I'm not too embarrased to say I've been watching Manchester United vs the expansion MLS team from Philadelphia. I'm not a huge soccer fan, but for those of you who are not fans at all, watching this game is essentially like watching a Packers pre-season game against an American football team from England. And I think I got the better end of the deal.
That inning is why the Brewers ar not a playoff team this year. Not that particular inning, but all the innings like them that had most of us seeing how it would end before it actually did. Every team fails, but it just seesm like the rate of failure in that specific situation is way too high, starting with yet another useless AB by your best hitter and ending with an awful AB by a guy who probably shouldn't be playing.
The 40 Years/40 Moments segement about that 1992 team's shellacking of Toronto took me back to some good memories. I still think that team was a good bit better than the one that made the playoffs a couple of years ago.
Sure, just not early with Manny, and not at al unless the game is in the bag. I remember a few years back Yost getting caught up in all that mess, in a late-season series Atlanta, and basically helping to throw away the season.
I'd just as soon have Manny not plunk anyone. I don't trust him enough mentally to be doing anything other than just trying to pitch the best game he can. Frankly, that's proved to be enough of a challenge for that guy. Win the game, win the series, get out of town and make a push here the hrest of the month.
Look out .500 and beyond, here comes the Crew. Hopelessly optimistic? You bet. And guess what? The difference for Dave Bush was a close call not called the other night. No sympathy here for Atlanta, though I do hope they win the East.
Sadly, I don't know if the Brewers really do want a ground ball here. An easy fly ball and giving up a run might not be all that bad given the defense.
I am not at all defending the Brewer offense, and it's fair to say Atlanta's pitching has been pretty good in any event, but in a lot of ways this game currently comes down to a single strike not called in a single AB by Chipper Jones.
OK, this is a vast oversimplification/generalization, but this half-inning will show us if things will be any different than they were in the first half. Runner on, big bats at the plate. Time to get things done.