It was would have been nice to get out of Houston with at least a win on Sunday after what had been a depressing weekend, but Eric Gagne had a bad day and the club lost a heartbreaker in 12 innings on a Hunter Pence walk-off homer off Mitch Stetter. The tone for the series was set Friday afternoon when word circulated that Yovanni Gallardo had not in fact dodged the injury bullet during the Chicago finale and was instead probably lost for the season with a torn ACL in his drive leg. The seriousness of that injury to the Brewers was only hammered home more while watching young starters Carlos Villanueva and Manny Parra struggle the third time through the Astros' order on Friday and Saturday as Milwaukee gave back leads and lost both games. It was certainly no lift to anyone either to have well-liked Derrick Turnbow escorted off the twenty-five-man roster on Friday. Losing two good people and players as well as three winnable games is no way to spend a weekend.
Sheets recorded six strikeouts to get within one of Teddy Higuera's career franchise record of 1,081 and will now almost certainly equal and surpass the record in front of the Brewers' fans at Miller Park next weekend against the Cardinals. It may well happen on Saturday afternoon on national television. I am looking forward to seeing that moment, having seen every one of Sheets' K's in his career in person. This could be the last season in a Milwaukee uniform for Sheets, a free-agent-to-be. I've always wanted to see Sheets pitch in the post-season, especially because of that memorable performance, a three-hit shutout, in the Gold Medal game against Cuba in the '00 Olympics. I have a feeling he would be hard to beat in a huge game, but it won't be easy to get to that game now that Gallardo is down. Sheets must stay healthy for the Brewers to have a chance in the Central Division (said the master of the obvious).
Minute Maid Park in Houston is my second-favorite retractable-dome stadium in Major League Baseball behind Miller Park. They continue to improve the stadium every year and it sure was nice to have the roof popped open for the last two games of the series so that we could enjoy the two best spring days we've seen so far this season. It only makes me pine for that first open-roof day in Milwaukee, which hopefully will happen on the next homestand.
It was another long, four-hour-plus game on Sunday. There are two things we seem to be able to count on with this 2008 Brewers' team: The games are all close and the games are all long. I have no statistical data to back this up, but it would not surprise me to find that the Brewers have played more marathons in the first 20% of the season than they have in any season since leaving the American League. It is not simply a product of a lot of extra inning games either. They are just playing slow.
A third thing you can count on: Post-game traffic. Whether at home or on the road, the Brewers are drawing huge crowds virtually every game. In fact, in a season in which the team is hoping to break another franchise attendance record and eclipse the three-million mark at home, Milwaukee has racked up the highest average road attendance in all of MLB to this point in 2008. America's team, the Milwaukee Brewers? Who would have thought that a couple of years ago?
The day off is welcome after the Houston leg. I'll talk to you Tuesday.