Crew Come From Behind

Not even being down by 4 runs could cause the Brewers to quit last night at Miller Park. The Pittsburgh Pirates, who were looking to snap a 13 game losing streak against Milwaukee, certainly let a a game that should've been won slip away. By the bottom of the 5th inning the Crew was down 5-1. That turned around quckly.

The offense was led by Corey Hart who reached base 5 times on 3 walks, a double and a single.

Milwaukee scored 4 runs in the 6th inning to go-ahead.

Rickie Weeks (5) and Billy Hall(3) continued to stay hot; both homering twice. Holy Balls, did I just hear myself type this. I just said that Weeks & Hall were on a hot streak. At the same time nonetheless. I'm not ready to eat my words yet, from the last two seasons. If their numbers stay consistent through May...I will then apologize to all of those that I bitched and griped about regarding these two infielders.

Despite being an narrowly beat-out by Albert Puhols last week for NL Player of the Week, Ryan Bruan is continuing his dominant numbers. He doubled yet again last night and walked once. He is now batting .351 on the season. Batting averages, in my opinion, start to mean something come May 1. So we're still a few days out.

Low Points on the evening....JJ Hardy went ofer and Brad Nelson continued his horrific start to his career. He is now 0-14 on the year and is batting .95 in his career. It's time. With Mike Rivera getting knocked out of the game yesterday, one has to imagine that Angel Salome will get the call up. This all hinders (i hate that band) on Rivera coming back.

Despite Dave Bush getting the no-decision and pitching a below average game, he still kept the Brewrs relatively close. For any other team, being down by 4 runs is not considered "close". But for Milwaukee that's with in striking distance, or so it seems as of late. The bullpen did the rest and went 4 scoreless innings. Most impressive was Trevor Hoffman and Jorge Julio. Hoffman notched his first save in a Brewer uniform and reminded us of why we signed him. Julio bounced back from his poor outing a week ago to go one inning with a strike out. Only TH gave up a hit out of the 4 relievers. Pretty damn sweet.

-Buc's take on how the game unfoled last night.

-Let's not forget that manager Ken Macha is from Pennsylvania and is a graduate from Pitt.

-Ex Pirate Chris Duffy is still hitless for Milwaukee. Our bench is horrific, except for Craig Counsell. Horrific. They cant hit the ball and are weak defensively.

-Cecil Cooper may get punished further for his toss-out incident from Saturday.

-Jason Jaramillo, the minor leaguer who was called up last week to fill in for the injured starter. He is a Racine native and graduate of Case High. This series is like a homecoming for the guy.

Russell Branyan went 5-5 last night.

-Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune (Tribune Newspapers) wrote a story this past Sunday that I griped about. The story lacked any substance and relevancy. It basically stated the Milwaukee had "pitching woes" and that the losses of CC and Ben were, basically, catastrophic. I decided to type him an email letting him know that his story was out-dated and wasn't even "news-worthy". He responeded, politely:

Phil,
Your article from Sunday’s paper seems to be a bit late to the punch of being news worthy. At that time (Sunday) the Milwaukee Brewers had 8 solid starts by their pitchers in the past 11 games. They were also on a 4-game win streak. But no, your brilliant story told America that the Brewers pitching was huring. Not entirely true ol’ Phil.
Now if you had broken this story in the first two weeks of the season, you would’ve been on to something.
Perhaps you could report on the Cubs’ injury problems and their knack for losing lately. Then again, maybe you shouldn’t. By the time it hits the print they will be on a short win streak.
Scott Olson
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Scott,Thanks for the note. So you are feeling good about the brewers rotation? Phil
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Phil,
Thanks for your response.
What you were stating in your news story (Sunday) was the obvious. The press has been saying this about the Brewers’ rotation since losing CC and Sheets. What isn’t being published is the fact that Braden Looper’s earned-run-average is at 2.45. Or that Yovanni Gallardo pitched his first career complete game and Dave Bush, for the 3rd time, came within a few outs from a no-hitter. Most of these accomplishments were achieved last week. The national press makes no mention of this. Instead, critics like you point readers to the obvious and offer no depth to what the rotation is really doing up in Milwaukee.
I am feeling good about the rotation in Milwaukee. The main reason why I feel this way is because there are no egotistical knuckle-heads. All 5 know what they have to do and our finding their roles. Chicago doesn’t have that luxury. They know who their #1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 is. It’s set in stone. In Milwaukee, the rotation is not and any of the 5 could step up and be the leader, thus keeping them on their toes.
It will be this kind of hunger in Milwaukee’s starting rotation that will surprise the media.
Scott Olson
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Scott,I hope you are right. I really like doug melvin. Phil