Brewers vs Braves 5/27 - 5/29 : Series Wrap-Up

Series 18 - Atlanta Braves vs Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park in Milwaukee, WI

It's always been a big deal when the Braves come back to town because they famously left town in search of greener pastures and a larger market in 1966. There might be some people who are still bitter about the owner selling the Milwaukee Braves to a group that had intentions of moving them to Atlanta, but the majority of the people just look back upon the team of Hank Aaron, Eddie Matthews, Lew Burdette and Warren Spahn with great admiration and fond memories. The Milwaukee Braves are still the sole Milwaukee baseball team with a World Series title (1957) and in their 12 year tenure in Milwaukee, they never had a losing season. I hang out with this old usher Ron at work at Miller Park (he's probably 65-70 years old) and he always tells me sweet stories of going to County Stadium to see the Braves play when he was young. It's cool to hear about old school baseball, but I'm much more concerned with the current Milwaukee baseball team and their quest towards baseball greatest and their 1st World Series championship. If we play our cards right, it could be this year. I know that it would be my dream come true.

Game 1 (Tuesday) - Dave Bush (1-5, 6.04 ERA) vs Tim Hudson (7-4, 2.90 ERA)

Ned Yost on multiple occasions has spoken about Dave Bush and his "bulldog mentality." In today's game, he pitched like a bulldog that was backed into a corner with no better choice than to fight its way out of the predicament. With Villanuea already taken out of the rotation based upon his numbers this season, Dave Bush had to expect that the same thing could in fact happen to him. It is not time to produce or be replaced by someone else who can. Bush came out today and produced. He went 7 strong innings, giving up 2 runs off of 6 hits. He found himself in an early hole by giving up solo home runs in the 1st and 2nd innings, and the offense didn't do much to help him out as they left 9 men on base throughout the game. It certainly didn't help that they were going up against Atlanta's ace, Tim Hudson. The Brewers were able to pound out 11 hits over 8 innings against Hudson, and were finally able to push some runs across the plate in the 7th and 8th innings. Salomon Torres (Gagne who? I don't seem to remember that clown anymore) came out for the 9th inning with the score tied at 2 and kept it that way to give the offense a chance to win it in the bottom half of the 9th. Bill Hall, recently displaced at 3rd base because the Brewers management thinks Russell Branyan is the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ, pinch hit to lead of the 9th with a single. Weeks sac bunted him over to 2nd, and then Hall made former Brewer Jeff Bennett and catcher Brian McCann look foolish when he basically walked to 3rd on a stolen base. There wasn't even an attempted throw, which is a rarity for a 3rd base steal. Cameron then sealed the deal with a sac fly to left that scored Hall, and for just 1 night, Bill Hall was happy and he once again wins games. Final score Brewers 3, Braves 2.

Brewers record : 25 - 27

Game 2 (Wednesday) - Jeff Suppan (3-4, 3.93 ERA) vs Jo-Jo Reyes (2-3, 4.83 ERA)

I'm kind of a jerk, so I find it necessary to laugh at a guy named J0-Jo. What kind of parents gives their son a girls name? I feel bad for guys named Anibal, Leslie, Ashley (although Ash is a really sweet name, mostly because of the Evil Dead movies), Tracy (although Tracy Morgan is stupid funny) and Kim (my Mom's next door neighbor). I think their parents named them those names so that they would grow up to be tough, just like Sue in the Johnny Cash song A Boy Named Sue. "And I looked at him and my blood ran cold And I said: 'My name is Sue! How do you do! Now you're gonna die!!'" It's that or they were just incredibly cruel. I'd like to think that their parents had a sense of humor. If my wife allows it, I'm going to name my child Maximillion Iceman Reck, and raise him using the shortened name of Million instead of Max, while also giving him the option of going by his middle name. Now that would be sweet as hell and in no way damaging to the child's upbringing. Why would playground kids make fun of a kid named Million or Iceman? He'd be the most popular kid in school. But I digress, I guess I should be talking about this baseball game and not about children's names. I guess the whole reason why I was talking about names is that there's not much to say about the game. Jeff Suppan pitched a masterful game, without a doubt his best of the year. He'd be hard pressed to match this performance later in the year, but I would have no problem if he did. Suppan is a guy that is going to put runners on base via hits or walks, but it's up to the defense to help him out by not allowing those runners to score. He also needs to make clutch pitches at times, and he once again proved why he was signed to a questionable 4 year, $42 million dollar contract. He pitched 8 innings, giving up 0 runs off of 4 hits and 5 walks to lower his ERA below 4. It was a grand performance by Soup. But Jo-Jo Reyes did the same, and the scored was deadlocked at 0-0 until Hardy led off the 8th with a walk. Kendall sac bunted him over, Dillon struck out, then Weeks came through huge with a 2 out RBI triple. Soloman Torres recorded his 4th save of the year by shutting the door on the Braves. And just like that, a pitchers duel turns into a shutout. Nice. Final score Brewers 1, Braves 0.

Brewers record : 26 - 27

Game 3 (Thursday) - Seth McClung (2-2, 4.80 ERA) vs Jorge Campillo (2-0, 0.99 ERA)

I'm not completely sold on Seth McClung as a member of the starting rotation The preseason loss of Chris Capuano, the in season loss of of Yovanni Gallardo, the ineffectiveness of Carlos Villanueva, and no viable options at AAA (Jeff Weaver is not the answer, he's more like a problem) has forced McClung to become a starter. I think that he'll be the kind of starter that will either be decent or bad. I can't see him throwing an 8 inning shutout gem of a game, but that's ok because we have another pitcher who can (Sheets) and two that are capable (Suppan and Parra). As long as McClung doesn't get rocked every time that he pitches, we're going to be ok with him as our #5 starter. On Thursday, McClung got rocked. He certainly didn't help his cause by issuing 6 free passes (walks) and 6 earned runs in 4 2/3 innings. Seeing as how the Brewers offense has only scored 4 total runs in this series, I knew there was no coming back from this deficit. The Brewers could only muster up 1 run on a solo shot by Russell Branyan, and that's all folks. Hey, at least we won the series, right? Final score Braves 8, Brewers 1.

Brewers record : 26- 28

Sure is good to be home, know what I mean Verne? Although they missed out on the series sweep, the still did take 2 of 3 from a very good Braves team (although the Braves are a horrid 7-21 on the road). That's a good accomplishment for a team that is struggling to climb back up to .500 and the top of the NL Central division. This was a very important seires (the first of 3 at home) and it was very important to start it out 2-1 with a winning record. Let's just hope (wink wink, cause I already know the answer but speculate for dramatic purposes) that they can keep the winning ways going here at Miller Park. During the next series (against the Astros) I will be making my triumphant return to Miller Park for the 1st time since Mother's day. My schedule finally lined up so that I can work a game here. Thank God.

Next up - Milwaukee Brewers vs Houston Astros May 30 (Friday) - June 1 (Sunday) at Miller Park in Milwaukee, WI

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