Series 49 - Milwaukee Brewers @ Chicago Cubs September 16 - September 18 at Wrigley Field in Chicago, ILAnd so continues the most wretched roadtrip that the Brewers have ever seen, not only in terms of difficulty, but also in terms of the implications it has on their season. The city of Philadelphia has a longstanding tradition of having unruly fans, and Citizens Bank Park is a hitters park, which wasn't kind to the Brewers considering that Ryan Howard is just mashing the living shit out of the ball right now. Too bad we caught him while he was hot. Too bad, so sad. So that series is over (thank God!) and we can now concentrate on this one. The Cubs are the best team in the NL this year, but for once it doesn't really pain me to say it. It's hard to argue with their style of play. They have the right mix of guys who can hit for average and power, play above average defense, and for the most part, they have a pretty solid pitching staff. Sure, their bullpen is a little weak, but so it every other team's this time of the year. You really can't argue with their versatility and the depth of good quality players on the bench. It seems that anyone on that team can make a spot start and really hurt you. I won't do this often (because I love nothing more than to bash and hate the Cubs), but I have to say that I respect their plate discipline. They show incredible patience at the plate, and don't swing at a lot of garbage pitches outside of the zone. That shows in their batting average (8 players batting at .285 or above) and on base percentage (9 players with an OBP of .350 or above). Compare that to the Brewers batting average (3 players batting above .285) and on base percentage(3 players with an OBP of .350 or above) and you can easily see what the Cubs are leading the NL Central and the Brewers are not. The Brewers are lucky to win 80 + games with a 2nd baseman (Weeks) batting .234, a center fielder (Cameron) batting .240, and a 3rd base tandem batting .224 (Hall) and .227 (Counsell). I'm amazed that we could scratch out as many wins as we did. Up until September, our pitchers have been throwing out of their minds (crazy good) so now that they have come back down to reality, it's no surprise that we are losing games. But the Cubs are guaranteed a playoff spot, and for some reason the Brewers play well here at Wrigley Field. This ought to be an interesting series. It always is between these two clubs. Starting with this series, I am temporarily working normal people hours from 9:30 am - 6:00 pm, so that means I get home at 7:00 pm just in time to take my pants off, pop open a beer, and watch the Brewers game. For the next few hours until bedtime, I would either be clinging to the edge of my couch hanging on for dear life, or nervously pacing around my living room. Brewers-Cubs games always make me tense up because it's never over until it's over. Well, that's enough talk up here in this section, so I'm gonna get moving on with the wrap-up. Oh yeah, and f#*k the Cubs.
Game 1 (Tuesday) - CC Sabathia (15-9, 2.88 ERA) vs Ryan Dempster (16-6, 3.02 ERA)
The big news before this games was that the Brewers fired Ned Yost with 12 games remaining in the season and have given Dale Sveum a chance to lead the team to the playoffs. I won't mention that much here, because I already wrote a separate entry about that. Check it out here, if you have not already done that. The bigger story, in my opinion, is how would the players react from here on out and whether or not it was the right move to get them to the playoffs. So after losing all 4 games in Philadelphia, the Brewers needed to rebound badly with a win today, and they sent the best possibly candidate up to the mound to do it. CC Sabathia has been nearly flawless, with his only tough game coming against these same Cubs back in July at Miller Park. Turns out that the Cubs are the one team in the National League that he can't handle, for whatever reason. The Brewers were going up against Ryan Dempster, and it still pisses me off that he's been this good all year long. He was a decent closer, but he was known to blow quite a few games. As soon as I heard that he was going to be a starter again, I was happy because I knew he would suck. Turns out I don't know shit about the Cubs, and I'd kinda like to keep it that way. But there's no way that he should be a 16 game winner with a 3 ERA. That's just wrong. Sabathia got touched for a run early (the 1st inning) and never looked right out there. He allowed 2 more in the 3rd and 1 more in the 7th (homerun by Soriano), and his night was over. He was responsible for 4 out of the 5 Cubs runs today, which normally wouldn't be too bad, but the Brewers offense has been so sluggish lately. The Brewers did show a little life today, and Prince Fielder was an absolute beast. In the 6th inning, he hit a crowd stunning blast that ended up on Sheffield Ave (outside the right field bleachers) to pull the Brewers within a run to make the score 3-2. But then Soriano hit his homerun to put the Cubs up 4-2. Fielder hit another homer in the 8th inning, this time to center field, to bring the game back within a run. The Cubs then scored 1 in their half of the inning to make it 5-3. So every time the we scored, they scored too. This sucked big time. The Brewers got 1 more run in the 9th inning against Kerry Wood, who is also excelling in his new role. But then Prince Fielder struck out looking on a nasty curveball with the bases loaded to end the game. He already hit 2 homeruns in the game today, so you can't expect him to do it all. He's good, but he's not that good. Very few players can just be totally untouchable, and while Prince may someday get to that level, he's still a pretty young and raw player. So it was tough to watch them lose another one for 2 reasons. 1 - they dropped out of 1st place in the Wild Card lead thanks to the Phillies taking over the NL East division lead. 2 - CC Sabathia was handed his 1st loss as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers, which essentially closes the door on his CY Young Chances. He would have had to be perfect to be in contention for that award. But none of those matter right now because we just need to freakin' win. And if we can't win while CC is on the mound, then God help us. Final score Cubs 5, Brewers 4.
Brewers record : 83 - 68, 2nd place NL Central (8 games back of Chicago), 2nd place NL Wild Card (1/2 games behind of the New York Mets)
Game 2 (Wednesday) - Ben Sheets (13-8, 2.98 ERA) vs Jason Marquis (10-9, 4.39 ERA)
So after the disappointing game yesterday, I exhaled a sigh of relief that we would have Ben Sheets going today. That sigh became a scream when Sheets exited after the 2nd inning with arm problems. He has some elbow trouble, and it is doubtful that he will make another start this year. Same old Ben Sheets; we can't even count on him in a playoff chase in a contract year. So this game could have quickly got out of hand, but Sveum emptied out the bullpen and DiFelice, Coffey, Villanueva, Stetter, Gagne, Mota and Torres all saw action. Torres was the only one out of those 7 who allowed a run, and that was in the 9th inning (obviously) of a game that was already over. But with the explosive Cubs offense that has the potential to score big in 1 inning, the game is never over until it is over. Which was why I was so relieved to see out # 3 in the 9th inning. The Brewers scored 3 runs early when Prince Fielder continued his scorching hot streak by clearing the bases with a double. And with no outs in the top of the 1st and 3 runs on the board, the Brewers never looked back. They scored 3 Badger Mutual Insurance runs in the 7th inning to give the bullpen a little breathing room (Sheets allowed a run in the 2nd inning and the Brewers had been clinging to a 3-1 lead) and while I was clinging to the edge of my couch waiting for the other show to drop, it never did, and the Brewers won the game. The Brewers bullpen did a really nice job holding the vibrant Cubs offense to only 2 runs today, but it's going to take a masterful performance by Dave Bush (who has horrible career numbers against the Cubs) and the Brewers offense to take this series tomorrow. But we'll worry about tomorrow when tomorrow comes. Enjoy the victory today, especially because 84 wins already guarantees a better record than last year's 84-79 season. But 84 wins will not be enough to win the NL Wildcard, so we gotta come back tomorrow and win another one. But Dale Sveum gets hi s1st win as Brewers manager, and the Brewers chalk up 1 more in the W column. Final score Brewers 6, Cubs 2.
Brewers record : 84 - 68, 2nd place NL Central (8 games back of Chicago), 2nd place NL Wild Card (1/2 games behind of the New York Mets)
Game 3 (Thursday) - Dave Bush (9-10, 4.22 ERA) vs Rich Harden (10-2, 2.03 ERA)
Dave Bush did a fine job today limiting the damage to only 2 runs, and the bullpen continued to impress as Coffey, Gagne and Mota each contributed with scoreless innings. But that will all go overlooked as Torres blew a 6-2 lead with 2 outs in the 9th inning in a damaging and ill-timed loss to the Cubs. The Mets won today, so the Brewers fell to 1 1/2 games back in the Wildcard, which could be a whole lot more damaging than this game 3 loss. The Brewers offense was aided by some shoddy Cubs defense in the 6th inning when they scored 4 runs, and with Torres coming on in the 9th with a 4 run lead, this game looked like it was over. But according to Bluto (John Belushi in Animal House), "Over? Did you say 'over'? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no! And it ain't over now. 'Cause when the goin' gets tough...the tough get goin'! Who's with me? Let's go!" He ran out of the room, and Torres and the Brewers ran out of steam. They eventually lost the game in the bottom of the 12th inning, and I lost my lunch. I mean it. I literally got sick from watching the Cubs win this game. Today was really tough, but that is why there is always tomorrow. But the Brewers better watch it, because they are running out of tomorrows. Ug-ga-ly loss today. Final score Cubs 7, Brewers 6.
Brewers record : 84 - 69, place NL Central (9 games back of Chicago), 2nd place NL Wild Card (1 1/2 games behind the New York Mets)
It was bad, but honestly it really could have been worse. Had the Cubs swept the Brewers, they not only would have been almost officially out of the Wildcard race, but the Cubs would have clinched the National League Central division title with the Brewers sulking back towards the visiting dugout. Thankfully that didn't happen, but that final game in the series is still pissing me off because not only did I have to watch it, but now I have to talk about it. It still could have been worse though, because some of my friends were at the game and had to witness this devastating loss in person. Although I'd never do it, at least I could've changed the channel on the TV or shut it off. They couldn't shut out the annoying Cubs fans who were jumping around like a bunch of recently freed caged monkeys. They said that some Cubs fans were screaming in their faces and rubbing it in big time. And people wonder why I hate the Cubs. Them and their FIB fans can all go to hell. Thankfully this is the last time that the Brewers have to play at Wrigley Field this year, but those FIBs will all be up at "Wrigley Field North" come the final series of the year. Hopefully I get to kick some of them out for drunk and disorderly conduct. If not, then I'll just cut them off so that they get pissed off that they can't drink any more beer in my section of the stadium. That will show them. So the woeful roadtrip continues on down the line to Cincinnati, and we'll see how that one goes. Oh wait...we already know. But I'm not going to talk about that here - I'll save that shit for a different day. Until then : Ted - don't forget to wind your watch!
Next up - September 19 (Friday) - September 21 (Sunday) Milwaukee Brewers @ Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, OH
- pookon -
email : pookondotcom@gmail.com
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