41-34: Greinke finally steps up to be the ACE

Right when the Brewers needed a bonified ace to step to the plate and deliver a key win, Greinke took front and center to deliver last night.  Man did he look good.  He went 7 complete innings and gave up 1 run on 4 hits and he struck out 10. Most importantly, the ace has only given up 9 walks this season.  That's insane, considering the debacles that Milwaukee fans have had to endure during the past 5 years (even more!).  Remember last year at the start of the season?  When Suppan almost walked in the entire Cubs offense?  Or Dave Bush giving up a bunch of walks in the the opening game of last year's Minnesota series in Minneapolis?  Pathetic garbage is what we're used to, but now we have Greinke & Marcum.  Oh, and Wold & Gallardo aren't too shabby either. The verdict is still out on Narv Dog.

The Brew Crew jumped out to an early lead and never looked back.  Yuni Bentancourt homered (finally) for his 4th of the season. The rest of the line-up struggled, but Jonathon Lucroy tallied 3 key hits.  Weeks, Hart, Morgan, and McGehee all threw up the golden sombero while pinch hitters Wilson & Gomez blanked as well....not good! 

Shauwn Marcum will start today's rubber match game.  I must say that this suprises me greatly.  I figured he would sit at least one start and Estrada would make a spot start or flipflop the rotation with Wolf. 

MLB's Mike Baumann feels that the Brewers are inconsistent, but he puts it as politely as possible.  When they're good, they're exceptional--when they're bad, they are just below average.  Hopefully by late July they'll be firing on all cylinders; right now they're still getting used to each other. 

This blog discusses the question of what mid-season call-ups are there in Milwaukee's farm system?  Personally, I can only see 1 or 2 being called up.  Gamel should be one of them, but there's  no way in hell that Roenicke & Melvin are going to bring him up just so he ride the pine.  My guess is that Heckathorn (for a RP spot) and Amaury Rivas (RP as well).  Of course, it all depends on how Parra & Saito are doing by late july. 

Taylor Jungmann, NCAA's POY award winner, and the Brewers are going to start negotiations since the Longhorns were outsted from the World Series.  They need to get him signed right away so that he can hopefully come out of the pen in October. 

That crap hole down Wrigley Field is falling apart, literally...

It was nice to see the Cardinals implode last night against the Phillies.