Series 33 - Milwaukee Brewers @ St. Louis Cardinals July 21 - July 24 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, MOBusch Stadium has not been a very kind place to the Brewers, but in the last few years, none of the stadiums not named Miller Park have so I'm not going to go off on this particular stadium. Although I know that you'd like me to bitch about a place called Busch because Busch Light and Budweiser beer sucks, but I'm not going to do that either. And why not you say? It's because they suck so much that it is completely obvious to make fun of them, and that would just be too easy. I will however, defend Busch Stadium as a great place to watch a ball game, and I now wish that I could have taken 4 days off of work to travel down to St. Louis to see this series. It certainly would have been well worth it. I couldn't do it because I would be taking off an entire week to go up North to Afterglow, which is so amazing that I wouldn't trade anything (except for maybe a Brewers World Series Championship) to not go. I have to budget my time and money this year, which explains why I only made road trip this year (Minnesota), which will most likely be my only one. I certainly hope that I can make it back there this year (they have a 2 game series from the 26-27 of August on a Tuesday and Wednesday) but I really don't think that I will make it. Oh well, there's always next year. OK, so now on with the wrap-up.
Game 1 (Monday) - Seth McClung (5-5, 4.13 ERA) vs Joel Pineiro (3-4, 4.52 ERA)
I'll once again skip the Seth McClung debate because he once again pitched a good game. A gaggle of other relievers had to come in to follow him up, but that is because McClung rarely pitches past the 5th inning. On Mondays I only work until 7:00 pm, so I was following this game on the bus ride home. Joey Kanz and were we going to he Oriental Theater to see The Dark Knight at 10:15 pm this night, but I met him at Vittuchi's around 8:30ish and caught the final few innings. The Brewers were up 3-2 in the 9th when Torres blew his 4th save of the year to allow the game to go into extra innings. I made Kanz promise to go to Landmark Lanes with me to get nachos and $2 long island ice teas before Batman, and while we were walking from Vitucchi's to Landmark, Bill Hall hit a homerun that put the Brewers up 4-3. We did get to see the Brewers score 2 more runs, and Torres stayed in to get the win, which puts him at a very nice 5-2 with a 2.73 ERA for the year so far. Not too shabby. We were going crazy in the basement of the Landmark, but it wasn't just because of the long islands and nachos, it was because the Brewers had won yet another game on the road and were able to pick up a game oin the 2nd place NL Central, 1st place Wild Card leading Cardinals. To make things better, we went and saw The Dark Knight after the game and it was freakin' awesome, and it might actually be the best movie of all time. I will have to see it one more time to verify that statement, but I'm pretty sure that it is accurate. I'd have to agree with Ice Cube and say that Today was a Good Day. Final score Brewers 6, Cardinals 3.
Brewers record : 56 - 43, , 3rd place NL Central
Game 2 (Tuesday) - Jeff Suppan (5-6, 4.65 ERA) vs Kyle Lohse (12-2, 3.35 ERA)
Jeff Suppan returned from the DL to start the game today, and for the first 3 innings, I kind of wished that he stayed on the DL. He put the Brewers in an early hole by allowing 3 runs (2 in the 1st inning) and I got nervous. But Suppan has pitched well against his former team since joining the Brewers, and he settled down and went 7 innings only giving up those 3 runs. The Brewers offense was virtually shut down by Kyle Lohse, but finally struck gold against him in the 7th and 8th innings to tie the game at 3. In the 9th inning, Bill Hall (last night's hero) once again won games by hitting his 14 homerun of the year, and Torres came on for his 18th save. It was another sweet come from behind win, and another road victory, which put their winning streak at 5 games. Nice. Final score Brewers 4, Cardinals 3.
Brewers record : 57 - 43, 2nd place NL Central
Game 3 (Wednesday) - CC Sabathia (10-8, 3.30 ERA) vs Braden Looper (9-8, 4.49 ERA)
With 2 victories already in the bag in this 4 game series, the Brewers turned to the big man CC Sabathia for the series win, and CC didn't disappoint. He once again went 9 innings, and tossed a complete game 3 hit shutout. He struck out 7 batters, and is quickly earning my vote for team MVP despite only joining the Brewers in early July. The offense did just enough for the win, as JJ Hardy and Ryan Braun each hit solo homeruns. There really isn't anymore left to say except that CC Sabathia is amazing. The Brewers gained another win over the Cardinals, and now find themselves in 2nd place in the NL Central and 1st place in the NL Wild Card. The win today guaranteed a series win and put them in line for the sweep with their former ace Ben Sheets on the mound tomorrow. Final score Brewers 3, Cardinals 0.
Brewers record : 58 - 43, 2nd place NL Central
Game 4 (Thursday) - Ben Sheets (10-3, 2.87 ERA) vs Todd Wellemeyer (8-4, 4.19 ERA)
Ben Sheets finally rebounded with a good outing, and the Brewers won for the 8th straight time and made it a perfect 7 games out of 7 on this just completed road trip. In all of my years following the Brewers, I don't remember the Brewers ever sweeping 2 straight series on the road, so for me this road trip was amazing. Gagne picked up the win when the Brewers scored 2 runs in the 9th inning on Ryan Braun's 2 run homer off of Cardinals closer Ryan Franklin, and Torres picked up his 19th save of the year. Sheets didn't get the victory today, but he is just 2 short of tying his career high and 3 wins away from a career record. I don't like to promise anything or write checks that my body can't cash, but I'd say that Ben Sheets is guaranteed to finally post more than 12 wins this season. Figures. It is a contract year after all. Oh well, as long as he doesn't suck and hurt this team. We need more good outings from him if we want to win big this year. Final score Brewers 4, Cardinals 3.
Brewers record : 59 - 43, 2nd place NL Central
And just like that, the Brewers found themselves in 2nd place in the NL Central and 1st place in the NL Wild Card. They have a chance to do some more damage in the NL Central with an upcoming 7 game homestand against the Astros and Cubs, so we have no place left to go but up from here. Anything else (hint hint) will be a real disappointment, especially since we are finally starting to play better on the road. Now we need to continue playing really well at home, and make up some games against the Cubs. Since I already know the answer, I could share that with you right here. But I'm not going to do that; you are going to have to wait for my wrap-up on those games if you don't already know. But you do already know, so there is no reason why you should be reading these, right? I sure hope that you do have a reason for tuning in to read these Brewers reports, or else why the hell should I keep posting them? I'll tell you why - it's because the Brewers refuse to give up on the 2008 season, and neither will I. I'm gonna stick with this wrap-up nonsense and keep it going all the way into into October. Besides, Goonies never say die. And neither will I. See you next time neighbor.
Next up - Milwaukee Brewers vs Houston Astros July 25 (Friday) - July 27 (Sunday) at Miller Park in Milwaukee, WI
- pookon -
http://www.pookon.com/
email: pookondotcom@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment