Brewers get out of Colorado with a split

The Brewers are a very hard team to figure out.  Some nights, they look like they could beat any team, any time, any where.  Then there are those other nights, where I am fairly certain that my co-ed softball team could give them a tough time.  Thus was the case this weekend.  In the first two games of the series, the Brewers were outscored by a total of 16-4.  Yet, in the final two games they scored 12 runs and got out of the mile-high city with a split.  Talk about a good way for this team to start it’s 11 game road trip!!

I want to go over a few things from this weekend, but first here were the final scores:

Colorado 12  vs  Milwaukee 3

Colorado 4  vs  Milwaukee 0

Colorado 7  vs  Milwaukee 8

Colorado 3  vs  Milwaukee 4

There is no point in talking about the first game in this series.  It was like watching a video game, but without any home runs.  Base hit, after base hit, after base hit.  Yo could not get guys bats to miss, no matter how hard he tried.  There is the re-cap of game 1.

Game 2 was a little more interesting, even though we were shut out.  Chris Narveson is the ultimate riddle to me.  He looked terrific on the mound on Friday night, but the offense took the night off.  The Rockies pitcher, Juan Nicasio, is another guy to add to the list of young pitchers the Brewers can’t handle.  This kid, who I had never heard of before, sliced and diced our lineup.  We mustered 4 total hits, of which T-Plush (Nyjer Morgan) and Prince Fielder had 2 a piece.

     Game 3 was by far the most exciting game of the series.  Early on in this game it looked like we were going to be shutout again.  Then Corey Hart stepped up and socked a 2-run homer in the 5th inning and that seemed to jumpstart the offense.  Manager Ron Roenicke called the suicide squeeze in the Top of the 7th, which Nyjer Morgan laid down perfectly.  Through 6 and a half innings, we had a 5-3 lead, then LaTroy Hawkins and Kameron Loe combined to give up 3 runs in the bottom of the 7th.  Then something happened in the 8th inning, something that absolutely blew my mind.  Click here to watch.  It was the finest contribution Betancourt has made to this offense all season.  Then in the Top of the 9th, with the score tied at 6’s, Rickie Wekks crushes the ball to center field for a two-run blast.  That put the Brewers up to stay. 

Side Note:  K-Rod made his first Brewers appearance and pitched a scoreless 8th inning, which made him the winning pitcher.  Welcome to Milwaukee big guy.  Since Saturday was my birthday, I will assume you did this for me personally.

And then yesterday happened.  Since Saturday was my Birthday, Sunday was a day of rest, to say the least.  To be totally honest, I was fading in and out of this game pretty regularly.  What I did see was Casey McGehee taking some nice swings.  Maybe things are starting to turn around for him.  I don’t want to get too excited just yet, but it is very nice to see him having 2 hit games again.  The big news of this game was the neck injury of Shaun Marcum.  Shaun made an amazing diving play to throw out Dexter Fowler on a bunt attempt.  Early news is that it is just some stiffness and he is not expected to miss much time, if any.  One other piece of interesting news, is Rickie Weeks batting 5th in the order.  Clearly, Weeks has not been effected by this switch at all.  The team won both games that Weeks has batted 5th, just saying.

So, even after the way this series started, the Brewers get out of Denver with 2 wins and are the sole NL Central leaders.  Pittsburgh and St. Louis are each a half-game back.

Ryan Braun is still day-to-day with that calf-strain.  Roenicke pulled him in the 6th inning of Saturday’s game, and they decided to rest him on Sunday…even though he pinch hit in the 9th.

K-Rod seems to fit into a “set-up”” role (if you want to call it that), quite nicely.  The way this bullpen has been pitching though, every inning should be treated like it is a save situation.  This deal is going to pay major dividends over the next few months.  Plus, I think the change of scenery has given K-Rod a little extra juice on that fastball.

Tonight Randy Wolf takes the mound in Arizona.  This game could be interesting for Prince Fielder, considering just a few nights ago he was launching balls 400 plus feet out of Chase Field.  Let’s hope he carries that momentum into this 4 game series with the D’Backs.

Hope everyone had a terrific weekend.  I sure did.  Thanks to everyone who sent me B-Day wishes, it was greatly appreciated.

Go Brewers!!