Jim French Stepstool

Maybe gives them an opportunity to be a little more careful with Reynolds, who would probably come off his death bed to play if he saw Milwaukee on the schedule. Still have to deal with Lowe & O'Hearn though----the seasons they're turning in, who saw that coming? Ashby has had a rubber arm so it may not be a big deal, but it would've been nice if he wasn't needed yesterday. Could be a busy weekend for the LH bullpen guys.

I'm sure Henderson violated some bylaws of the Fraternal Order of the H & H Garage with the HBP & walk in the 6th with a 5 run lead. Most likely getting gassed in his first start in a while as that's very un-Henderson like. But very good work through five. Would've been nice to cruise w/o using the BP people we used but eh. I propose a one-day scoring change: Chourio & not Contreras should be credited with the RBI in the 9th inning. That was ALL him. My goodness what a slide. That & the Bauers deke at 3B were so, so pretty. I don't know what the deal is with the Contreras ABs. That swing decision & K on the 3-2 pitch was downright cartoonish. Maybe we see Sanchez strappin' it on one more time before the break. Quietly (or maybe not so quietly), Cooper Pratt looking like he belongs. Almost AB to AB, really.

Damn you & your facts.😛.

I thought of Harrison IL'ing too. In essence he'd just miss one start. Either way Stallings is probably down until at least Saturday though.

I didn't see any of the game live but saw some of the condensed version, and what I came away with was that I hope the O's play like that when we meet them in September. And they still won.

Since he started playing full-season ball in the Brewers organization, Lara had never played RF until this year when they threw him out there a handful of times in Nashville. That told me that while he'd play CF here if he came up, he'd be in RF when combined with Mitchell. I'm guessing that continues. Is he a better CF than Mitchell? I suspect so. But Mitchell has been mostly OK there & I don't see them messing around given the way he's been producing. And like you said a day off for Mitchell here & there is a good idea.

Well, for Perkins' career his offensive numbers are fairly average hitting from the right side. Enough that when combined with the glove & role-acceptance type of attitude he's displayed, I suspect there's a job for him somewhere down the road---but barring injuries & with Lara's arrival, not here. Sort of the role Lockridge would have with Milwaukee had he not gotten hurt. As to the headline yeah, I think him going back to strictly hitting from the R side may make sense for him.

They can score runs. But for me there's a difference between that, and HAVING to score runs. Unless their bats get & stay hot over a prolonged stretch it'll be a challenge for them to sustain. So it'll be either a six-or seven game lead going into the final series before the ASB. Heading into this scary, Bataan Death March portion of the sked they were up 6.5 games. Devastating.

I was shocked in his last AB when he almost beat out the ground ball. When you compare it to some of the balls he doesn't run out.........I get that he's a catcher & is working his arse off back there, but 'going through the motions' definitely seems an accurate depiction much of the time.

What made it even uglier was that he just saw their catcher challenge on the previous pitch. Very few things in these games deserve the 'no excuse' tag but that was one.

If we have to endure them winning, tonite was perfect. They aren't cashing in long term by winning 9-7 games.

Not a good night for the hitters, but you knew McGreevys' mixing and locating was a big part of it when you looked at the 6th inning. Top of the order, third time through & none of those ABs looked anything like they came from hitters seeing a pitcher for the 3rd time. I've said often about Chourio that he's an immense talent with a really incomplete offensive game AFA swing decisions are concerned. By his 3rd AB you could kinda tell that he was aggressive early, not because he was getting something meaty to hit but because he just didn't want to get deep into the AB after the 2 Ks. Better pitchers are doing a good job of taking advantage of him. He seems like a smart kid; looking forward to the days when the gameplan AB to AB gets better for him. Baseball gods weren't kind to Lara, giving him a couple tough plays in the sun field right off the bat. But you gotta love how he handles himself. I felt like he was about 90% of the way to completing a successful AB in that opening inning, and it could've been huge. Koenig giving up the L vs L bomb is a bad look. I guess we'll have to see going forward. And Stallings......that's a helluva changeup if he can get to 2 strikes with it.

I guess it's a case of getting Bauers & Mitchell up in the order vs a RHP, but I really would've liked to see Lara stay in the 2-hole & slide the others down a spot. Otherwise, Jones at 2B----bust open the shed & break out the pitchforks!!!!!!!!😄😆.

Interesting that you brought up the Rays, who are often compared to the Brewers AFA how they make personnel decisions & go about their business. I didn't see any of their series vs the NYY but yeah, I'm sure their game plan was very solid. I think Yelich does an awful lot of anticipating/guessing. And I agree that Lara is probably much better at adjusting to the unexpected.

Yeah, I think it was the play-by-play guy who said Chourio 'almost hit it out'. Considering he never hits from that side it was hit really well, but not close to being out. It's very impressive how good of shape the BP is in now that they're over 2/3 of the way through this 18-game stretch. Maybe Anderson first out of the chute tonite? Another offensive explosion would be nice, followed by Rom and/or Stallings. There was a real contrast I noticed last night, made obvious by it being in back-to-back ABs. In the 5th inning w/the bases loaded, Yelich works a 1-1 count then swings at one over the plate but at his feet. So he's behind 1-2 & eventually Ks. Lara then gets to the same 1-1 count, sees what appeared to be the exact same pitch in the exact same location & laid off. The difference between 1-2 & 2-1 there can be huge. Of course Lara gets it to 3-1 & bangs one into the hole & through for 2 RBI. Even when he's been more productive, Yelich has gone through chasing episodes and now that he also swings through hittable pitches these days, it's just a killer. Seeing Lara lay off the same pitch, with the bags juiced & in his first big league game was very, very impressive.

I would love to have the chance to sit down with Henderson or Hook & discuss the cut FB usage the last two times out for Misiorowski. I think it's a hell of a pitch but I wonder about the sequencing. It's almost as if it's been set up as a priority pitch recently, as opposed to establishing 103-104 & using the cutter off that. To me it seems to be happening the last couple starts-----since they've been talking about him going to a 4-day off schedule rather than five. I wonder if that has anything to do with it? Once he de-prioritized it today, one hit in 6.1 is usually gonna work😁. Yelich in a bunting situation, fouls off the first two, then lines the 2-strike pitch for an RBI double. Oppo, no less. I'm sure Card fans loved that lol. Joey Ortiz is hitting .261 since Pratt has (mostly) taken over at SS. Does that mean anything? I dunno.

I think the versatility idea re keeping him around is a sound one. But as long as he's their best bet in RF........I mean, that can be a tricky spot. They're going to prioritize that over what might keep him around the bigs longer. I'd be real hesitant to do it now save for an emergency but given an off-season & spring training to sharpen it, yeah, I could see the possibility. His willingness to always stick his nose in there, you gotta love it.

Agreed, IF Frelick is capable there. Making that move in the middle of a season, I think it's unlikely but we'll see. And if/when he's there it moves him off RF, where I still feel he's better than anyone else we can put in that spot.

Jones has never played 3B in professional ball. He's played 2B & SS in the minors.

If Lara plays like he belongs I think an eventual result could be an OF getting an occasional day off as sort of a rotating DH, with Vaughn & Bauers also filling that role, & Yelich being ILed with whatever malady he has that causes one to swing at pitches that aren't close to being strikes---and way too often missing ones that ARE. Maybe they're still entertaining the Frelick-3B thing, but I hope not.

When I heard Lara was coming up I scratched my head because I thought Hamilton would have a short IL stint & this was the move, which positionally makes no sense. This must mean Hamilton can play which is great news. I'm good with this, but it must feel odd for Perkins because he survived a really rough stretch & while he still wasn't impactful day-to-day he was playing better. Still fine with it though. EDIT: Nevermind, Hamilton IL'ed. Greg Jones selected.

The Mets wouldn't approve, either.

There was a time when I thought Refsnyder would make a nice bench bat. Didn't know he's dropped so far off the face of the earth. Good points. I think when the Brewers struggle to score offensively, don't get runs in from 3rd w/less than two outs, etc a lot of fans watch the highlight shows & see people hitting the ball out of the park, running around the bases, etc. Those are HIGHLIGHTS. The Vasgersians of the world are usually able to ignore the other 90-95%.

Well, we've seen THIS movie before. All the elements that usually involve a "Brewers-y" type win were here this evening, except for a couple defensive miscues that needed to be overcome. And Drohan helped immensely in that regard. The way he & Sproat have stayed strong through rough patches in some of their recent starts is just so impressive. Sounds from Murphy's presser like it might be a little while for Hamilton. If so, the affiliates have a day off so we can't check to see if anyone got pulled from their game. Not fair. I would imagine if a move is needed it would be Jett Williams? If there's an Unsung Award on the team, just box it up right now & send it to Chad Patrick. What he's done, while changing around the way he was used, the days off, everything. Standing O. There's a hitting theory that goes something like 'the first two strikes are yours, the third one is for the team', meaning you can pretty much cut loose then w/two strikes try to use the whole field, the "humble approach" Brian Anderson likes to call it. I could be wrong but after his first week or so it seems to me like Pratt has adopted that mindset. If he has, I wish he'd stop. Go back to the CF-to RF swing we saw earlier. Shelve the hero stuff for another couple hundred ABs or so. I thought Contreras had his usual nice game behind the dish (the way they set up Burleson was fantastic), but at the plate he looked like he was playing in his 38th game in a row. And that's after a day off yesterday. He deserves the All-Star recognition but I'm not thrilled about him travelling & going through all that stuff instead of getting off his feet for three days.

The kudos Ortiz deserved Friday for his play in the 9th inning keeping Carroll from coming to the plate w/a couple runners on---same thing re Frelick yesterday. tying run on; Carroll at the plate representing the winning run & he does the Spiderman thing on the foul ball taking his AB away from him. So far Bauers has been better in the OF than I thought he'd be, but pretty sure he doesn't make that play. The challenge here is you're going into a 5-gamer & your longest start in Arizona was four innings. Like @long ballsaid, you'd love 5-6 from Drohan tonite.