Finishing up 2010 in style

Fan tip of the game: Don't do this--but if you must, please wear the proper foundation garments.

Here we are at game number 139 of the season. Last night, we had a fan tossed for hurling some gay grenades at Yadier Molina. Tonight we had some guys who dressed in green suits and ... well, you can see the problem. (And I thought Chris Snyder's pants were unreasonably tight.)  Let's try to class things up the rest of the way, Wisconsin. I like to drink as much as the next person but some lines should not be crossed.

Ryan Braun collected his 163rd and 164th hits of the season with a single and home run as the Brewers  clobbered the Cardinals 8-1 at Miller Park on Wednesday night. It was Braun's 20th home run of the season, making him one of five Brewers with 20+ home runs this season. Seven of the eight runs came against Cardinals rookie sensation Jaime Garcia. Chris Capuano went seven innings, giving up just one run on four hits and no walks over seven innings, to pick up his third victory of the season.

Brewers 8, Cardinals 1
Game played 9-8-10

600!

What do Ken Macha, Dave Duncan, Chris Dickerson and some random fan in camo pants have in common?

None of them got to witness Trevor Hoffman’s 600^th career save.

Hoffman earned his major-league leading 600^th career save on Tuesday night when he retired three batters in the ninth inning to preserve a 4-2 victory over St. Louis.  Hoffman gave up a leadoff single to Colby Rasmus, but Rasmus was erased quickly on a double play off the bat of pinch hitter Randy Winn. Hoffman then got Aaron Miles on a grounder to Craig Counsell at short to record the historic save. (My friend Chris once said of Randy Winn: “You know how any player whose last name is Black is always white and any player whose last name is White is always black—well, that explains Randy Winn.”)

Macha, Duncan, Dickerson and the fan were all ejected, and all but Macha, by home plate umpire Bob Davidson. Seriously, Davidson tossed a fan. He was cantankerous and then some. Chris Narveson pitched seven strong innings, giving up two runs on four hits and three walks, while striking out 9, to put the Brewers in position to win. Carlos Villanueva and John Axford pitched the eighth to set the table for Hoffman’s save.

As someone who has watched every game this year, it was nice to feel a playoff like intensity for an inning—with a celebration to match. No, the Brewers are not going to make the playoffs this year. It was nice to forget that for a few minutes and cheer like crazy for Trevor Hoffman. Hoffman is easy to root for—he has handled this year with an amazing amount of class. Getting 600 was way harder than anyone could have imagined. It was hard to watch him fail. It was hard to see that sign in left field. But moments like tonight’s don’t happen often, especially in Milwaukee, so it is important to take it in and enjoy it. Relish it, even. Celebrate with a beer. 

After the save, the Brewers had a nice on-field presentation for Hoffman, where Doug Melvin and Macha presented Trevor with a painting of him pitching in Miller Park. Apparently noticing Macha struggling to hold up the painting, Trevor asked Ken if the painting was heavy before rescuing him and taking it out of his hands. Macha still old, Hoffman still considerate, even after 600 saves. And that’s more saves than anyone, EVER. 

Brewers 4, Cardinals 2

Game played 9-7-10

Back to School – Baseball Edition

Grill master, Nick

Guest blogger Nick Hable is a lifelong Brewers fan and frequent tailgater. When he's not watching the Brewers or reading this blog, he can be found teaching math and science to the youth of Mauston, where he also serves as the head soccer coach. Nick agreed to attend today's game against the Cardinals and document his thoughts for Hang with 'em Brewers! [This guest blog thing is awesome.]

Rachel is running out of things to blog about, so she is tapping some guest bloggers over the last month of the season.  As I am not a trained journalist, or for that matter very good at writing (straight B/C English student here), forgive the bad prose.  Then again this is the internet, so maybe that puts me in the upper echelons. 

As many of you know, school starts in September.  I have three days done already.  I am amazed at how school brings down the stress level in my life.  This past summer I agreed to do many things.  I chose to teach three weeks of summer school, coach a JV boys summer basketball team, officiated about 50 basketball games, and took a two-week summer class.  This was all before July 31^st.  Soccer started the following week and I was off and running for the 2010-11 school year.  For having the summer off, I was looking forward to starting school again to have a little less to do. 

This all brings me to the theme of today’s blog…how little things can change your whole day.  As a teacher, my day can be going along great, and a little thing like the copier being out of staples can ruin my day.  For the Brewers, it was a wild pitch tying the game.  Teachers deal with an unexpected fire drill interrupting class, or the Brewers have an error, extending an inning.  Things can be going along as well as can be (Gallardo pitching 7 strong innings), and all of a sudden your class goes off on a tangent.  Things I have seen before (Coffey giving up hits and homeruns) can lead to a familiar place, Brewers playing from behind in the 8^th and 9^th. 

The fireworks can still go off at the end of the class (Hart hits his 2^nd HR to cut it to two runs in the 9th) even if the class (game) doesn’t end as expected.  Even though the Brewers didn’t win, a game still can be fun to watch.  This one was.  Even though school isn’t fun every day, I still love to watch what happens. 

This game will close out my games I attend for the 2010 season.  I ended up 4-4 (1-3 vs. the Cardinals), .500 like I hope the Brewers can get to this season.  I am a teacher, and hope runs eternal…even if history doesn’t support it.


Cardinals 8, Brewers 6
Game played 9-6-10

'You wouldn't get a positive outcome if you brought Connie Mack or John McGraw back to life and made him manager of the Brewers'

The eighth inning began with John Axford on the mound. Behind Prince Fielder's 30th home run of the year and a strong pitching performance by Randy Wolf, Milwaukee held a 5-2 lead.

Zach Braddock had gotten the final out of the seventh inning in relief of Wolf and then Ken Macha went to Axford. The two most likely scenarios were that Axford would go for another multi-innings save or Hoffman would pitch the ninth inning and go for his 600th save--in Philadelphia. Macha had said that he was more concerned with winning than getting Hoffman his 600th save in Milwaukee, but clearly, the Brewers have used Hoffman with an eye toward that milestone. And, if the milestone is important enough to keep Hoffman on the roster, then it is important enough to attempt to get number 600 at home.

This was just another example of the decisions Macha has had to make in regard to the Brewers pitching staff. By continually failing to post quality starts, the starting rotation has forced Macha to go to the bullpen early and often. And, once Macha finds a pitcher who can shut down opponents, he uses that player until "things go sour" and then he looks for another arm in the bullpen to eat up innings. On Sunday, the Brewers needed an arm to eat up the eighth inning and there wasn't one that Macha trusted so he went to the Ax again. There is a limit to how often Kam Loe can pitch.

Tom Haudricourt used Wednesday's game in Cincinnati to illustrate this point. Chris Narveson pitched well and held a 1-0 lead going into the seventh inning. After a lead-off double, Macha pulled him. And then the bullpen failed. Haudricourt argued that Doug Melvin has put Macha in an impossible situation by failing to provide adequate starting pitching. And this lack of pitching has made Macha look bad.

On this day, Axford stopped the Phillies--for two innings--and the Brewers were able to salvage the final game of the three-game series.

Brewers 6, Phillies 2
Game played 9-5-10

In celebration of facial hair

Have two opposing players, who lead the league in caveman jokes, ever hit home runs in the same game? Oddly, I could not find this category on baseballreference.com.

Milwaukee's Corey Hart and Philadelphia's Jayson Werth have more in common than just questionable facial hair, however. In seven seasons, Hart has a .274 BA with 92 HRs and a .807 OPS. (Hart played in  one game in 2004.) Werth is three years older than Hart but missed the entire 2006 season with injuries. In eight seasons, Werth has a .271 BA, with 113 HRs and an .844 OPS. In 2010, Werth has a 4.5 WAR compared to 2.5 for Hart.

The two right fielders were rumored to be on the trading block this summer but while Hart signed a three-year extension, Werth has not re-signed with the Phillies and will be a free agent after this season.

Hart who decided to return to the clean-shaven look after signing the big contract, hit two home runs against Roy Halladay, one in the third inning and one in the seventh inning. Both were solo shots. Jayson Werth managed only one home run, also a solo shot, in the second inning. Prince Fielder and Alcides Escobar also homered for Milwaukee. It was the first time in Halladay's career that he has given up four home runs in  game.

Despite the long balls, the Brewers lost this one when Ryan Braun's throw to home on a sac fly got by Jonathan Lucroy and allowed the go-ahead run to score. Two runs, one sac fly. A new way to lose.

Phillies 5, Brewers 4
Game played 9-4-10

Tell-Tale Heart

Friday night is poker night. I caught the first inning and a half before heading over to our weekly game. They watch the Twins at the poker game so I TiVo’ed the Brewers so I could watch the rest of the game when I got home.

I did OK in poker, finishing in the middle of the pack. My husband took all my chips when his flush beat my flush. Don’t think I didn’t throw a little bit of a tantrum. Aren’t all flushes created equal?

As the Twins fell behind early in the game against Texas, my friend Andy said, “Sometimes it’s really hard to watch the Twins.” To which I said: “Yes, being in first place is really hard. I don’t know how you do it.” Of course, the Twins rallied and won 4-3. Really, just so painful to watch ...

When I got home, I watched the game. Immediately, I was greeted by the outfield miscue that would lead to the Phillies only run of the night. Shane Victorino hit a lazy fly ball between Ryan Braun and Lorenzo Cain, which both seemed to call for, but neither went for, as it fell for a lead-off double. Victorino would eventually score on two infield ground outs.

And that’s really it, folks. Chris Capuano rebounded from a tough outing against the Pirates to give up just the one run over five innings. Kam Loe pitched the seventh and eighth innings and John Axford the ninth. Neither allowed a base runner. Milwaukee, meanwhile, could do nothing against Cole Hamels. The Brewers managed to get just four players in scoring position all night. Milwaukee’s best chance to tie the score came in the seventh inning. The Brewers had runners on first and second with no one out but failed to even advance that runner to third base.

By the time I finished watching the game, it was after 1 a.m. All I wanted to do was crawl in bed and sleep. I would do my blog tomorrow. I was a loser all around tonight. Just as I was drifting off, the smoke detector made that sharp little whistle it makes when its battery is low. And then I drifted back to sleep, and then it shrieked again. How the hell did Seth sleep through this? Why didn’t he get up and fix it? I can’t fix it now because I will wake him up. It periodically went off throughout the night and every time it went off, I woke up and saw the baseball fall between Braun and Cain. Thump-thump. My personal Tell-Tale Heart.  You want pain, Twins fans? This is pain!

Phillies 1, Brewers 0

Game played 9-3-10

Death Cab for Chapman

Today's post celebrates smooth talking Cincinnati TV announcers Chris Welsh and Thom Brennaman. (Direct TV had only the Reds feed for today's finale in Cincinnati. The Brewers were trying to avoid the sweep.)

The first gem came in the third inning. It literally caused me to turn to Seth and ask what the hell was just said.

Thom: One and one to the pitcher Narveson, who can hit. He has 12 hits in 39 at-bats, with six runs batted in.

Chris: Back to back nights for the Brewers where they're sending out some lanzadors who can pole a little bit.

Awkward silence.

Chris: A lanzador is Spanish for pitcher. And pole is another way of saying hit.

**********

Narveson would eventually pole his way to first (get a pole?) (just pole?) with a single to center in this at-bat. Later, Narveson would drive in Milwaukee's only run with a two-out pole to left. Feel free to make your own jokes in the comments section.

*******

In the fourth inning, "Jeff from Cincinnati" sent the following question to the booth:  Thom & Chris: What would your music be if you were coming up to bat?

Thom: Now Chris, what would be your music if you were coming up to bat? You know, players get to pick what song they play when they come to the plate. You'd probably like something from, like, ahh, Culture Club.

Chris: I'm probably a little more ahh, Death Cab for Cutie.

Thom: What is that? Is that like a Teletubbie song or something? What is that?

Chris: It's just like a Teletubbie song, yah....   And yours?

Thom: I don't know. I have to think about it. I want to make sure that I get the right one. Probably something Culture Club, you know, something like that.

Chris: Toss up between that and Boy George?

Thom: Yes (giggling).

**********
Apparently, there is nothing wrong with a good mancrush, however, as long as it's Aroldis Chapman you're crushing on and not Boy George. Thom actually compared Chapman's appearance and reception in last night's game to Randy Johnson's in the seventh game of the 2001 World Series. Yes, Thom, pitching the eighth inning with an 8-3 lead in September and being greeted by a standing ovation of 19,218 was just like the time Johnson pitched the ninth inning of game seven of the world series in front of 54,000 screaming fans. I can see how Chapman's long legs reminded you of Johnson's long legs and how it was sooo similar.

Chapman would go on to pick up his first major league victory as the Reds rallied from a 0-1 deficit with six runs in seventh inning. Macha had a quick hook and pulled Narveson after a lead-off double in the seventh. From there, it got ugly quick, as Todd Coffey and Mike McClendon gave up five runs.

For the second night in a row, the Brewers were unable to get a hit off Chapman, who pitched scoreless seventh and eighth innings. After the seventh inning, Chris could hardly control himself.

Chris: What do you think Aroldis Chapman is thinking when he comes off the mound like that? Like, is there a higher league somewhere? Maybe this isn't as hard as I thought?

Reds 6, Brewers 1
Game played 9-1-10