And so the Brewers' fan base goes into panic mode. At least I'm fully expecting it to after the Crew lost the first game of a four game set against the worst team in the Major League. The San Diego Padres defeated the Milwaukee Brewers 5-2 on Thursday night, giving the Brewers their fourth straight loss at home and preventing them from picking up a half game on the Cubs, Cards and Phils, who were all idle.
Jeff Suppan toed the rubber for his first start in September, and it wasn't much to behold. Soup looked pretty solid through the first three innings, giving up a run on a sac fly in the second. But the fourth inning brought trouble, as did the fifth and sixth innings. This time it was because he started walking folks. Before he was through, Soup left the bases loaded with one out in the sixth after giving up four runs and eventually a fifth on a sac fly after he left the game.
But it wasn't all Soup's fault. The defense that plagued the Brewers in the Mets series reared its ugly head once again, giving me nightmares of the 2007 team. Both Prince Fielder and Rickie Weeks played matador, yelling 'Ole' at hard hit ground balls at them. Prince's error lead to a run, while Rickie's prevented an easy 4-6-3 double play. This forced Suppan into pitching to a couple extra batters and bringing their top of the lineup around one last time. This seems a bit rash, and I realize it as I'm typing, but if the Brewers plan on bringing up Mat Gamel next season, they need to seriously consider moving both Rickie and Prince this offseason to sure up that right side. Gamel has improved considerably at the defensive end, but the Brewers are going to need a much better defensive first baseman over there to help slow this huge problem. Prince is by no means the worst defensive first baseman in the league, but he probably has the least range and because of his height is easily taken off the bag on bad throws.
Unfortunately for the Crew, this loss still could have been foiled. The bullpen was exceptional, especailly Carlos Villanueva, whose changeup was outright nasty yesterday evening, but the Brewers just could not put runs on the board when it counted. They went 0 for 9 with RISP, and picked up their only two runs via a long ball from the red hot JJ Hardy and an RBI ground out from Bill Hall after Mike Cameron tripled to lead off the second innings. While every starter had a hit in the game, no one could get it at the right time. You can call this unclutch if you want, but I don't believe in clutch. I call it an awful approach at the plate.
The biggest blip on the radar came in the fourth after Bill Hall and Jason Kendall singled and walked to lead off the inning. After a sac bunt from Suppan and an HBP on Weeks, the Brewers found the bases loaded with one out and their two best hitters at the plate. Hardy grounded out sharply to third baseman Kevin Kouzmanhoff, who threw out Hall at the plate, and Ryan Braun grounded into a routine play to short after trying to pull an outside pitch. Threat over, game over.
With that all being said, big-ups to Kevin Kouzmanhoff. The las ttime the Brewers faced the Padres, the Brewers dominated, only losing a barn burner to Jake Peavy. During those game Kouzmanhoff got absolutely handled at the hot corner. Every ball seemed like a hot shot at him and he just could not handle it. That wasn't the case on Tuesday night. Kevin was a damn vacuum cleaner, taking hits and runs away all night. So good defense takes the Crew down again.
CC Sabathia comes on tonight, and hopefully will be the stopper of this losing streak. In his last start against the Pads, CC went seven and gave up only one run. The Brewers ace is going for his a perfect 10-0 record, and could conceivably go 14-0 with the Brewers if he took these next five starts. If that's not a Cy Young, I don't know what is. The Padres are responding with Josh Geer, a rookie who had a solid debut last week. He's a righty, and I wouldn't be disappointed to see Brad Nelson get his first big league start just for the heck of it. It couldn't hurt, especially since he's probably seen him pitch before. I don't have time to figure that out, but it's a strong likelihood.
Records: Brewers (80-60); Padres (54-86)
Countdown to 92 Wins: 12 wins with 22 to play
Scoreboard Watching:
Chicago Cubs (5.0 GU): Idle
Philadelphia Phillies (4.0 GB): Idle
St. Louis Cardinals (5.0 GB): Idle
Houston Astros (6.0 GB): Idle
Down on the Farm:
Obviously the farm system is a little slow right now, with only the West Virginia Power and Helena Brewers doing any playing. The Power are playing in the playoffs right now after winning the second half championship, but were been unable to take their momentum into the postseason, at least in game one. They were destroyed by the Lake County Captains 10-4 in the opening game of a best of three series. The hits weren't lacking, but the pitching was, so let's hope these guys pull it together tonight, when they play game tonight. Evan Anundsen gets the start.
One final note. For those of you who don't know anything about the Arizona Fall League you can check out the main site at MLB.com. You can find all the info you really need in the Winter Ball section. But don't get all excited and run over there just yet. The rosters are up and everything, but they're not playing yet. Playing doesn't begin until October (the 8th I believe).