BruisedCrew

That’s always the risk when you need 4 or 5 relievers to finish a game.

That was a strange error. The ball was hit hard up the middle and Wong made a good play to get to it and flip it toward Adames. Adames could have, and maybe should have caught it, but he was in an awkward position to make the catch and get to the bag. I’ve seen many more egregious misplays ruled as hits. Regardless that ball might have been the hardest hit ball of the inning and Houser would have been somewhat lucky if they could have gotten an out from it. As it is he is lucky to only be charged with 1 earned run.

I disagree with the announcers talking about Houser having bad luck in the first inning. They’re saying there was only one hard hit ball, but I think there were more than that. The ball hit off Houser’s foot was hit pretty hard, and the ball that Wong fielded and tried to flip to Adames was hit really hard. Blackmon’s hit was a solid line single. Maybe they’re thinking that any ball that doesn’t leave the infield doesn’t count as hard hit. Throw in 2 walks and a crisply hit sac fly and that was a rough inning for Houser and the Rockies made him pay. Give him all the credit for recovering after a bad start but I don’t think he had bad luck.

Hey, a catcher did something.

When you start a response with something like “Hey, did you know..” that sounds pretty condescending. And when you end up with “quit acting like it isn’t important” you’re making a straw man argument. I’ve never said that hitting the ball hard has no value. But, my comment about sacrificing exit velocity means that I think that focusing on making contact over trying to hit the ball as hard as humanly possible may be preferable, especially in certain situations.

The tone of this doesn’t seem to be within the spirit of respectful posting.

And sacrifice exit velocity?

Looks like the charge to the playoffs will have to wait until tomorrow. I am tired of hearing the announcers say the Brewers can’t catch a break. Maybe they should try making some plays and pitches on their own.

I went to a game there a few years ago. It is nice. Saw the Rockies hit about a half a dozen HRs and score about 17 runs against the Reds.

That could probably be said about me too.

So, Peralta is scratched.. MLB lists Woodruff and Lauer as the starters for the next two days. Is Peralta having recurring issues, are they just skipping a start for him, or is he being pushed back a few days to pitch one of the games of the DH on Thursday? Hopefully it’s just the latter. The fact that Peralta has been pulled in his last couple of starts despite manageable pitch counts and effective performance, pretty clearly indicated that he is still not ready to throw too many pitches every fifth day.

Any comparison between the Brewers and the Yankees or any other team that looks just at won-loss record or any other statistic without taking into account the strength of schedule is somewhere between misleading and meaningless. With the schedules being heavily weighted with intradivisional games (76 of 162 games) the records and stats of teams in the weakest divisions (the NL and AL Central) are inevitably padded by these weaker schedules. The Brewers record against the NL Central is pathetic considering the weakness of 3 of the 4 other teams, and is the reason they are in the position they are. And yes, I realize the Brewers have a record of 10-3 against the teams in the AL East, but I think it’s safe to say that they wouldn’t keep winning at anything close to that pace if they played those teams 19 times each. Isolated series are often a case of not just who you play but when you play them, including things like SP matchups, what injuries a team has, etc. Those factors flush out over the course of more games, and, as the season moves into September, teams’ true character have been pretty clearly revealed. If I added the numbers correctly, the 5 teams in the AL East are an aggregate 64 games over .500 and the teams in the NL Central are 48 games under. I think that’s a pretty stark indication of the relative strength of the divisions. Of course, this doesn’t tell us much about what will happen in a 3 game series between the two teams, but I’m not taking much consolation that the Yankees record over the last couple of months is as unimpressive as the Brewers. The Yankees are going to be in the playoffs, probably getting a bye into the ALDS and with home field advantage, while the Brewers are at best going to be squeaking into one of the final wild card positions.

Coming in to the DBacks series the Brewers were 3.5 games behind the Padres and 4.0 games behind the Phillies (recognizing the tie breaker). Four games later the Brewers are 3.5 games behind the Phillies and 4.0 games behind the Padres. So, four games are off the Brewers schedule and they are mired in place and squandered an opportunity to move up. Going 5-5 against the Pirates, Cubs, and DBacks is a failure and provides no evidence that the team is poised to mount a charge. Craigtember looks just like CraigJune, CraigJuly, and CraigAugust. Mediocre at best.

I didn’t have the “pleasure” of seeing any of this game after about the second inning because we had family over. But this game and this series offer more examples of what we would likely see if the Brewers did make the playoffs and had to face the best pitchers on the best teams instead of the guys they usually face on the bottom feeding teams that make up a significant part of their schedule.

Adames has to come up with that ball and get one out anyway. If a Brewer hit that ball and it turned into an out we’d be hearing complaints about exit velocity and bad luck. But some times the defense has to turn hard hit balls into outs when they get the chance. That could have prevented the run too.

I’m in a Fantasy matchup this week against a team that has Gallen. I have no SP today and am leading by 1 win and 10 Ks. I will be cheering every Brewers hitter who doesn’t K, and would love it if they could keep him from picking up a win. Unfortunately, I suspect 10 Ks for the Brewers is on the low side.

Brewers Lineup Wong 4 Adames 6 Tellez 3 Renfroe 9 Hiura DH Urias 5 Narvaez 2 Taylor 8 Ruiz 7

It’s hard to imagine a worse pitching matchup for the Brewers than this one. Alexander is what he is, while Gallen is the DBacks ace. and, unlike some other aces, he has been the best SP in MLB over the last month, and one of the best for the whole season. He has not allowed a run in his last 5 starts and has gone 7 full innings in 4 of them, and into the 8th in one of those. He might have a field day against the strikeout happy Brewers lineup.

A necessary win. Maybe it will be the start of stringing a few together.

Comeback wins is another goofy stat because it would count a game in which a team falls behind by a run in the top of the first and goes on to win 10-1. It should require at least coming back by a certain number of runs or after a certain number of innings.

Taylor says “not so fast” on making Mitchell the regular CF.

I wouldn’t still be up but our next door neighbors are having a party in their driveway which is right below our bedroom window so I wouldn’t be sleeping anyway.

Can Ruiz steal third and home?

So, in a little less than 2 months, the Yankees have lost 11.5 games in the standings to the Rays. In 5 weeks the Brewers have lost 12.5 games in the standings to the Cardinals. The Yankees will still be in the playoffs and can still win the World Series if they get hot. The Brewers…well, you know.

The latest one falls in the gift category.