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Did Counsell argue? I don't think I've ever seen him protest anything. Ump: Strike 3, you're out! Counsell: Excuse me sir, could you please reconsider that call? I know you have a tough job and it was probably a strike, but I really would like another chance to hit the ball Ump: No Counsell: Oh gosh...have a nice day Mr. Umpire.

That makes 0-5 with RISP

Any chance we get Braun in here?

Don't forget about Cameron and Hardy! That's 5 automatic outs in a row!

RISP tracker: 0-2

I'm glad Rickie's in there. I still feel like he gives us a better chance to win than Ray "grounder to 2nd" Durham. Even if I'm the only Rickie supporter left, I still want him in there.

We got dominated by the latest Brewer killer--wait, that's any pitcher with a good changeup.

1) Hot weather in Atlanta not conducive to Sheets' fast style of pitching 2) Cubs didn't just beat him, whole team struggled 3) Never does well in St. Louis 4) Putting pressure on self due to CC. I'm not worried. Very few pitchers are dominant for a whole season. The ones that are win Cy Young awards. The ones like Sheets that dominate 3/4 of the time are solid #2 starters.

Not a good start for Sheets. The first inning always seems to get to him.

We always seem to match up well with the Diamondbacks. I offer no explanation. If we're going to play the NL East, I'd rather have the Mets. Philly is the more talented team and would probably win a slugfest at Citizen's Bank Park. I would consider holding Ben Sheets back to game 3 in Milwaukee rather than risking him giving up 3-run bombs in that bandbox. Not only that, but I could see us getting baffled by Jamie Moyer, costing us the short series. The Mets will probably finish strong, but besides Wagner, we could take advantage of their bullpen. I also refuse to count the Marlins out, and we did finish 0-6 against them this year, so that's another team that I would preferrably avoid if they pull another miracle and sneak in the the playoffs. Without any injuries, it's hard to make a case for the Brewers catching the Cubs, but I'm still not sold on the Cardinals and would much rather cheer for the Cubs to lose. I wouldn't mind them having to play the Diamondbacks again, Chase Field has been a house of horrors for the Cubs. The Dodgers already had good pitching, so a Cubs/Dodgers series could result in some low scoring games that could go either way. Still, I would favor the Cubs over anyone in the NL. Edit (sorry for putting two unrelated ideas in one post): This "hot streak" debate has me intrigued as well. If a hot streak increases your odds of winning, then it seems to me that the "hotter" you get, the more likely you are to win games and continue your streak. Clearly, this isn't the case, since all streaks eventually come to an end. Last year, the Rockies steamrolled over teams for a full month, but it didn't matter when they played the clearly superior Red Sox. What about the Brewers' streak 2 weeks ago? When did they become officially "hot"? Was it after the Giants' series? In the middle of the Cardinals' series? I didn't even think they were that hot at all, they just rode a wave of good pitching and took advantage of a poor St. Louis bullpen. Even if they did build some sort of momentum, it certainly didn't help them this week. Hot streaks are sample variance, but when a player is seeing the baseball well, he's going to get more hits for an extended period of time. This also affects the players around him, as the opponents will pitch differently to them--for example, Hart and Braun will be pitched differently today due to Fielder's HR streak compared with a week ago. However, this shouldn't affect the Brewers' odds of winning today's game. You never know when the hot streaks are going to begin and end. If Campillo pitches well today, it doesn't matter how well Fielder has been hitting. In addition, if Fielder lets his success get to his head, he could start swinging at bad pitches today and go 0-4 with 3 K. You just don't know. Thus, streaks can only be looked at in the past tense and offer no prediction of future performance.

I still haven't mentally recovered from the Cubs series, but a sweep would go a long way in helping that.

Do the players even know/care which games are on national TV?

I like our chances, except that the game is on Fox.

@ Atlanta 1-2 @ Cincinnati 1-2 Washington 2-2 @ San Diego 2-1 @ LA 1-2 Houston 2-1 Pittsburgh 2-1 @ St. Louis 1-1 @ Pittsburgh 1-2 Looks like 13-14 for me. Still puts us in decent shape for September if we go .500, assuming the Mets/Cardinals/Marlins don't have an amazing month.

The Cubs getting blanked by the Pirates today just makes us look even worse.

Weeks, Counsell, Kendall, Cameron, Hart, Branyan, and Hall all stink and should never be starting.

There would be 30-50% Cubs fans in attendance for a playoff game in Milwaukee. Most season ticket holders will likely go, but many will sell, especially since selling 1 game per series can pay for the rest. Also, for the playoffs, MLB is allotted a significant number of tickets for its corporate sponsors. None of these sponsors have major Milwaukee ties, so of course Cubs fans will fill virtually all of those seats, which number in the thousands. If the Brewers can get on the board early and shut them up, it wouldn't be a problem. If the Cubs take a lead, the chance of a comeback would be significantly diminished due to the cheering/chanting of the 20,000 or so Cubs fans that would fill our seats.

Braves 10, Brewers 3

At least we're a good road team this year.

I don't think Rickie saw the ball until it was caught. It was a liner down the LF line, but they had Counsell played perfectly.

I enjoyed the first 1/2 inning + 1 batter of the game today.

I have that mentality also, where I'm just waiting for them to blow it. Of course I thought we would win at least 2/4, but when we started losing, I just started thinking "same old Brewers". I do agree that they clearly aren't as bad as they are playing. They are clearly putting too much pressure on themselves, which shows in the poor defense, bad RISP numbers, and their propensity to swing at bad pitches early in the count. The easy schedule still favors us for the Wild Card, that's what matters right now.

It is Wrigley North, and it has been since 2003. There are more Brewers fans this year, but most of them are gone by the 7th inning. The problem is not that season ticket holders are "selling out". First, it's basic supply and demand. If Cubs fans want tickets, they will get them. I'm sure most of the Cubs fans there bought their tickets on the Internet back in February, just like some of us did for Wrigley. Since Wisconsin is probably 10-20% Cubs fans anyway, these people have a right to go to Cubs games in Milwaukee if they want to. At least to me (and I'm 21) is that the atmosphere during Cubs/Brewers games isn't that much fun to be at. If we win, it's great, but if we lose, I have to sit there and listen to the painful cheering of all the Cubs fans for 3 hours, while the less friendly of them personally rub it in. Since Monday's game was the highest rated TV game in Brewers history, it would be impossible and quite silly to convince FSN to black the games out. Besides, then we would all watch on WGN or ESPN, which combined carry most of the Cubs/Brewers games anyway.

If you think the Brewers are more talented than the Cubs, then what is holding us back? Timely hitting? Yost? Defense? I think the Brewers are the 2nd best team in the NL, but the Cubs have lead the division the whole year, they have a huge run differential, and players like Dempster, Theriot, and Soto are great major league players. I don't think they are overachieving.

This is truly pathetic. This reminds me of the Red Sox series, except worse. The gap between the Brewers and Cubs is tremendous. They are more talented, period.