be the perrenial losers? I'm getting too old for this losing shit. Final score Red Sox 11, Brewers 7.
Brewers record : 20 - 24
Ouch baby, very ouch. I recently spoke with my friend Lorge and I asked him about the trip to Fenway. He said the park was amazing, the seats were great, the fans were loyal and for the most part nice and tolerable, and the experience was overall a great one. But there was one exception - the Brewers got swept. That just put a damper on the mood for the weekend, and hung like a rain cloud over the wonderful memories. I completley understand how he feels about that, because I was furious that we weren't able to steal a game from Boston and I was back here in the homeland. I've been in hostile enemy territory during a beatdown of the Brewers before, and it's not very pretty. I have not, however, suffered through 3 straight road game losses in person, and I hope I never will. Watching it on TV or the internet is bad enough. I'm still planning on going out to Fenway someday, and I hope that it will be to watch the Brewers play (and beat) the Red Sox. Seeing as how this is their first appearance at Fenway since they were in the American League in 1996, I'm anticipating another 12 year wait until I get to see that. There could be one exception to that rule, and that would be if the Brewers played the Red Sox in the World Series, but I'd have to be a mega gazillionaire to afford those tickets. And seeing as how the Brewers aren't playing like a team that will make it to the World Series, I figure I have some time to save up that money. If only I wasn't spending all those dollars on hard alcohol and beer to drown my sorrows after countless Brewers lossess in 2008. I'm drinking way too much these days, but I'd probably still be drinking in celebration if the Brewers were winning. That's what alcoholics do - they drink. Cheers.
Next up - Milwaukee Brewers @ Pittsburgh Pirates May 20 (Tuesday) - May 22 (Thursday) at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, PA
- pookon -
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email: pookondotcom@gmail.com
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