Series 25 - Milwaukee Brewers vs Baltimore Orioles at Miller Park in Milwaukee, WII don't know too much about the Baltimore Orioles, other than the fact that they have been the laughing stock of the AL East since the departure of Cal Ripkin Jr. I went to Baltimore with my family back in 2000 when my Dad was attending a conference. Our hotel room was situated right downtown, and overlooked both Oriole Park at Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium (home of the Baltimore Ravens). I could look down into the baseball stadium, but I couldn't attend a game because the Orioles were out of town that week. That little tidbit from my life is the only connection that I have with the Orioles and the only thing that I could think of to put in the opening section of this blog. I'd also like to point out that the Orioles and currently not in last place in their division (that distinction goes to the Toronto Blue Jays, who were just swept out of town by the Brewers.) I'd also like to point out that the Blue Jays fired their manager after getting swept by the Brewers. That's kinda rough. We played so goos that we cost someone their job. Sucks for him. As for the Orioles, despite featuring a line up of players that I don't know (with the exception of Brian Roberts, and I only know of him because he was rumored to be traded to the Cubs in the offseason. Every post I read on mlbtraderumors.com seemed to be filled with trade talk of Brain Roberts or CC Sabathia, both of which remained with their team during the Winter.) the Orioles are actually one of the surprise teams this year (along with the Tampa Bay Rays.) That's about all I can say about the Orioles, so on with the wrap-up.
Game 1 (Friday) - Jeff Suppan (4-5, 3.92 ERA) vs Radhames Liz (1-0, 6.27 ERA)
Jeff Suppan picked a bad time to have arguably the worst start in his career, although the report was that it was just his worst start in the last 10 years. Since he's only been pitching in the majors for 14 years, it doesn't make it sound any better to say it's the worst in 10 years. Here's how bad it was - Suppan allowed 6 runs on 7 hits while walking 2 in 1 2/3 of an inning. That's right ladies and gents, Suppan failed to make it out of the 2nd inning. The Brewers offense backed him up a little bit as they scored 5 runs through the first inning. So after 3 complete, it was the Orioles 6, and the Brewers 5. Normally it would have been ok, but the Brewers offense got shut down after that. The Orioles managed to tack on 3 more runs in the final 6 innings. The Brewers bullpen (mainly Carlos Villanueva, with 4 innings pitched) did a good job eating up innings, but the offense failed to bail out Suppan after his horrid start. There's not much left to say about this game, but there are two more games left in the series to close out this homestand. Final score Orioles 8, Brewers 5.
Brewers record : 39 - 34
Game 2 (Saturday) - Seth McClung (5-3, 3.79 ERA) vs Daniel Cabrera (5-3, 4.46 ERA)
Seth McClung continues to dazzle since he joined the starting rotation. I wonder how many more good starts it will take out of McClung before I stop mentioning how much of a surprise he has been and just mention that he is a bona fide starting pitcher. Today McClung went 6 2/3 innings, and gave up 3 hits and 2 runs. He also struck out 6, but ended up walking 5 batters. That's the only part of his line that troubles me, as his main flaw in his past as always been his lack of control. Seeing him walk 5 batters troubles me, but if those runs don't end up scoring, then it's kind of like no harm, no foul. Eventually it could become a problem, but if the defense buckles down and limits the damage, then I'm alright with it. I didn't get to watch this game because I was playing in a beer pong tournament with Brodey in Chicago. On the way down, we got AM 620 on the radio long enough to hear all of the Brewers offense (they scored 1 run in the 1st inning and 2 runs in the 3rd) but thankfully not long enough to hear McClung give up 2 runs in the 6th inning. Shouse pitched the 8th inning, and Torres pitched the 9th, getting his 11th save of the year. Looks like I also have to stop talking about what a surprise Torres has been in the closer role as well. Corey Hart is quietly putting together an amazing season, hitting a 2 run homerun, and he is consistently batting around .300 since the year began. They have an award for WE Energies High-Energy Player of the Year (Bill Hall won it in 2006, JJ Hardy won it in 2007, and Ryan Braun is the early favorite to win it in 2008) but they should have a Corey Hart award for most under appreciated player on the team, which Corey Hart would win every single year. Oh yeah, and the Brewers won today. I probably should mention that in case you didn't already know. Oh, and Brodey and I sucked down in Chicago as we went 0-2 in the tournament and failed to represent Milwaukee in the midst of all those Cubs fans. I feel like I not only let Brodey down, but I let my city down as well. Hopefully I have another chance to stick it to the city of Chicago. Until then - Final score Brewers 3, Orioles 2.
Brewers record : 40 - 34
Game 3 (Sunday) - Manny Parra (7-2, 4.29 ERA) vs Garrett Olson (5-3, 5.01 ERA)
Manny Parra is an absolute stud, although he didn't really look like one today. He was unusually wild today (I blame lack of confidence, which is common among youngsters) as he walked 6 batters in 5 innings. He once again left after a short start, but the Brewers had the lead at that point thanks to Hart and Hall hitting early homeruns. Prince Fielder chipped in with two of his own and, and has now hit 4 homeruns over the course of this homestand. Can we say that the big man is heating up? God I sure hope so. If he gets it going, we have arguably the best 2-5 men in the lineup in all of baseball. It's also worth mentioning that the Brewers defense turned 5 double plays today, which is one of the reasons why those 6 walks didn't really haunt us at all. The only problem with Parra only going 5 innings was that the Brewers needed to empty out the bullpen to finish the game. DiFelice, Riske and Mota all contributed with 1 scoreless inning apiece. And then it got interesting. Remember that 8-7 game against Toronto (the one where Bush had a no-hitter going in the 8th inning)? Remember when I bitched about overusing Torres? Today was another game that he shouldn't have been pitching. Mota, in his 2nd inning of work today, started off the 9th inning by walking two batters. With the tying run in the on-deck circle, Ned made the U.S. Cellular call to the bullpen and brought in Salomon Torres. Torres got his 12th save on the year by inducing the 5th and final double play of the game. Final score Brewers 7, Orioles 3.
Brewers record : 41 - 34
With the series win wrapped up with the victory today, the Brewers just completed a 6 - 3 homestand, which improves their home record to 25 - 13. In case you're not very good with numbers and math in general, that equates to pretty damn good. If only they can play .500 ball on the road... They are sitting pretty in the NL Central, but they still trail the Cubs and the Cardinals by a few games. There's still plenty of time to catch them though, because we still have this upcoming 10 game road trip and 10 game homestand before the All-Star break. That is the theoretical halfway point of the season, which is plenty of time to make a push for the playoffs for the first time in 26 years. That's thinking too far ahead for me, so I'm just going to concentrate on the upcoming road series. It's going to be a tough one, as the Brewers head North to take on the Minneapolis Twins, then down to the dirty South to face the Atlanta Braves, and then they head West young man to take on the Arizona Dbags...err...Dbacks. These next 20 games wull set us up for the remainder of the season. It'll be interesting to see what they do. Since I'm so late on this posting, I know how they did on the road. I had hoped for a 6-4 roadtrip, but you're gonna have to sit tight and wait for my blog wrap-up to see how they did. It's that or go to Brewers.com if you don't already know the outcomes. I'd prefer you wait, because I get more hits that way. Check back soon, as I have a whole lot of catching up to do. Smell ya later.
Next up - Milwaukee Brewers vs Atlanta Braves June 23 (Monday) - June 25 (Wednesday) at Turner Field in Atlanta, GA
- pookon -
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