Series 41 - Milwaukee Brewers vs Houston Astros August 18 - August 20 at Miller Park in Milwaukee, WII'm normally pretty chill about a lot of things, and it isn't because they call me the Iceman. People think that I got that name because I'm cool under pressure, but in a lot of circumstances I'm the complete opposite. I'll just go ahead and let people think whatever they want, but sometimes I do get all riled up about something. Cecil Cooper (Coop) made some pretty ridiculous remarks to the media before this series in Milwaukee. Houston likes to think that they still have a shot at the wildcard, but they came into this series at least 7 games back. They have been playing pretty well lately, and Coop boldly predicted that his team would sweep the Brewers and gain 3 games on them for the NL Wildcard. I really like Coop, and he will always be treasured for his contributions to the Milwaukee Brewers in helping them reach the playoffs for the 1st and only time in 1982, but he needs to keep his mouth shut. I know that no one should go into a series saying they are going to lose, but saying that you'll sweep a team that is better than you at their home ballpark is asinine. I could understand him saying that if they were going against Suppan, Parra, and Bush, but CC and Sheets? No way dude. The Cubs couldn't even beat CC (although they did win the game, but they did it against Torres. CC didn't lose the game), so how do you expect the Astros to do it without Carros Ree? Sure, they still have Rance Berkman and Miguer Tejada, but neither of them are the RBI machine that Carros Ree is. Without Ree, the Astros will continue to be a bunch of sirry rosers. Oh werr, on with this wrap-up.
Game 1 (Monday) - CC Sabathia (14-8, 2.99 ERA) vs Randy Wolf (8-11, 4.81 ERA)
Today's game contained some of the fodder that keeps talk radio in business. CC Sabathia came out and dominated the Astros and was well on his way for his 8th victory during his time with the Brewers. The Crew had a 7-2 lead in the 6th inning, and tacked on single runs in the 7th and 8th innings to give them a comfortable lead. But yet CC was left in to pitch a complete game and ending up throwing 130 pitches. Last year, the bullpen was overworked because our starters weren't going deep into games. This year, our starters are going too deep into games and our bullpen is getting rusty. This would have been a perfect game to get a couple of those arms (Shouse, Riske) in the game to get some action. Pitchers thrive on repetition, so sitting around out in left field chewing on sunflower seeds doesn't help them pitch better off of a mound. I'm all for CC throwing complete games, because sometimes I get a little nervous when Mota or Gagne comes in to pitch, but 130 pitches when your team has a comfortable margin is ridiculous. We don't need CC's arm to fall off in the playoffs. I know that the guy is a beast (or a horse) but enough is enough. I'd like to blame Ned, but I'm thinking that this isn't his call. How many times have we seen Sheets get all fired up when Ned comes to take him out? A starting pitcher wants to go out and throw all 9 innings, get the win, and keep the other team off of the board. No one wants to exit the game. I'm sure Ned asked CC if he could do it, and CC said he wanted to stay in and finish the game. Ned could have pulled him because he's the boss, but that just goes to show you that Ned is a player's manager and trusts his players to be open and honest. By not babying them (they are all grown men, and not only that, but they are well trained athletes) and telling them what to do, and having the confidence in his players to make their own decision, the players then trust themselves. It comes around full circle, and it seems to be working in the Brewers' favor. Time will tell on that, but apparently it's a big enough issue for me to spend time talking about it. Have we just made it too big of an issue than it already was? Probably, but since the offense was so good today, that is the only thing from this game that comes out as semi-negative. Oh, and the Brewers scored 9 runs today, and only 1 of them was via the homerun. That's a great sign, because if they can do it now, then they should be able to do it in September and October. Final score Brewers 9, Astros 3.
Brewers record : 72 - 54, 2nd place NL Central, 1st place NL Wild Card
Game 2 (Tuesday) - Ben Sheets (11-7, 3.16 ERA) vs Brian Moehler (9-4, 3.87 ERA)
So CC throws a complete game and limits the number of runs allowed, then the next day Ben Sheets goes out and gets rocked. This is becoming an all too familiar story that I am sick and tired of having to write about. I'm not going to sit here and place any more blame on Sheets, we all know that he's pitching like crap right now. Hell, even he knows it, and he's addressed it to the media when they keep asking him the same G D questions. Hopefully this means that he's saving up his good games for September, because if he's lights out, then we will be an unstoppable juggernaut. The bigger problem at hand is the fact that Ben Sheets has never won more than 12 games in a season despite consistently sporting a low ERA. Why? Lack of run support. There's stats to prove it, but I won't bore you with them right now, but if you've been watching the games that Sheets has pitched since the All-Star Break, you'd see that he has to be damn near perfect to record a victory. How else do you explain the fact that he has only won 1 game since the break while his ERA virtually hasn't changed? Case in point - the Brewers scored 2 early runs then shut it down for the rest of the day. While Sheets wasn't his best (he gave up 5 runs in 6 innings) you can't expect to win when you only score 2 runs. I'm tired of complaining, so I'm going to move on to game 3. Hopefully I can pull a positive rabbit out of that hat. Final score Astros 5, Brewers 2.
Brewers record : 72 - 55, 2nd place NL Central, 1st place NL Wild Card
Game 3 (Sunday) - Manny Parra (10-6, 4.10 ERA) vs Wandy Rodriguez (7-6, 4.11 ERA)
Manny rebounded nicely from his last start, and while he once again failed to go deep into the game, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. In my posting on Manny's last start, I mentioned that he was close to topping (if he hasn't already topped) his number of innings pitched in a season. Down the stretch run, you start to get concerned about the little things, but you have to make sure that the little things don't get in the way of the big picture, like winning ball games. Because it doesn't matter how many innings Manny throws in a season if the Brewers can't find a way to win and make it to the playoffs. But they did find a way to win today, so we won't worry about that until tomorrow. Let's just take it one day at a time folks. The Brewers won today, and found a way to take the series against Houston. And JJ Hardy, who is lighting up my fantasy baseball team, hit his 19th home run of the year and helped me to increase my statistical dominance over the opposition. Woo-hoo!! Final score Brewers 5, Astros 2.
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Brewers record : 73 - 55, 2nd place NL Central, 1st place NL Wild Card
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So Coop was wrong. You could probably see that one coming a mile away. I know that he is a first year manager, so let me give him a nickels worth of free advice. Wanna know how to rile up your opponents? Come into town and say that you're going to sweep them. People (especially athletes) love it when you tell them that they are going to lose, and lose bad. And get swept at their own park by someone in their own division. Coop, that was probably the worst thing that you could have done. Now our players went out of their way to prove you wrong. If Pittsburgh and Cincinnati weren't so terribly bad, then you would be fighting for the basement in the NL Central. But relax Coop, you just might finish at .500 this year, with a possible winning record if you play well. You have no shot at the wild card or division title, but hey, at least you tried. That's more than I can say for Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. They traded away all of their best players in yet another rebuilding year. Long term mainstays such as the Pirates' Jason Bay (traded to the Red Sox) and Xavier Nady (New York Yankees) are gone, and Ken Griffey Jr. (Chicago White Sox) and Adam Dunn (Arizona Diamondbacks) are playing for contenders. All the while when Milwaukee went out and got CC Sabathia. I've been there, so I know how it feels when your team sells off it's biggest stars, and I hope it never happens again to the Brew Crew. But since it will, I hope that we can at least be competitive, instead of just thinking that we are like this Houston group. But hey, at least their trying. It's so cute that the Astros think that they can sit at the grown up table with the adults. Not so fast Houston, back to the kids table and finish your chicken fingers and Jello. In a few years you can talk about Adult topics like laundry, politics, and retirement plans. For now, just sit back and enjoy Hannah Montana and SpongeBob Squarepants.
Next up - August 22 (Friday) - August 24 (Sunday) Milwaukee Brewers vs Pittsburgh Pirates at Miller Park in Milwaukee, WI
Next up - August 22 (Friday) - August 24 (Sunday) Milwaukee Brewers vs Pittsburgh Pirates at Miller Park in Milwaukee, WI
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- pookon -
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