May 1- Arizona 5 Milwaukee 2 Record: 12-11 4.5 GB St. Louis
An Argument for Instant Replay
Tom Haudricourt was pretty adament in the JS that the Crew got screwed by a blown call by 3B ump Brian Gorman on a pivotal 2 out double by Tony Clark in a 4 run 8th inning. That call could have made a difference but let's face it, the reason the Crew was in that position in the first place was that Villanueva couldn't get the 3rd out, instead walking Connor Jackson to give the Diamondbacks some life in the top half of the inning. I'm also going to put some blame on the bats for failing to give adequate run support to Manny in one of his best starts of the season: 6 innings, 1 earned, 3 hits and 8 Ks against 4 walks. Counsel, getting another start at SS as JJ Hardy tries to get his head together, was 3-4 and scored 1 of 2 runs in the 7th when the Crew finally chase Jon Garland from the game.
April 30- Milwaukee 4 Arizona 1 Record: 12-10
3 Quality Starts for Suppan
Suppan has been so effective of late, that Felipe Lopez' leadoff home run almost didn't concern me. Sure enough, Soup settled down to make that the only run he allowed in 6⅓ innings. Thankfully, the "S" Suppan was wearing under his jersey was for "super" and not "suck" tonight because Arizona starter Max Scherzer was throwing seeds. However, the much more patient Brewers were able to work his pitch count to 107 after 6 innings and the Crew got to feast on the AZ bullpen, starting with Tom Gordon who walked Hall to lead off the inning, then threw 2 wild pitches which got him moved over. Hall ended up getting caught off 3B on a fielders choice, but Rickie Weeks singled with two on tied the game up, then Fielder's bases loaded walk was the winner. Once again, it was Cameron came up big after that with a 2 run double, 1 of his 3 hits on the night. It was also a 3 hit night for Weeks, so you can say it was a great night for the usual "dogs" of the team, Suppan, Weeks and Cameron. Actually, Cameron really would be the offensive MVP of the month in my opinion. The centerfielder batted .333 for the month and has 6 dingers and 9 doubles with a sever drop in strikeouts from last season.
Hoffman had his request to have "Hells Bells" cranked louder in the PA and came in for his 2nd save as a Brewers.
5.02.2009
4.30.2009
April 29- Gallardo 1 Pittsburgh 0 Record: 11-10 3½ GB St. Louis
Yovani Beats Pittsburgh on His Own
I guess the other 8 professional hitters in Milwaukees lineup were just there to give Yovani a break in the dugout as he did EVERYTHING to get his 3rd win of the season. Seriously, this game was ALL Gallardo, or as Karl Ravich called him, "Yovani Go-Yard-O". 8 innings (the first 4⅓ of which were perfect), 2 hits, 11 Ks, 1 BB and the lone run of the game, a home run off an 0-2 changeup from Ian Snell that made him only the third pitcher in the modern era to have 10+ Ks and the sole home run in a 1-0 game. Over his last 23 innings, Gallardo has given up 2 runs on 12 hits and struck out 25 and the Brewer's needed him to deal today, because Snell had a hell of a day as well. Snell was able to work around 4 walks over 7 to keep the Crew's lineup at bay. According to JSO, Braun even predicted Gallardo was going to take care of things himself with a home run. I hope they don't rely on that too much; the rest of the lineup only got 4 hits off Snell who struck out Braun 3 times.
With Gallardo at 116 pitches, Carlos Villanueva came out for the 9th and set the 2-3-4 of the Pirates order down, finishing with a strikeout of lefty Adam LaRoche on a 3-2 slider to get the his second save of the season.
The Crew also called up Carlos Corporan from Nashville to replace Rivera who is on the DL with an ankle sprain suffered in a collision at home on Tuesday. It also appears that Lorenzo Cain's injury isn't as serious as first thought and he will be back this season.
4.29.2009
April 28- Milwaukee 6 Pittsburgh 5 Record: 10-10 3½ GB St. Louis
Rickie gets it Done Again and Hoffman Closes it Out
Now that the Crew is at .500, I will include their divisional placement in the blog. Years of losing seasons have made me believe that just getting over .500 is a goal in and of itself and if you can do that, then you can start worrying about winning the division. Well, thanks to the Pirates losing their 14th in a row to the Brewers (and their 17th consecutive at Miller) the Crew can start thinking about maybe climbing up the NL Central ladder.
I couldn't get this game on MLB radio for some reason, a problem that I hope was a one time event, so I had to keep checking Gameday while marking up the 9 at work. What I observed before I went into the control room was Bush had some troubles and the Crew squandered a few situations early on, including Fielder flying out with the bases loaded in the 3rd and grounding out with Braun on 2b in the 5th against tough lefty Pat Maholm.
Meanwhile, the Pirates were able to get 5 in 5 against Bush, 4 earned thanks to Weeks 5 error of the season. Weeks made up for it with a 2 run, go ahead tater in the 6th that also included a Bill Hall solo shot. Weeks is now hitting .268, which seems lower than it should be since he seems to be doing MUCH better at getting hits. He's had the difference making RBI 2 nights in a row now.
The night was wrapped up with Trevor Hoffman's first save as a Brewer, getting a 4-6-3 DP to end it with the bullpen of Julio, Stetter, Coffey and Hoffman working scoreless from the 6th on and giving up only 1 hit. I was especially happy to see Julio have a good outing and lower that obscene ERA to single digits after several days of work with Bill Castro.
April 27- Milwaukee 10 Pittsburgh 5 Record: 9-10
Braun Starts Bad Blood with Buccos and Hoffman's 1st Appearance
The surprise Bucos came into this game with a staff ERA of 2.97, best in the majors, but dingers by Braun, Weeks and Cameron gave the Crew their biggest run total of the season. Looper was a little rusty out of the gates, letting 4 Pirates reach base in the 1st, but he limited the damage and left with a 5-3 lead after 5. Unfortunately, Carlos Villanueva coughed up another lead, otherwise, it was a good night by the bullpen that included Trevor Hoffman's debut as a Brewer, coming in in a non-save situation and getting a 1-2-3 inning.
The game also included a questionable plunking of Braun by Jeff Karstens, possibly in retaliation for Braun's dinger in the 1st. I'm not sure who Jeff Karstens is and what his reasoning was, but Braun certainly thought it was intentional. The homeplate ump immediately warned the benches, leaving little opportunity for retaliation but I loved Braun's interview with Corey Provus after the game. In it, he said, "Tell Mr. Selig. We'll see what happens. It's going to be interesting." Even a day later, Braun was talking about it, saying he thinks the pitch was ordered by manager John Russell because Karsten didn't even look at Braun after he did it. Braun didn't show boat on his dinger and was pretty pissed when he saw how close the pitch was to his head.
Rickie gets it Done Again and Hoffman Closes it Out
Now that the Crew is at .500, I will include their divisional placement in the blog. Years of losing seasons have made me believe that just getting over .500 is a goal in and of itself and if you can do that, then you can start worrying about winning the division. Well, thanks to the Pirates losing their 14th in a row to the Brewers (and their 17th consecutive at Miller) the Crew can start thinking about maybe climbing up the NL Central ladder.
I couldn't get this game on MLB radio for some reason, a problem that I hope was a one time event, so I had to keep checking Gameday while marking up the 9 at work. What I observed before I went into the control room was Bush had some troubles and the Crew squandered a few situations early on, including Fielder flying out with the bases loaded in the 3rd and grounding out with Braun on 2b in the 5th against tough lefty Pat Maholm.
Meanwhile, the Pirates were able to get 5 in 5 against Bush, 4 earned thanks to Weeks 5 error of the season. Weeks made up for it with a 2 run, go ahead tater in the 6th that also included a Bill Hall solo shot. Weeks is now hitting .268, which seems lower than it should be since he seems to be doing MUCH better at getting hits. He's had the difference making RBI 2 nights in a row now.
The night was wrapped up with Trevor Hoffman's first save as a Brewer, getting a 4-6-3 DP to end it with the bullpen of Julio, Stetter, Coffey and Hoffman working scoreless from the 6th on and giving up only 1 hit. I was especially happy to see Julio have a good outing and lower that obscene ERA to single digits after several days of work with Bill Castro.
April 27- Milwaukee 10 Pittsburgh 5 Record: 9-10
Braun Starts Bad Blood with Buccos and Hoffman's 1st Appearance
The surprise Bucos came into this game with a staff ERA of 2.97, best in the majors, but dingers by Braun, Weeks and Cameron gave the Crew their biggest run total of the season. Looper was a little rusty out of the gates, letting 4 Pirates reach base in the 1st, but he limited the damage and left with a 5-3 lead after 5. Unfortunately, Carlos Villanueva coughed up another lead, otherwise, it was a good night by the bullpen that included Trevor Hoffman's debut as a Brewer, coming in in a non-save situation and getting a 1-2-3 inning.
The game also included a questionable plunking of Braun by Jeff Karstens, possibly in retaliation for Braun's dinger in the 1st. I'm not sure who Jeff Karstens is and what his reasoning was, but Braun certainly thought it was intentional. The homeplate ump immediately warned the benches, leaving little opportunity for retaliation but I loved Braun's interview with Corey Provus after the game. In it, he said, "Tell Mr. Selig. We'll see what happens. It's going to be interesting." Even a day later, Braun was talking about it, saying he thinks the pitch was ordered by manager John Russell because Karsten didn't even look at Braun after he did it. Braun didn't show boat on his dinger and was pretty pissed when he saw how close the pitch was to his head.
4.27.2009
Houston 3 Milwaukee 2 Record: 8-10
Parra Tough Luck Again but Still a Good Road Trip
Perhaps it's too soon to be asking for a sweep when just two weeks ago I would have settled for a 50% drop in bases loaded walks. A 5-4 road trip should be seen as a giant step forward for this team, especially with the Pirates upcoming at Miller. Mike Cameron continued to improve his average with 2 doubles and is now batting .328. I'm elated to see another “2008 Dog” do well and help this team. Manny Parra pitched 5 innings and gave up 1 earned (a dinger to Pudge Rodriguez) but it was a Weeks error that caused the problems in this game. Yet another “He's still in the league” pitcher, Russ Ortiz drew a walk against still winless Parra and eventually scored on a Lance Berkman grounder behind the bag that Weeks couldn't handle. The Crew put a little threat together against 40+ Doug Brocail but Braun fouled out and Fielder struck out with 2 on. Cam did walk to load the bases, but then Brad Nelson who just missed pulling a tater fair for not only his first grand slam, not only his first home run, but his first HIT of 2009.
Problems in the minors however, Lorenzo Cain may have torn his MCL and will probably miss the season. I guess Cameron was a big fan of his and was pretty shocked and saddened to hear that happened.
Parra Tough Luck Again but Still a Good Road Trip
Perhaps it's too soon to be asking for a sweep when just two weeks ago I would have settled for a 50% drop in bases loaded walks. A 5-4 road trip should be seen as a giant step forward for this team, especially with the Pirates upcoming at Miller. Mike Cameron continued to improve his average with 2 doubles and is now batting .328. I'm elated to see another “2008 Dog” do well and help this team. Manny Parra pitched 5 innings and gave up 1 earned (a dinger to Pudge Rodriguez) but it was a Weeks error that caused the problems in this game. Yet another “He's still in the league” pitcher, Russ Ortiz drew a walk against still winless Parra and eventually scored on a Lance Berkman grounder behind the bag that Weeks couldn't handle. The Crew put a little threat together against 40+ Doug Brocail but Braun fouled out and Fielder struck out with 2 on. Cam did walk to load the bases, but then Brad Nelson who just missed pulling a tater fair for not only his first grand slam, not only his first home run, but his first HIT of 2009.
Problems in the minors however, Lorenzo Cain may have torn his MCL and will probably miss the season. I guess Cameron was a big fan of his and was pretty shocked and saddened to hear that happened.
4.26.2009
April 25- Milwaukee 9 Houston 8 Record: 8-9
Hart and Fielder make up for Bully
Hitter friendly park, hitter friendly pitchers (Mike Hampton?), that's what the Crew needed and that's what they got from in Houston Saturday night. After 2 days in the desert, it was nice to come back to hear the team stretch a win streak to 4 games with an 11 inning win over the 'Stros. Suppan turned in a decent start (3 earned in 6) as the bats were able to respond to 3 comebacks by the Astros who just refused to die in this game. Bill Hall erased the first Astros go-head with a game tying, 3 run shot (1 of his 3 hits on the night) in the 6th. That dinger wouldn't have been possible had Cameron not broken up a DP to keep the inning alive. In the 8th, Coffey looked mortal, giving up 3 runs to put the Crew in a 1 run hole that Fielder had to erase in the 9th with his 2nd tater of the game. It was a 2 run, screaming line drive shot that Uecker didn't even have time to judge for his, "Get up, get up, get outta' here GONE!" call. Then, more evidence that Villanueva isn't ready to close as he squandered the 1 run lead in the bottom of the 9th by hitting Berkman to lead off the inning. That led to the tying run scoring on a Bill Hall error and Villy looked to give up more in the 10th when he loaded the bases with the help of 2 walks. Mike DiFelice had to come in and clean up the mess by getting Miguel Tejada to fly out to Cameron to end that threat. In the 11th, the Crew didn't waste their time taking their whacks agains reliever Geoff Geary. Corey Hart hit his 2nd double of the game to lead off the inning and Braunie drove him in with his 4th hit of the game, a single that raised his average to .359. However, Geary was able to limit the damage to 1 run as the Brewer's squandered a bases loaded, no out situation. That was enough however for DiFelice, who overcame a leadoff single by Hunter Pence in the 11th to get the win. His ERA is now 0.96.
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