Brewers can’t get anything going against Garza in finale

I didn’t get to see much of today’s game. Stupid day games during school… And what makes it worse is that the Brewers never win while I’m at school.

The Brewers fell to the Cubs today, 7-1. That means the magic number will remain at three for the time being, while we wait for the outcome of the Cardinals-Mets game (the Mets are currently winning, 4-3 in the third inning). Anyway, today was the Brewers’ final road game of the season, and it did not go well. Matt Garza threw a complete game, despite some shaky defense from his team in the ninth inning. Garza became the fifth pitcher to go the distance against the Brewers this year, the others being Tim Hudson, Jaime Garcia, Cole Hamels, and Chris Carpenter.

Randy Wolf did not have a good start, going six innings while giving up six runs on 10 hits. He walked one and struck out five. Now, I’m not one to make excuses, but it was obvious Wolf’s start took a turn for the worse after he was hit in the left forearm (his pitching arm) while trying to lay down a bunt in the third inning. He was cleared to stay in the game, but Wolf said afterwards that the injury affected his cutter.

The biggest blow of the game came in the sixth inning on Marlon Byrd’s three-run homer that broke the game open for the Cubs. Coincidentally enough, the pitch Byrd hit out was a cutter from Wolf.

According to Mike Bauman of MLB.com, the NL MVP race is now a two-horse race between Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder. I was hoping that someone wouldn’t say that, because now it’ll probably jinx both Braun and Fielder, and Matt Kemp or Justin Upton will end up winning. Out of those four, Braun is my choice (not because I’m biased, simply because he’s been the most consistent out of them). Kemp will for sure get votes taken away from him because he’s on a non-contending team in the Dodgers (that’s just how the MVP race works). And I don’t know about Upton. I know he’s having a great season, but for some reason there’s just something about him that makes me think he’s not going to win the MVP.

There’s also been talk recently of Albert Pujols winning the MVP, but I just can’t see that happening this year. He’s finally over .300 (he was hitting .304 to begin the day) and he leads the league in home runs, but his RBI total is down. Before last year, I would have also said that he was injured for two weeks, but Josh Hamilton was injured for nearly a month and still won the AL MVP in 2010, so I guess I can’t use that excuse anymore. But again, I don’t see Pujols winning it this year (I don’t even think the Cards making the playoffs could help at this point).

After ANOTHER September off-day tomorrow, the Brewers will start their final homestand of the year on Friday, and probably clinch the division in front of home fans, hopefully against the Marlins in the first series. Yovani Gallardo (17-10, 3.60 ERA) will go for the Brewers, and he’s coming off a 13-strikeout performance against the Reds his last time out. He’s struck out a total of 25 batters over his last 13 innings, and is now in fifth place for strikeouts in the NL. And I thought his strikeout numbers were down this year… Anyway, Gallardo has crushed the Marlins in his career, going 3-0 with a 1.69 ERA against them.

The Marlins will counter with Chris Volstad (5-12, 5.13 ERA), who, in my opinion, really hasn’t pitched as bad as his record and ERA show. He’s been victim of low run support, especially lately. Volstad is 1-1 with a 1.86 ERA in his career against the Brewers.

UPDATE: The Cardinals ended up winning against the Mets, 6-5. The Cards were actually losing, 4-3, but Pedro Beato gave up a go-ahead homer to David Freese in the seventh inning. Anyway, the Braves are choosing the worst time of year to fall apart. They lost again today, and now the Braves lead the WC by 1.5 games. And a few weeks ago I thought all the races were over…

Brewers can’t recover after Westbrook’s grand slam

I hate to say it, but the Brewers’ hot streak may have officially come to an end tonight.

The Brewers lost to the Cardinals today, 8-3, in what was probably one of the Brewers’ worst games since the All-Star break. It was mostly the pitching that failed the Brewers today- Randy Wolf had an extremely disappointing start. He went just five innings while giving up six runs on seven hits. He struck out three and didn’t walk anybody, but he did hit two batters, and both of those hit batters proved costly.

The Cardinals scored eight runs, but four of them came in a very bitter way. Wolf hit David Freese and Lance Berkman to start the fourth inning, then allowed a single to Yadier Molina (no idea how Freese didn’t score on it, but that wouldn’t matter). Then, after a missed double play chance in which the Brewers only recorded one out, Jake Westbrook, the opposing pitcher, hit a grand slam.

Yes, the opposing pitcher hit a grand slam. But, Westbrook was actually pretty lucky, in my opinion. First off, the ball was a line drive and barely stayed fair. I actually thought it was going to be foul off the bat. Secondly, it appeared as if Westbrook barely even swung at Wolf’s pitch, which looked like a cutter on the inside corner. But, Westbrook must have gotten good wood on it to send it that far and keep it fair.

But today just wasn’t Wolf’s day. On top of Westbrook’s slam, he gave up two solo homers in the first inning to Rafael Furcal (big surprise) and Albert Pujols (another big surprise). But, Wolf’s career numbers coming into today weren’t great- he was 7-7 with a 3.80 ERA. This is why I kind of wish Chris Narveson would have been starting today, just because of the success he’s had against the Cards in his career. Instead, Narveson came in for one scoreless inningn of relief.

Anyway, there isn’t much else to say about this game, so I’m going to move onto a topic that starts to come into effect tomorow: expanded rosters. Tomorrow is September 1st, meaning that the normal 25-man rosters expand to 40-man rosters. So far, the rumors I’m hearing are that the first September call-ups will be catcher Martin Maldanado and outfielder Logan Schafer. And starting pitcher Mike Fiers shouldn’t be far behind- he tossed a three-hit shutout today for the Nashville Sounds (AAA affiliate of the Brewers) and is 7-0 with a 1.25 ERA in Triple-A. Also, one more move- center fielder Carlos Gomez will be returning from the DL tomorrow, so he should jump right back into the center field platoon with Nyjer Morgan.

By the way, Taylor Green made his long-awaited Major League debut today in the fifth inning as a pinch-hitter for Wolf. He ripped a Westbrook changeup into right field for his first career hit in his first career at-bat. And I can just tell that this kid has a bright future with the Brewers.

The Brewers will try to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Cardinals tomorrow in an afternoon game. The Brewers will send Yovani Gallardo (15-8, 3.37 ERA) to the mound, and he’ll be in search of his 16th win. However, it’ll be against an opponent that he’s mightily struggled against in his career. Gallardo is 1-5 with a 4.91 ERA in his career against the Cards.

The Cardinals will counter with rookie Brandon Dickson (0-0, 0.00 ERA). He pitched in a few relief appearances earlier this season, but this will be his first Major League start. Green may get the start at third tomorrow, though, because he has experience against Dickson from the Minor Leagues.

Wolf stymies Cards, gives Brewers cushion in Central

9:49p Last night’s win against the Cards was big. And that’s what made this win even bigger.

Brewers-Cardinals Wrap-Up

The Brewers defeated the Cardinals again today, 5-1. Randy Wolf may have had, in my opinion, his best start of the year. After giving up five runs against the Cards in his last start, he made them look foolish all night tonight, and went eight stellar innings while giving up a run on five hits. He struck out one and walked none. Wolf also only needed 92 pitches to get through eight, but he was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the ninth because there were runners on base.

The Brewers jumped on Cardinals starter Jake Westbrook right away in the first when Prince Fielder hit a bases loaded sacrifice fly. Unfortunately, Westbrook, being the groundball pitcher that he is, got a double play to get out of that inning after Fielder’s sac fly, but that wouldn’t matter as the game went on.

The Cardinals answered in the bottom of the first on Albert Pujols’ sacrifice fly, but that was the only run they would be getting in the game.

The Brewers took the lead back in the third on Fielder’s RBI double and Yuniesky Betancourt’s RBI single, and that would be it until the ninth inning.

Westbrook ended up going eight solid innings, giving up three runs on six hits. He struck out four, but the number that stuck out at me was his five walks, since he’s typically a control pitcher.

Anyway, the Brewers tacked on two more runs in the ninth inning on Corey Hart’s two-run single. Cards manager Tony La Russa also got ejected that inning, but I’ll have more on that later in the post.

Francisco Rodriguez finished his first game as a Brewer, in relief of Wolf. He got into a bit of a jam after giving up back-to-back singles to David Freese and Skip Schumaker, but got a groundout to end the game. If Rodriguez hadn’t waived his $17.5 million option, which would have come into effect if he finished 55 games, when he came to the Brewers, we obviously wouldn’t have seen him finishing out that game today. But, I guess that’s not a burden to Rodriguez or the Brewers anymore, thank goodness.

La Russa gets ejected on bad call

As I said earlier, La Russa got ejected from this game in the ninth inning. He was ejected for arguing that Josh Wilson, who bunted his way on, was out, and was angry because first base umpire Greg Gibson called him safe.

Replays actually showed that Wilson was out at first and that La Russa was right, but the first baseman Pujols didn’t help out too much with that. The throw from reliever Marc Rzepcyznski was wild, so Pujols had to step off the base for a second to make sure the throw to didn’t get by him. Pujols tried to come back down and first base, which he did, but he stepped on first base repeatedly, thinking he hadn’t touched the bag. That obviously led Gibson to think he didn’t touch the bag, hence calling Wilson safe.

Anyway, whether or not Wilson was safe, it’s always awesome to see La Russa get ejected, especially after the offensive remarks he made about the Brewers and their fans.

De La Cruz called up from Triple-A

Pitcher Frankie De La Cruz was called up from Triple-A earlier today. He’s one of the candidates to replace injured starter Chris Narveson in the rotation until Narvy can return from the DL.

Apparently, De La Cruz isn’t guaranteed to start in place of Narveson yet. Ron Roenicke said he may give reliever Marco Estrada a chance for a spot start, but, with how he’s looked out of the ‘pen lately, I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.

First five game lead since ’82…

That’s right. With tonight’s win, this marks the first time the Brewers have had a five game lead in a division since 1982. But, they weren’t leading the NL Central. They were leading the American League East. That was back when there were only east and west divisions, and when the Brewers were still in the AL (they moved to the NL in 1998).

But that ’82 year was probably the best year in Brewers history. Stars like Paul Molitor, Jim Gantner, Robin Yount, Gorman Thomas… They had all-stars up and down that lineup, including Mike Caldwell in the rotation. Now, I’m not going to go into comparing our team this year to the one in ’82, but the Brewers went to the World Series that year. And who’d they lose to? The Cardinals. At least it isn’t possible for the Brewers to lose to them in the World Series anymore, considering they’re in the same league (and same division). But I’m happy to say we’ve pretty much had the Cards’ number all year so far.

Up next for the Crew…

The Brewers will go for a sweep of the Cardinals tomorrow. Yovani Gallardo (13-7, 3.56 ERA) will go for the Brewers and look for his 14th win, which would tie a career-high for him. Gallardo is 1-4 with a 4.66 ERA against the Cardinals in his career, but his first win against them came earlier this year, when he no-hit them through the first seven innings.

The Cards will counter with Chris Carpenter (7-8. 3.75 ERA). He’s having a better season than his record shows, but has struggled mightily against the Brewers in his career. He’s 4-5 with a 5.50 ERA against them. That includes in 0-2 mark against them this year, during which Carpenter’s ERA against the Brewers is 8.18.

Box Score

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Milwaukee Brewers	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	2		5	8	0
St. Louis Cardinals	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		1	7	1

Milwaukee Brewers

Player	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Corey Hart, RF	3	1	1	2	2	0	1	.277
Nyjer Morgan, CF	5	0	1	0	0	1	3	.324
Ryan Braun, LF	4	1	1	0	1	0	1	.321
Prince Fielder, 1B	2	1	1	2	1	0	0	.304
Casey McGehee, 3B	3	0	0	0	1	1	2	.235
Yuniesky Betancourt, SS	4	0	1	1	0	1	4	.265
Jerry Hairston, 2B	4	1	1	0	0	0	1	.264
George Kottaras, C	3	0	1	0	0	1	0	.224
a-Josh Wilson, PH	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	.262
Randy Wolf, P	3	0	1	0	0	0	1	.190
b-Jonathan Lucroy, PH-C	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.286
Total	31	5	8	5	5	4	13

a-Hit a sacrifice bunt for Kottaras in the 9^th.

b-Hit a sacrifice bunt for Wolf in the 9^th.

BATTING

2B: Kottaras (4), Fielder (28).

RBI: Fielder 2 (87), Betancourt (50), Hart 2 (43).

Team RISP: 4-for-9.

Team LOB: 7.

BASERUNNING

SB: Braun (21).

FIELDING

DP: (McGehee-Hairston-Fielder).

Milwaukee Brewers

Player	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Randy Wolf (W, 9-8	8.0	5	1	1	0	1	0	3.48
Francisco Rodriguez	1.0	2	0	0	0	1	0	2.96

Pitches-strikes: Wolf 92-61, Rodriguez 14-10.

Groundouts-flyouts: Wolf 13-5, Rodriguez 1-1.

Batters faced: Wolf 28, Rodriguez 5.

Brewers return the favor in extra innings in St. Louis

11:13p The Cardinals won a game similar to this one last week in Milwaukee. They got lucky on a bloop RBI single by Lance Berkman to end an extremely dramatic extra inning game that was a crushing loss for the Brewers. Tonight wasn’t as dramatic, but gave the Cards a taste of their own medicine.

Brewers-Cardinals Wrap-Up

The Brewers took down the Cardinals tonight, 5-3, in a 10 inning game. Both the Brewers and Cardinals had a lot of chances that they didn’t take advantage of early on. That included a fifth inning in which the Brewers had the bases loaded and no outs against Cardinals starter Edwin Jackson, but allowed him to get out of it with no damage done in just four pitches.

The Brewers got to Jackson in the third inning, when Corey Hart hit a two-run homer off him. From there, Brewers starter Shaun Marcum pretty much cruised through the first four innings, until that pivotal fifth inning happened.

Marcum led off the fifth with a single. Jackson then walked Hart to put runners on first and second. After that, Nyjer Morgan tried to lay down a sacrifice bunt, but wound up reaching first because of a wide throw by Cardinals catcher Gerald Laird, who struggled behind the plate all night due to Yadier Molina’s suspension. Anyway, this loaded the bases with no outs.

Then, the Brewers did what they seem to do so well on the road. They got Jackson out of the inning on four pitches.

Some of it was just bad luck. Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder got themselves out on back-to-back pitches with line drives directly at infielders. Then, with Casey McGehee batting, Laird let a pitch get away from him, so Marcum, who was at third, started to come home. Sadly, Laird recovered quickly, and Marcum had already gone too far down the line, getting him caught in a rundown. Marcum was trying to fake out Laird and third baseman David Freese by rapidly moving back and forth, but, while doing that, rolled over his ankle and collapsed. Freese tagged him out, and that was that- inning over.

Marcum came back out for the fifth and sixth innings, but had to labor through both, and allowed the Cards to tie the game. In the fifth inning, Corey Patterson got the Cardinals on the board with an RBI single. In the sixth, Jonathan Lucroy gave the Brewers an insurance run with an RBI single, but that wouldn’t matter, since Laird and Freese both hit RBI singles in the bottom of the inning to tie the game at 3-3.

Then, until the 10th inning, it was a battle of the bullpens. Takashi Saito and Francisco Rodriguez combined for two scoreless innings, then LaTroy Hawkins got Albert Pujols to fly out in the ninth inning to get out of a jam and send the game to extras.

The Cardinals put in reliever Octavio Dotel to pitch the 10th. Dotel had been lights out for the Cards since being acquired from the Blue Jays before the Trade Deadline. That is, until today.

Morgan led off the 10th with a single. Braun followed up with a strikeout to finish his disappointing night, but then Fielder beat the shift with a single, which advanced Morgan to third. McGehee then got the game-winning RBI with a double that scored Morgan. Yuniesky Betancourt added an insurance run with a sacrifice fly to set the stage for John Axford in the bottom of the inning. Axford would come in and record is 33rd save of the year to seal the Brewers 5-3 win.

Breaking: Narveson gets stitches, to be out for awhile

Alright, I just heard this on Brewers Live as I was writing this article, and wanted to get it out as soon as I could. Brewers No. 5 starter Chris Narveson apparently sliced his pitching hand (his left hand) open and had to get eight stitches. Ron Roenicke said that Narveson would definitely be out for awhile, and that he would speak to GM Doug Melvin about what to do for a fifth starter until Narvy can return.

Narveson wasn’t having an extremely spectacular year- he’s 8-6 with a 4.49 ERA- but, in my opinion, was putting up decent numbers, especially for a No. 5 starter. The Brewers have a few options for a replacement, and I’ll put out a few of my ideas in a post later. Anyway, I’ll continue with this one now.

Up next for the Crew…

The Brewers play the second game of this three-game set in St. Louis tomorrow night. Randy Wolf (8-8, 3.61 ERA) will go for the Brewers and will try to rebound from his last start, which was also against the Cardinals. He gave up five runs in six innings at Miller Park, but still got the win. He had one start earlier this year against the Cards at Busch Stadium, where he got shelled for six runs. Wolf is 6-7 with a 4.01 ERA against the Cardinals in his career.

The Cardinals will counter with Jake Westbrook (9-5, 4.83 ERA), whose record is somewhat deceptive to the way he’s pitched this year. In most of his starts, he’s been great through the first five innings, but can’t get out of the sixth inning. This happened in Westbrook’s only start against the Brewers this year, which was at Miller Park. Westbrook is 0-1 with a 2.84 ERA against the Brewers in his career.

McGehee, Brewers offense stick it to La Russa, Cards in finale

4:15p The game today made me feel much better about the game last night.

Cardinals-Brewers Wrap-Up

The Brewers took down the Cardinals today, 10-5, and answered to all the crap Tony La Russa and the Cardinals pulled last night. Casey McGehee was the star of the offense today, putting his season-long slump behind him to crank out three home runs, all off Cardinals starter Edwin Jackson.

The Cardinals got on the board first against Randy Wolf in the first inning on a David Freese RBI single. The Brewers immediately answered in the bottom half, however, on a solo shot by Corey Hart and a two-run homer by McGehee (the first of his three).

Unfortunately, the Cardinals struck again immediately in the second inning when Rafael Furcal hit a go-ahead three-run shot off Wolf to give the Cards a 4-3 lead.

The Brewers took the lead again in the third inning on McGehee’s second homer of the day, 5-4. The Brewers also got a few runs in the fifth, courtesy of some questionable Cardinals defense. Prince Fielder hit an RBI groundout to score Nyjer Morgan, then, with Yuniesky Betancourt on third, catcher Yadier Molina let a pitch bounce right off his glove for a passed ball, so Betancourt was able to score to give the Brewers a 7-4 lead.Then, in the sixth, Hart hit a bloop RBI single to extend the Brewers lead to 8-5. In the same inning, Morgan struck out swining, but he tried to catch Hart stealing second. The throw bounced past second baseman Ryan Theriot into center field, which allowed George Kottaras, who was on third, to score.

The Brewers would get one more run on McGehee’s third home run of the game in seventh inning.

McGehee is back.

Hopefully McGehee’s three home run game today is a sign that his season-long slump is finally over. He came into today with just five home runs all season, including just three in his last 355 plate appearances. Today, he hit three in just four plate appearances. He also finally got his batting average up to .240 (it was .235 to start the day, and had been hovering around .220 all season).

So, now that we’ve got both McGehee and Betancourt going in the second half, we’re in pretty good shape to make this pennant race interesting.

Tony La Russa is the new Ned Yost

La Russa, who supposedly thought his bullpen was exhausted from an 11 inning game last night, let his starter, Edwin Jackson, get completely hammered today. Jackson labored through seven innings while giving up 10 runs (eight earned) on 14 hits. He walked one and struck out six. He also gave up four home runs (three of them to McGehee).

Anyway, this immediately reminded me of what Ned Yost used to do to Brewers’ starters, and is now doing to Royals’ starters. Yost would leave guys in far longer than they should have been in and just let their ERA get destroyed. Actually, I’ve got a great example of what Yost did to an innocent Royals pitcher earlier this year. Vin Mazarro, who was actually in for a relief appearance, gave up 14 runs in just 2 1/3 innings because Yost just refused to take him out. When I saw La Russa doing that to Jackson today, I immediately thought of that Yost incident with the Royals.https://breakingwi.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post-new.php

Hawkins annoys the crap out of La Russa

This was probably one of the best parts of the game today. Hawkins, who was in to pitch the eighth inning, did his weird thing from the stretch where he never stops to look at the catcher and just keeps going, almost like a windup. But, he doesn’t do it for all his pitches.

Anyway, La Russa, who had probably been looking for something to complain about all day, came out and started yelling at the umpire that it was a quick pitch. The umpire said something to him, but apparently didn’t care, because he let Hawkins keep doing his quick pitch thing. In fact, Hawkins, who noticed that La Russa was ticked about it, went on to do it four times in a row after La Russa complained. So it was nice to see at least one guy on the Brewers standing up to that joke of a manager.

Up next for the Crew…

The Brewers have an off-day tomorrow, but will start their next road trip in Houston on Friday. Yovani Gallardo (12-7, 3.89 ERA) will go for the Brewers and look for win number 13. Gallardo has dominated the Astros in his career, going 9-2 with a 3.00 ERA against them. That includes his 2-0 mark against them this year, during which Gallardo has a 2.77 ERA against the Astros.

The Astros will counter with J.A. Happ (4-13, 6.01 ERA), who, as I’ve mentioned before, is having an awful season. He is 2-1 with a 4.76 ERA against the Brewers in his career, including his last start against them, which resulted in a loss.

Elsewhere around the division…

• The Cubs and Pirates play tonight at 6:05 PM CT. They are 16 and six games back, respectively. Also, I should mention that the Pirates will fall under .500 if they lose tonight.
• The Reds and Astros play at 7:05 PM CT tonight. They are seven and 25 game back, respectively.

Box Score

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
St. Louis Cardinals	1	3	0	0	0	1	0	0	0		5	11	1
Milwaukee Brewers	3	0	2	0	2	2	1	0	X		10	15	1

Milwaukee Brewers

Player	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Corey Hart, RF	5	1	2	2	0	1	2	.278
Nyjer Morgan, CF	5	1	2	0	0	1	1	.328
Ryan Braun, LF	4	2	2	0	0	0	2	.324
Prince Fielder, 1B	4	1	1	1	0	0	2	.296
Casey McGehee, 3B	4	3	3	5	0	0	1	.240
Yuniesky Betancourt, SS	4	0	1	0	0	1	0	.257
Felipe Lopez, 2B	3	1	2	0	1	0	1	.224
George Kottaras, C	4	1	1	0	0	2	2	.219
Randy Wolf, P	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	.179
a-Mark Kotsay, PH	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	.243
b-Jerry Hairston, PH	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	.267
Total	36	10	15	8	1	6	13

a-Grounded out for Wolf in the 6^th.

b-Singled for Hawkins in the 8^th.

BATTING

2B: Braun (27), Kottaras (3).

HR: Hart (15), McGehee 3 (8).

RBI: Hart (38), McGehee 5 (48), Fielder (79).

Team RISP: 2-for-9.

Team LOB: 4.

BASERUNNING

SB: Hart (4).

FIELDING
E: McGehee (15).

Outfield assists: Braun.

DP: 3 (Betancourt-Lopez-Fielder 2, Braun-McGehee-Lopez).

Milwaukee Brewers

Player	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Randy Wolf (W, 8-8)	6.0	9	5	5	2	2	1	3.61
Kameron Loe	1.0	1	0	0	0	1	0	4.15
LaTroy Hawkins	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1.83
John Axford	1.0	1	0	0	1	1	0	2.41

Pitches-strikes: Wolf 113-72, Loe 10-8, Hawkins 10-7, Axford 22-13.

Groundouts-flyouts: Wolf 6-5, Loe 1-0, Hawkins 1-0, Axford 1-0.

Batters faced: Wolf 28, Loe 3, Hawkins 3, Axford 5.