Random Acts of Baseball, The Brewers Against Cy Young Winners

Mar 14, 2013; Glendale, AZ, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Zack Greinke (left) and center fielder Matt Kemp (center) and starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw (right) walk to the dugout before a game against the Chicago Cubs at Camelback Ranch. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Over the course of a 162-game baseball season, there are a lot of meaningless and random occurrences. The Brewers are in the midst of one of those random occurrences right now.

Over their last 16 games, the Milwaukee Brewers have faced an opposing starting pitcher who had previously won a Cy Young award seven times. Over that entire 16-game stretch, the Crew is 10-6. Against the Cy Young winners, they are 6-1.

This has led to cries that the Brewers can’t hit bad pitching, because they are 4-5 in the games not started by Cy Young winners. But Jonathan Judge at Disciples of Uecker already debunked that notion.

Still, Brian Anderson and the rest of the Brewers announcing crew have made a point of bringing it up again and again that the Brewers are in the middle of this stretch where they beat good pitching and that the offense deserves much of the credit.

In the last 16 games, the Brewers have scored 66 runs, good for 4.125 runs per game. They have allowed just 51 runs, or 3.18 runs per game.

Against the Cy Young winners, the Brewers have scored 26 runs, good for 3.714 runs per game. But they have allowed just 15, or 2.14 runs per game.

It is really the Brewers pitching staff that has stepped up their game over the last half month. Let’s look at those, game-by-game.

1. July 30th: David Price went seven innings and allowed four runs to Milwaukee, but Yovani Gallardo tossed seven shut out innings to give Milwaukee the 5-0 win.
2. August 5th: Tim Lincecum went six innings and allowed three runs. Jimmy Nelson also allowed three runs, but went seven innings, and the Brewers took the 4-3 win over San Francisco’s bullpen.
3. August 7th: Jake Peavy went 5 2/3 innings and allowed three runs. Wily Peralta went 6 2/3 innings and allowed just one run. Milwaukee won 3-1.
4. August 9th: Zack Greinke went six innings and allowed four runs. Mike Fiers went eight innings and allowed just one run en route to a 4-1 Brewers win.
5. August 10th: Clayton Kershaw went eight innings and allowed just one run, beating Jimmy Nelson who went six innings and allowed two runs. The Dodgers won 5-1.
6. August 15th: Zack Greinke went five innings and didn’t allow a run. Jimmy Nelson went six innings and allowed two runs. The Brewers beat the Dodger bullpen late, to take a 6-3 win.
7. August 16th: Clayton Kershaw allowed three runs in nine innings of work but Yovani Gallardo allowed just one in eight innings as Milwaukee took the 3-2 win.

Now, to be perfectly honest, Jake Peavy and Tim Lincecum aren’t Cy Young caliber pitchers any more, but Price, Greinke and Kershaw are still aces. The Brewers will face another Cy Young winner this week when R.A. Dickey comes to town with the Blue Jays.

This is exactly the kind of pitching Milwaukee needs if they want to keep their lead over the Pirates and Cardinals.