Real life is tough. Most of the time you ignore it by immersing yourself in TV, sports teams, video games, playing in the park, the internet or whatever ways you distract yourself from how horrible and troubling real life can be. Don't get me wrong man - there's plenty of good in life but we look forward to that shit, welcome it, treasure it and talk about nice it was after it has been gone. But the bed times? We try to forget about those and cover them with distractions. I went through a week of bad times as my Grandpa Ronald Reck passed away at the age of 87. He was my first grandparent to die but obviously not the first family member to die. All week long I was thinking about Timmy and how sad it was to lose another person close to me but then I was angry because Timmy died at age 24 and didn't get to live a full and long life. My Grandpa had various diseases and was in and out of the hospital for the last year or so. This time his body just couldn't handle the strain of fighting off the maladies that were taking control of him. He's at peace now and I hope he and Timmy are doing well wherever they are. I didn't mean to be all kinds of serious on here but I have yet to really address this and this blog is my forum for that, even if the post doesn't directly relate to that event. But it happened during this week and severely altered my viewing and caring of the Brewers this week. I just wanted to point that out because I didn't watch a lot of the games and even if I did then I didn't really care that much because I was numb. So just a little warning before you think that I jumped ship on this team or something.
I don't really have much to say about this West Coast roadtrip to Arizona and Los Angeles. The only thing I remember before this trip began was that this could very much doom our entire season and but us so far below .500 that we could never dig ourselves out. I mean think about it - we were 8 games below .500 at 18-26 coming into game 1 against Arizona. I predicted that they were going to go 2-5 which would have put them at 20-31, 11 games under. I don't care if it is still June and technically still in the early stages of the season, 11 games under is a tough pill to swallow. But they didn't do that. Despite all odds they pulled themselves together and had an excellent roadtrip, even though they lost a key member along the way. I'm already like 2 weeks behind on this blog series so I'm just gonna let my cubicle posts tell the story of the West Coast roadtrip to Arizona and Los Angeles.
Friday May 25 - Sunday May 27. Milwaukee Brewers vs Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. Games 45 - 47 of 162. I'd be lying if I said I watched these games. On the contrary. This was actually (Afterglow being the exception) one of the first times in recent memory that I didn't watch one game of a series. So excuse me if I have no idea what happened. It was partly my fault because I was at Jenny Reck's house all weekend and she doesn't have cable. I could have gone out of my way to see them but I chose not to. I needed a break. Plus real life keeps creeping up on me and is getting in the way of all the BS I use to distract me from it. But even though I can't always watch, I still do care as evident by my weekly series here. It's just that there is only so much I can devote to this team this year. I have to work really hard at keeping myself balanced. Plus there's really only so much you can say about this team that has only won 1 series all month. Why be negative? I'll be positive or nothing. Trust me. If I have something good to share here I will. If something good happens. Brewers 7, DBacks 1. DBacks 8, Brewers 5. DBacks 4, Brewers 3.
Monday May 28. Milwaukee Brewers vs Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodgers Stadium. Game 48 of 162. I finally watched a game. The whole game too. But I didn't really enjoy it. Environment and your surroundings have a lot to do with it, as does your overall mood. I wasn't in a really happy place. I got real world problems right now and I can't really find enjoyment in things like this. I know that I should be doing it, but it's just so difficult to care about much. Oh well. On to the game and the positives. Shaun Marcum is back to being that dominant pitcher he was at the beginning of last year that helped keep us afloat during the early struggles. If he can do that again we may rebound. And hey! Axford finally got another save. Seems like forever since that happened. And offensively it was the Aramis Ramirez show. Another good thing. If he starts to heat up we may be ok. I'm not saying we can win the division (thanks to all the injuries) but we just might be able to claw our way out of this season with our heads held high. Or not. Who knows. Brewers 3, Dodgers 2.
Tuesday May 29. Milwaukee Brewers vs Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodgers Stadium. Game 49 of 162. I'm glad that we didn't do the old song and dance and trot out Manny Parra to make the start in place of the injured Marco Estrada who is subbing in for the injured Chris Narveson. Melvin and Roenicke finally get it - don't mess with a good thing. Parra is actually pretty good as a relief pitcher so why mess with his head? With all these injuries eventually you have to give unproven guys a shot. Case in point - Michael Fiers and Martin Maldonado. Both made their first Major League starts. Fiers got his first win and Maldonado got his first hit. So that was nice. Fiers earned a couple more starts. So that's the positive. Here's the big negative. Jonathon Lucroy is out for 4-6 weeks with a broken hand. Since it is his right (throwing) hand it may be longer because he'll have to rehab longer to grab a baseball or a bat. Our 2nd best offensive player and best clutch hitter is out. Then we also lose his game calling skills and defense. It's gonna be tough without him but we'll have to make do. It will be important to win these close games. Brewers 2, Dodgers 1.
Wednesday May 30. Milwaukee Brewers vs Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodgers Stadium. Game 50 of 162. Yesterday was game 50. So. Does that mean anything to you? Nope. It shouldn't anymore. That's because Ryan Braun was not suspended for 50 games. And look at how poorly we did with him in the lineup. And it isn't because of injuries or poor play, it's because the Baseball Gods were mad at us and trying to punish the Milwaukee Brewers for Braun's actions. So they caused the injuries, poor performance and inconsistent play. But now that 50-game punishment is over. But even so, I still probably won't care. Over the last few days it seems as if the less I cared, the better they did so I'm just going to do my part to help them win. I have a feeling they're gonna get on some kind of roll and get themselves back to .500 so we can start the playoff talk again. No sense doing that while you are a losing team. Yesterday's games was hopefully a sign of what is to come. Good enough pitching and offense to get the job done. We won't dominate without some of our best players so we just have to try and be scrappy. Brewers 6, Dodgers 3.
Thursday May 31. Milwaukee Brewers vs Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodgers Stadium. Game 51 of 162. WOW. The Brewers actually did something good. In fact, they did something that they have never done in franchise history - they swept the Los Angeles Dodgers. What made it more impressive was that it was a 4-game sweep on the road on the West Coast, which are factors that seem to always work against the Brewers. But somehow they found a way to do it. And Brauny wasn't even in the lineup for the final game. No Lucroy, no Shadows and they still won. They are now within reach of .500 and they need efforts like this (good pitching and step up performances by guys like Weeks and Gomez) if they have a chance. Either way it's going to be an uphill struggle but this 4-game win streak is the longest of the season. I'll be excited but they have to find a way to put together a good 2 weeks worth of ball and quit taking backwards steps every time they do something good. I want to get excited. I want to believe. But then they go and do something stupid and ruin my fun. That can't happen this weekend, as we own the Pirates at Miller Park. Brewers 6, Dodgers 2.
5 and 2. 5 and 2 on the road against Arizona and Los Angeles. While that might not seem very impressive to you, it should blow away anyone who has followed the Brewers more than the last few seasons. This was one of those weeks that shouldn't have happened considering the injuries, sloppy defense and inconsistent offense. They shouldn't have been able to win 5 games on the road. But they did it somehow even while losing their 2nd best player (Lucroy). Stranger things have happened before but not with a team that has played this poorly until now. Seeing as how I am over a week behind I know how they performed on their 9-game homestand against the Pirates, Cubs and Padres in which they had a perfect chance to build upon their success on the road. I'd talk about that here, but I'm not going to. Deal with it. You'll just have to wait a few days to find out what I thought about that. Sorry pal. That's the way it works around here. Make you sure come back in a few days to read about some shit that you already knew but told in the 13th dimension. That's the only way we do things around here. And if you don't like that you can go back to the 12th dimension where you belong.
- pookon -
www.pookon.com
email: pookondotcom@gmail.com
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