May 5- MIL 8 PIT 5
Rec.: 15-12, 2.0 GB STL
J.J.'s Night Runs the Streak to 17
17 games, that's how many the Crew has won in a row from the Pirates. I hate to sound unapreciative of the win, but I feel for the Pirates. The organization has now gone 16 seasons without a winning record and has lost more consecutive games to one opponent than any team since 1970. When you are a fan of a team like the Brewers, you know how those 9,000 fans at PNC Park must have felt, suffering in the rain while their pitching staff walked 10 Brewers. Every year starts with a team full of young prospects with promise and every year ends with the club saying, "Next Year". It would kill me to see a team with talent, like the Crew of Dave Nilsson, Jose Valentin, Jeff D'Amico and Greg Vaughn fail to get over .500. Then it was Scott Podsednik, Richie Sexson, Geoff Jenkins and Scott Karl that would dash my hopes. It just made me realize, every team has talent, and every fan buys into that talent. I'm not saying the players I mentioned weren't good players, but let's face it, Freddy Sanchez, Andy LaRoche and Zach Duke aren't getting it done an Pittsburgh. I guess it takes talent like that, mixed with someone as amazingly valuable as Ryan Braun or Prince Fielder sitting in the middle of the lineup, to REALLY make a difference. Makes a fan savor what he has I guess and wonder how a fan of the Yankees or Red Sox must feel.

Being a night I worked at the station running "Sloperator" with a 5pm Mountain start, and a night when I wanted to get out for a jog, I didn't hear much of this game. Turned it on around the 6th, when the Brewers took a lead with the help of a J.J. 2 run single, his 3rd and 4th RBI of the night. He was 3-3 with runners in scoring position Tuesday night and reached base 5 times. Of course that helped raise his average from .167 to .195. Mendoza Line... LOOKOUT!

Jeff Suppan evened his record to 2-2 with 5⅔ innings and Carlos Villanueva worked a perfect 9th for his 3rd save. Good to see Macha is being cautious with Hoffman. Yost would always SAY he was not going to overwork his closer but seemed to always be in that situation, especially with Cordero, where he had no choice. Maybe the bullpen is deeper than I thought and this may be the best way for Villy to train as the closer of the future.

May 4- MIL 7 PIT 4 Rec.: 14-12 3.0 GB STL
Braun Crosses a Time Zone to Blast the Buccos
Braunie started the morning in a Milwaukee hospital getting an MRI on his back. In the 8th inning, he delivered a 2 run double off Jon Grabow to tie the game in Pittsburgh. The MRI revealed that Braun wouldn't do any further damage to his back if he continued to play, which was great for the Crew because until that inning, Pat Maholm had absolutely stymied the bats, allowing only 1 run.

The Pirates were back in a position to win in the 9th however after a Wisconsin native Jason Jaramillo doubled in a run in the bottom of the 8th and the Pirates turned things over to closer Matt Capps, who was 5-5 this season in save opportunities. Instead, Jason Kendall and pinch hitter Jason Kendall singled, Corey Hart walked and J.J. Hardy (batting second again) sac flied in the tying run. Then Ricke stepped up and ripped a 3 run tater to the deep left field in PNC Park and put the Crew up for good. Mark DiFelice got his 3 win of the season, in relief, and Hoffman closed it out. The Brewer's have now won 16 in a row against the Pirates, the longest streak since Arizona did that to Cincinnati from 2001-2003.

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.