That was rather demoralizing, wasn't it?

The Brewers weren't supposed to lose this game.  CC Sabathia was on the mound, and the offense was poised to breakout against a pitcher who had struggled greatly in his last two starts.  The bases were loaded with only one out in the first inning, for goodness sake!  Yet the Brewers lost to the Phillies, 5-2.  They are now behind 2-0 for the series. 

How did this happen?

There are a couple moments in the game to discuss.  Overall, the Brewers offense was not patient at the plate.  They swung at balls that were quite high, and they subsequently popped up an obnoxious amount of balls.  That's not what we need to discuss, however.  There are three different occasions that cost the Brewers the game.

First, Corey Hart single-handedly killed all the momentum the Brewers had in the first inning with one swing.  With the bases loaded and one out, Corey steps up to the plate.  Brett Myers had intentionally walked Prince Fielder to get to J.J. Hardy with the bases jacked, but Myers walked Hardy to give a 1-0 lead to the Crew.  After an intentional walk and another walk to Hardy, what does Corey Hart do?  He swings at the first pitch, grounds into an inning-ending double play on a very weakly hit grounder to the pitcher.  Inning over.  Momentum over.

With all do respect to Corey, what were you possibly thinking at that point?  Myers had clearly shown that he had no feel for the strike zone thus far in the game.  He had just walked in a run the batter before.  What are you doing swinging at the first pitch?  With the sacks full, it is generally the point of view that the first pitch will be the best one to hit, so I can kind of see what he was thinking.  Kind of.  

You have to make Brett Myers throw you a strike at that point.  He hadn't proven anything that first inning.  Corey cannot go jumping at a ball out of the zone.  That is only helping Myers out.  That swing ultimately calmed the right-hander down, and he handcuffed the Brewers offense from that point on in the game.  All of that arguably happened because Hart showed absolutely no plate discipline in a very important situation.  I'm not saying Corey would have definitely got a hit by working the count a bit, but he could have at least made a little better effort.  That swing was pathetic.

Secondly, that at-bat against Brett Myers needs to be discussed a bit.  CC Sabathia has Myers down in the count with two strikes, so everyone in the world thought Sabathia was going to get Myers out and stop the bleeding at one run.  

That didn't happen.  CC got caught up in the moment in a big game and tried to get too fine with his pitches.  Instead of blowing Myers away with a 95mph fastball on the outer half of the plate, Milwaukee's ace fooled around with off-speed pitch after off-speed pitch.  Myers fought off some pitches and ended up drawing a walk that ended up leading to the game-changing grand slam by Shane Victorino.

Just throw the fastball.  Myers was clearly not going to put a good swing on the ball.  His front foot stepped towards the dugout first before he ever swung the bat.  He was not comfortable in the box even a little bit.  The fans even gave him a standing ovation when he barely put the bat on the ball.  You know he cannot handle anything on the outside part of the plate.  He was looking for a walk.  Myers was swinging so defensively at the plate it wasn't even funny.  A fastball right down the middle is either a weak grounder to second base or a strike out.  Instead, CC tried to be too fine and walked Myers.  That turned out to be the biggest play in the game.

Next, let's fast forward the game to Shane Victorino's at-bat.  CC again had him down in the count 1-2.  He had been ahead of Sabathia's fastball both at-bats thus far, so I thought it made sense to go down and away with a change-up at that point in the game.  Instead, CC tried to bury a slider down and in -- which has admittedly been his bread and butter all second half.  The southpaw hung it badly, and Victorino deposited it into the left field stands.  5-1 Phillies.  Game over.

The Brewers looked like they wanted to make it interesting in the eighth inning.  Prince Fielder was up with runners and first and second with two outs.  I really wanted a long ball right there to tie the game up.  

Again, not meant to be.  Fielder got a case of Hart-itis and swung at the first pitch, weakly grounding out to the second baseman on a pitch that was far too in off the plate.  Would it really be that big of a deal to take the first pitch in that situation?  I would love the answer to be no, but that's obviously not the case.  Taking a pitch is just too difficult.  I understand they are on a big stage and want to be the hero, but wildly swinging at the first pitch doesn't get that done.  Are you really ambushing anyone at the plate if the pitcher knows you're going to swing at the first pitch?  There's a reason no one throws Corey Hart a first-pitch strike.  He's going to swing at it anyway, so why put it down the middle?

I had a feeling this was going to happen this evening.  I wrote about it yesterday in the Round 'em Up.  And no, CC didn't struggle in the second inning because he was pitching on short rest for the fourth consecutive game.  He struggled because he kept trying to throw off-speed pitches to a pitcher.  He struggled because he couldn't make pitches when he had a guy down with two strikes.  Sabathia threw the ball pretty well until he got two strikes on a right-handed batter.  He just couldn't put them away.

Now the Brewers are in a tough spot.  Their backs are against the wall.  Instead of coming home to Milwaukee with a tied series at 1-1, the Crew has to win the last three games in a row to make it to the NLCS.  Can they do it?  Of course they can.  It's just going to be very difficult.  The Brewers hitters will have to show a heckuva lot more patience than they did Thursday.

It's not going to be easy, Milwaukee.  Your Milwaukee Brewers need you behind them Saturday night to get the job done.  Show up in strength and support the team that brought playoff baseball to Brew Town for the first time in 26 years.  They need you just as much as you need them.

Let's do this.