Looper to the rescue

5-10

Brewers 3 - Phillies 1

Braden Looper (2-0, 2.12) and Yovanni Gallardo have proven to the be the ONLY productive pitchers in the rotation. One could even throw in Dave Bush, if he could only skip the first innings of his starts.

Looper pitched 6 scoreless innings and limited the Phillies to only 5 hits and two walks. A solid defensive outing could also be credited, as Looper did not strike out a single batter. Despite a surling wind that constantly shifted in direction, the Brewer outfielders were able to stay on their toes and make some difficult catches. All three outfielder (Braun, Cam, and Hart) had big grabs, most noteably Harts where he had to twist his torso at the last second to snatch a liner to the rightfield corner.

Todd Coffey, once again, assisted in the win by notching his second save. Of course, those who watched the game on tv or in person were probably sitting on the edge of their seats after Coffey gave up a blast to Jason Werth (solo-shot). But he hung in there and sealed the deal, striking out 2 but also giving up 3 hits. Regardless, he was efficient.

Additionally, the bullpen pulled a 180 and had a great night in Carlos Villanueva and Mark DeFilice who both threw hitless frames.

Offensively, JJ Hardy led the charge with a homerun (3) and a single. JJ is now batting .157 on the season. He'll start to come around.

Mike Cameron, probably the best pick-up by Doug Melvin in the past two years (besides CC of course) cracked another double and had 2 RBI's.

Prince Fielder (.170 average), Jason Kendall, and Ryan Braun all had hits, while Corey Hart added a pair (he he).

-Go figure...David Riske will undergo season ending surgery. What a joke.

-Ryan Braun is gunning for the All-Star game. He also had some choice words for his fellow teammates. I'm sure we all remember how he lashed out last year after the Boston series (swept). Personally, I like this. You have to call others on to the carpet...if you also criticsize your own mess-ups. Which he does. Meanwhile, Prince Fielder is quietly day-dreaming about becoming a Yankee.

"It's frustrating," said Braun. "If you don't make them swing the bat, you don't keep your defense in the game. You don't give yourself a chance to get anybody out. It's not just the walks. We're falling behind every hitter.
"The pitching obviously has been pretty bad but the offense has been pretty bad, the defense has been pretty bad. I don't think we've really done anything well the first 13 games of the season. We've got to find a way to turn it around.

This afternoon, Milwaukee and Philly square off in the rubber match.

Dave Bush (0-0) vs Cole Hammel (o-1)

Milwaukee will then board their Midwest Airlines jet and head south to Houston for a 3 game series at the juicebox.