Series 26 - Milwaukee Brewers @ Atlanta Braves June 23 - June 25 at Turner Field in Atlanta, GAThe Atlanta Braves used to be the Milwaukee Braves. Blah blah blah blah. You've heard it all before, either somewhere else or from me on this blog. I'll spare you from that history lecture. I will however point out the obvious - this roadtrip is super important to to the Brewers. 10 games in 11 days on a place where the Brewers have been traditionally horrid - the road. I wish what happened on the road would stay on the road, but it turns out that road wins/losses count as much as home wins/losses in the standings column. A bit of good news came as we enter this series - MLB average leader Chipper Jones would most likely be out the entire series with hamstring issues. He's batting somewhere around .390 with 17 homeruns and 48 RBIs. We'll certainly be alright without having that productive bat in the lineup, although I'm certain that the Braves will not be. The Braves are very much like the Brewers in the fact that they play so well at their home field (Turner Field) and poorly on the road (everywhere else). This series also posses a conundrum for me - I have Mark Teixeira and Chipper Jones on my Fantasy Team. Both of those guys have been providing some much needed offense to my Team "Tap the Keg" (a slang for either attending a game or opening the roof at Miller Park) and I want them to contribute, just not when it's against the Brewers. We'll see what happens. Now, on with the wrap-up.
Game 1 (Monday) - Ben Sheets (9-1, 2.59 ERA) vs Jo-Jo Reyes (3-5, 4.48 ERA)
Ben Sheets = domination. That is why he is our #1 starter and also why we have no chance of resigning him once he becomes a free agent after the season. I called it when the season started - Ben Sheets would be absolutely amazing, stay healthy, and finish the year with a career high in victories. Following this year, he will collect a massive paycheck from one of the big market teams (New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Angels/Dodgers) but I hope with every hope/wish that is bestowed upon me that he doesn't end up a member of the Chicago Cubs. I think that that metaphysical dagger to the heart would hurt more than an actual dagger to the heart. I hope that I don't ever have to experience either of those, but I may very well do that because Ben Sheets is pitching too well this year to not collect an oversized paycheck next year. Today, Ben Sheets pitched a complete game 4 hitter. The only blemish was when he allowed a run in the 4th inning. That's how amazing Ben Sheets was today - he always just 1 run and it's a blemish on his record. The other pitchers on this staff would kill to have that run line. The Brewers scored 4 runs, but today they could have gotten away with only scoring half of that. But with a 4-0 lead by the 3rd inning, I bet Ben Sheets settled in a little easier and just went about pitching like the dominant SoB that he is. Ben Sheets is Brewers baseball. Boom! Final score Brewers 4, Braves 1.
Brewers record : 42 - 34
Game 2 (Tuesday) - Dave Bush (4-7, 4.94 ERA) vs Charlie Morton (1-1, 4.24 ERA)
The Brewers got off to a quick 4-0 lead, and they have the Braves defense to thank for that. The Braves committed an atrocious 4 errors in the game which led to 2 unearned runs, but it should have been a whole lot worse than that if the Brewers were able to further capitalize on that. Dave Bush followed up his strong start against the Blue Jays with another impressive start against the Braves. Dave Bush looks like he found an error in his game and is slowly lowering his ERA back to a respectable number. Bush pitched 7 innings, allowing just 1 run and struck out 5, nearly mimicking Ben Sheets' start yesterday. Looks like Big Ben's mojo is rubbing off on everyone else. Let's just hope that it continues, because Dave Bush has the ability to be a very good #4 if not #3 pitcher in the rotation. The Brewers offense scored 4 runs today, which turned out to be just enough for the victory. Once again, I'm not just pointing out the obvious, I'm just saying that Torres picked a day to prove that he was indeed human, as he struggled a bit in the 9th inning. He walked Kelly Johnson, then Mark Teixeira socked a homerun to make this a 1 run game. It got interesting when the tying run was able to reach 3rd with 2 outs, but Torres got Corky Miller to line out to JJ Hardy and the bullet was successfully dodged, Matrix style. It wasn't pretty, but Torres earned his 12th save of the year and more importantly, the Brewers (and Dave Bush) got the win today. That win guarantees the series win, which is huge on the road. Since this is the 1st series out of 3 on this roadtrip, it's good to start it off on a good note. Now - aim high and go for the sweep. Final score Brewers 4, Braves 3.
Brewers record : 43 - 34
Suppan wasn't that bad today, but he also wasn't that good. He was just kind of average. He gave up 4 runs off of 9 hits (pretty average for Suppan, who pitches to contact) but took the loss because the Brewers offense was once again stymied by Campillo. The offense managed only 4 hits, and scored only in the 2nd inning by putting a little rally together. One positive note that I will throw out here is that Mike Rivera continues to impress as the backup catcher. He went 1-3 today, with an RBI that accounted for the 1st run and scoring on Weeks' double, which accounted for the 2nd run. That kind of makes Mike Rivera accountable for all of the runs scored today. Not too damn bad for a guy who only has started 10 games this year. Now this stat may be a little overinflated since it's in a limited amount of at bats, but Rivera is batting .325 on the year. For a guy who plays once every 8 days, I can't imagine how he stays sharp since he never gets to pinch hit because Yost is reluctant to use his backup catcher. I was whining and moaning for Vinny Rotino to be the backup catcher, but Rivera has done one hell of a job back there, both offensively and defensively. That's really about all I have to say about this game, since the Brewers were beaten by the Braves and will have to settle with the series victory. I'll totally settle for that every time, although it feels so much sweeter on the road. Final score Braves 4, Brewers 2.
Brewers record : 43 - 35
Brewers record : 43 - 35
I can't stress how important it is for the Brewers to win on the road. The road really has been a ginormous thorn in the Brewers' shoe for as long as I can remember. We took this series, now we have to go up to Miller Park Northwest and take another one from those Twinkies. It's gonna be rough, because the Twins are on a ridiculous hot streak right now, and they have won 9 straight games. I planned on going up to Minneapolis to visit Mike and Katie Bates and take my annual roadtrip up to the Twin Cities. I have a lot of friends up there, whom I met over the course of several years through my friendship with Mike. Mike went to the University of Minnesota, and all of these people I now call friends are his former roommates, and they all still hang out and stay in touch. They're a close knit group of friends, and they have been very cordial to me by allowing me to crash at their houses/apartments over the last few years since Mike has left Minneapolis. It'll be very good to see them all again. I'm using Joey Kanz for his car, and he's going to drive me up there and attend his very first game at the "giant muffin" known by local residents as the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. The Twins stuck it to the Brewers by winning 2 of 3 at Miller Park, here's hoping that we can stick it back to them up here.
Next up - Milwaukee Brewers @ Minnesota Twins June 27 (Friday) - June 29 (Sunday) at the Hubert H Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, MN
- pookon -
email: pookondotcom@gmail.com
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