It’s Been 19 Months…
Hey I’m back!
Did you see that!?! Triple play salvages series
Considering that the finale was the only game I watched, I’m going to focus on that one a lot more. But before I discuss the greatest play in baseball let’s recap the other two games.
9/4 vs Giants (L 3-2): Suppan started this one and went 5.2 innings, allowing only two runs. Though it wasn’t a quality start, he pitched well. We lost the game when Coffey gave up an eigth inning homerun to the Giants. Still, it was a well pitched game. Fielder had an RBI groundout and Cameron had an RBI single. We didn’t lose the game because of Coffey, but because we went 1-8 with RISP and left twelve men on base.
9/5 vs Giants (L 3-2): Gallardo did not have a good start, probably because of some fatigue, as he went six innings and allowed three runs. Besides Fielder and Lopez’s RBIs, there’s not much to talk about. However one thing to take note of is the attendance, only 30,000 for a Saturday night crowd. That was the lowest total for a weekend game in nearly three years. I think some fans (the bandwagon type) have given up on the Brewers, but in regards to them “see you next year”.
9/6 vs Giants (W 2-1): This game made upfor the previous to losses. The Crew turned a TRIPLE PLAY, and hit a walk off in the same game. Looper allowed one run in seven innings (seven innings) and did not allow a homerun for the first time in nine starts. That in itself is amazing. But the story of the game was defense. Both teams went back and forth displaying their gloves, with each side preserving the game. The triple play occured in the sixth, when a bouncer was hit to McGehee and it went 5-4-3 (McGehee-Lopez-Fielder).
In the 12th inning, Fielder hit a walk off homerun and untucked his shirt right before he reached second. As I was reading some comments from the game on espn.com, some people stated that he shouldn’t have done that, and called the Crew a “joke” and “a disgrace”. Considering how we’ve played this year, the Brewers need a little excitement in their lives. That’s why after Fielder rounded the bases he stood there and the team fell down around him (in a wave like form, as seen in the picture). The team loved, and the crowd at Miller Park. It’s not arrogance, but a team celebrating a win after there haven’t been many in recent months. So if Fielder and the Crew wants to have fun at the plate, I’m all for it.
Tommorow we start a series with the Cardinals again, so let’s see if we can win this time.
McGehee was unbelieveable against the Cards
Okay, here’s my final solution: I’m going to blog after every series. I know it’s a little late but here’s my take on the Cardinals series, one game at a time. And hopefully this is the final change.
9/1 @ Cardinals (L 7-6): McGehee hit a three run shot in the first inning and finished the game with four RBI.
That’s pretty amazing for a guy who is a rookie and gets sporadic playing time. Hardy and Lopez accounted for the other ribis. The main story of this game was the pitching (as usual). Looper gave up four runs in six innings, Weather gave up two runs, and Coffey gave up a homerun (though probably because he’s getting fatigued. Both Pujols and Holliday homered.
9/2 @ Cardinals (L 10-3): Another bad game. Bush gave up a six spot in the second as the Cards just kept the line moving. He ended up allowing eight runs in 3.1 innings, making this one of his worst starts of the year. Smith and Setter gave up the other two runs. On the bright side, McGehee had two more RBI and accounted for more than have of the Crew’s runs, again. Cameron also had an RBI.
9/3 @ Cardinals (W 4-3): Parra (kinda surprisingly) provided a quality start for the Brewers. He went 6.1 innings and allowed only two runs (Vargas allowed the other). Anyways, guess who sparked the offense? That’s right, McGehee. He had another three run homer (Fielder had an RBI groundout) and finished the series with nine RBIs. This is probably the best offensive series of his career. Way to go Casey.
Let’s see if McGehee can continue his success against the Giants this weekend, as well as the other Brewers. Go Crew!!
If it wasn’t for Fielder I probably wouldn’t be watching the Crew anymore
Fighting Brew Crew fans, it’s been a while!! Sorry about that, but I’m still adjusting to the college lifestyle. Hopefully I won’t go five days between blogs again. Now back to the Brewers… Though I missed blogging the last four games, here’s a quick rundown of what happened.
8/27 vs. Reds (L 8-5): Dave Bush came back!! He had a no hitter going for the first three innings then eventually ran out of gas. He gave up five runs in 4.2 innings, but he seemed back to normal. Fielder hit a three run homer (35) as well as Cameron.
8/28 vs. Pirates (W 8-6): Fielder hit another three run homer (36), as well as Braun (28) and Bourgeois hit the first of his career. Parra pitched this one and was terrible, allowing six runs in six innings. But he got the win so who’s complaining, right? Also Hoffman got his first save at opportunity at home since the 13th.
8/29 vs. Pirates (W 7-3): Fielder had another RBI (119) and continued to leads to major leagues. Gallardo didn’t have a quality start but battled his way through five innings allowing three runs. Jody Gerut also had a big RBI in this game.
8/30 vs. Pirates (W 4-1): Suppan started for the second time since his stint on the DL, and pitched a great game, allowing only one run in six innings. He even contributed with an RBI. Also McGehee homered and Counsell came through with a clutch two RBI single.
Notice how Fielder was mentioned in three of the four summaries. I’m not just talking about him because I like him, it’s just that he’s a beast!! He’s ahead of Howard by eight RBI in the league race and is fifth among homerun leaders. MVP candidate? Definately. Will he win? It depends on what Howard an Pujols does. But Prince keeps helping his own cause.
Will he hit the go ahead homer? Can he take the walk? How far will the foul ball go? No matter what he’s doing it’s always entertaining. I have to look forward to something heading into September. Hopefully we can still play for something by sweeping the Cards. Let’s win tonight!
Free baseball comes at a price, again
For the second consecutive night the Crew has lost in extra innings. This time the score was 4-3 in ten innings against the Reds, but the game lost because of some shotty defense. Just like that the Brewers undid all of their work in Washington, by losing their last two games. Now that we’re 61-65, the Crew must go 21-15 to have a winning record. Let’s cross our fingers for this.
Trying to help the Crew’s winning cause, Braden Looper allowed only two runs in six innings. Another good start, another bad loss, which was caused by two major defensive blunders. In relief of Looper, Vargas overthrew a ball to Fielder that allowed a run to score. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, it should count towards his ERA. This happened in the eighth inning. Two frames later, Braun misplaced a line drive (coincendentally by the same guy who through him out yesterday) that ended up being a RBI double. We had two of the big three tonight, but that obviously wasn’t enough.
A brighter note, Prince Fielder hit his 34th homer and Gerut hit his first with the Brewers. Braun even had three hits. But besides these plays there wasn’t much else good about this game. Hopefully we won’t get swept. Let’s beat the Reds!!
The game that had everything was lost…
It was over. We won!! We lost. The game between the Crew and the Reds featured everything but an injection. Though we ended up losing 8-6 in 13 innings, it was the best loss we had in a while. Below I’ll detail the three defining moments in the game.
It was over. I almost forgot that Suppan started this game (it was 4 1/2 hours). He allowed four runs in 4.1 innings and had problems getting ahead in the count. Then Villaneuva allowed a two run homered. The Brewers trailed 6-1, and thanks only to Lopez’s homerun off Arroyo. In the ninth, all hope seemed lost as we trailed by five runs against a very good pitcher.
We won!! Trailing 6-1 in the ninth, the Brewers scored five runs with one out that all started with an error. Frank Cattalanotto hit one to the pitcher but he fielded it badly. And that play opened the flood gates. The next six batters reached base, with the last being on MeGehee RBI single. With one out and a runner on third (and the score tied), there seemed to be no way we could lose.
We lost. Cameron then hit a line drive out, and Braun tried to tag but was thrown out at home plate. Just like that we got two outs on one play and killed our chances of winning in a very dramatic way. Besides Cameron’s two out triple in the 12th, we had no other good chance of winning. Then in the 13th Todd Coffey, who had a long 11th, allowed two solo homeruns. He threw 46 pitches so I don’t blame him for the tough luck lost.
It was a thrilling, long game that was ultimately lost. Good luck to the Crew tomorrow, and let’s not try to have the game ended by Gallardo again…
Bad game, Good game, Good Series
Man college is taking time away from my blogging, so I won’t be writing everday. Yesterday the Crew lost 8-3 and the pitching was atrocious. Parra lasted 3.1 innings and gave up eight runs, though some came from an error and bad defensive plays. That was one of the worse games we played all year. The only bright spot was Escobar’s first career homer.
Today however the Brewers played much better and barely allowed Gallardo to get a win. The Crew scored six runs in the sixth, including Braun’s two run homer. Pinch hitter Jody Gerut had a two RBI single and even hit is first homerun as a Brewer. The Crew eventually won the game 7-1 to win the series against the Nationals.
I’m sastisfied that we won the series, but not happy. It took us four games to pick up two, and at this point in the season that is not good. The Crew is eleven games out of first and the ONLY way to the playoffs is to pull a Rockies of ’07 winning streak (won 21 of 22 to get to WS). Speaking of the Rox, they pulled a similar move earlier in the year to propel themselves into the wildcard race. The Crew needs to do this, and fast.
Don’t get me wrong, it was a good series for the Brewers considering they were swept by the Pirates, but not good enough for the playoffs. Good luck to Suppan tomorrow against the Reds!
Crew does what it suppose to
Sorry I didn’t blog on yesterday’s game. I just didn’t feel like writing. The Crew won yesterday against the Nationals 7-3 and today 11-9. I know we’ve won two in a row but to me it means nothing. And today was a perfect example why.
The Brewers scored eleven runs and still needed Trevor Hoffman. Really now? That shouldn’t happen. Mike Burns continued his roller coaster starts, this one being a bad one. We won the game, but we’re supposed to, and I’m not going to get excited over beating the lowly Nationals. This series features teams with the NL’s worst ERAs, which is why it’s no coincidence that both teams combined for twenty runs.We have plenty of oppurtunities to capitalize against teams who we’re suppose to be better than, but so far that hasn’t really happened. Just because they do it now doesn’t make them streaky or good. Maybe if we sweep the Nationals then I’ll raise an eyebrow.
Unlike the pitching, the offense has been outstanding. Today Lopez and Cameron had four hits apiece and Fielder had four walks. Fielder also homered on Friday as well McGehee. This is what our offense what like when Weeks was here, so one can only imagine what our offense will be like next year. I hope we keep Lopez. He’s a great leadoff hitter.
Now that we’ve won the first two games, it only seems fitting to win the next two. Hopefully it won’t rain tomorrow.
Crew’s season not entirely bad
What? They’re four games below five hundred and just got swept by the Pirates!! Yes I know the season has been filled with disappointment but there were some good moments. Since today the Brewers can’t possibly lose (an off day), I’ll briefly detail the high moments of the season.
1. April 21st at Phillies (6-1) – Brewers fans, remember what happened last year in Philly? We were swept in the four games series and that nearly cost us the playoffs. After losing the first game of this series in April, it seemed like a sweep may be in hand again. But the Crew won the second game and the rubber match after Dave Bush took a no hitter into the eighth. This was also our first series win of the year.
2. April 29th vs Pirates (1-0) – Wasn’t it fun to sweep the Pirates? After winning the first two games, the Crew had a pretty good chance of a sweep with Gallardo on the mound. No only did he help shutout the Pirates, he also homered, which proved to be the only run of the game. This is what you have to do when you don’t get any run support.
3. May 16th at Cardinals (1-0) – This time Jeff Suppan helped in a shutout. Corey Hart homered early in a game in which the Crew only hat two hits. But we found a way to win, and took over sole possesion of first place from the Cardinals. This win was a start of a sweep of the series.
4. August 5th at Dodgers (4-1) – Saying this was a huge win is a huge understatement. The Crew finally won a series since the Allstar break, and it just happened to be against the best team in baseball. Looper pitched into the seventh and did a very good job against a great offensive team. This was around the time I started blogging (so for more info see some of my oldest blogs). As I had stated in the opening line “It took more than a month but the Crew finally [won] a series”.
Notice in the four games combined we only allowed two runs. Our best games occur when our pitching goes, which hasn’t happened consistently this year. Let’s sweep the Nats!
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