Five Run Sixth Inning Dooms Brewers In Florida

All season long I have been proud of how the bullpen has done a pretty good job of keeping the games close giving the Brewers chances to win, but that was not the case last night. The Brewers bullpen was just plain horrible in a 7-4 loss in Florida. The Brewers undoing was the sixth inning where the Marlins sent eleven men to the plate in a five run outburst that sealed the Brewers fate this night.

Jeff Suppan started the game and really did not pitch that bad he gave up two runs and seven hits in five innings of work. Not great numbers, but good enough to win a game. Now the bullpen did not help Suppan much. The first out of the pen was Jorge Julio who  faced six batters and allowed five runs, four earned and did not get anybody out. The rest of the bullpen was not bad at all, but Julio killed the Brewers with his performance. When you have leads like this you have to close teams out especially if your on the road.

The Brewers cannot give games away like this and expect to win their division. Right now the Brewers are not hitting like we know they can so we need the bullpen to shut the door when called upon and last night that did not happen. Hopefully this will not happen a lot this season. Tonight the Brewers send Manny Parra to the mound and hopefully he will have better command of his pitches. In his last outing he did not have great control which he needs to be effective.