A thing of the past ... and Happy Father's Day

The past week was dubbed the historic baseball stadium portion of the Brewers schedule. The Crew played at Wrigley for four games and then headed to Boston for three at Fenway Park over the weekend.

This portion of the schedule made winning seem like a thing of the past as well. Milwaukee managed just two wins in the seven games.

The Brewers dropped the first game against the Red Sox when Shaun Marcum injured his hip flexor and left the game after the first inning. The bullpen had to eat the subsequent seven innings--and the Red Sox don't really have the sort of line-up where this approach is going to be very successful. Marcum gave up two runs in the first; followed by Marco Estrada's three over four innings; Danny Herrera's four in one inning (3 ER); and Tim Dillard's one run over two innings. That's 10 runs if you're scoring at home.

Red Sox 10, Brewers 4
Game played 6-17-11

Game two of the series pitted Randy Wolf against Jon Lester. On paper, this was not a match-up that I felt super confident about. After watching the Sox's explosive offensive power on Friday, I thought Wolf's off-speed stuff might seem like big meatballs to the likes of Gonzalez and Ortiz. Instead, Wolf was downright masterful. He held Boston to just two runs on nine hits and one walk. Kam Loe pitched a scoreless eighth inning and John Axford pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his 19th save. It was beautiful.

Brewers 4, Red Sox 2
Game played 6-18-11

On paper, Milwaukee had the advantage in Sunday's game. Yovani Gallardo just had to be himself and the Brewers needed to take advantage of Tim Wakefield. That turned out to be too much for the Brewers. After a one-day hiatus, the Red Sox bats were back. They sent 11 batters to the plate IN THE FIRST INNING and scored six runs. Meanwhile, Wakefield's knuckleball befuddled Milwaukee all day. He held the Brewers to three hits--but two homeruns--in eight innings.

Red Sox 12, Brewers 3
Game played 6-19-11

I'm sort of at a loss for how I'm feeling about the Brewers today. Without a doubt, I'm much more upset about the Cubs series than the Red Sox series. The Red Sox are really good. Winning one game at Fenway isn't great but it's about what I expected. I have no explanation for the Cubs. Milwaukee is still in first place, however, so all is not lost. It's time to get hot again--if for no other reason than the fact that I'm going to Tuesday and Wednesday's games.

Also, a word about my Dad in honor of Father's Day. I'd be hard pressed to think of anyone who works harder than my Dad. He was a dairy farmer for 30+ years and then sold his cows, rented out the farm land and opened a bakery and restaurant--which had been a lifelong dream. He gets up most days at 4 am and is still at work late into the evening. Most days, he'd tell you he loves it.

Craig Counsell is my Dad's favorite player. My Dad refers to him as "his guy." So, whenever I see Craig Counsell play, I think of my Dad (and the fact that using All Along the Watchtower as walk-up music makes him seem older than he is). Happy Father's Day.