Milwaukee's Least: Brewers 7, Phillies 5

by dajafi on Sep 26, 2009 10:27 PM EDT Comment 11 comments

1,000 words might be a low estimate for this one. (AP Photo/Darren Hauck)

This one had it all: atrocious defense, disappearing bats, and another ninth inning ended early with the opponent in jubilation. The Phillies pissed away leads of 4-0 and 5-3 against a Brewers team with nothing to play for, committing two errors counted by the scorers and at least three more that probably should have been as they saw their NL East lead shrink a little further, to five games.

Starters Kyle Kendrick and Braden Looper were both relatively ineffective, Looper allowing five runs--three earned, as the Brewers' defense wasn't much better than the Phils'--in six innings, including homers to Paul Bako and Ryan Howard, and Kendrick giving up three (two earned) in four-plus. He gave way to Jamie Moyer with a man on and none out in the fifth; Moyer struck out Prince Fielder to start a run of five straight Milwaukee hitters retired. But with two outs in the sixth, he walked pinch-hitter Jason Bourgeois. Felipe Lopez followed with a bloop into shallow right field; Jayson Werth seemed to have a play, but with Chase Utley nearby he pulled up, and the ball bounced just fair before landing in the stands for a ground-rule double. Craig Counsell then hit another fly ball to shallow center field--where it bounced off Jimmy Rollins' chest and rolled away, allowing both runners to score. Neither play ultimately was ruled an error.

That was it for the scoring until the ninth, when Counsell greeted Tyler Walker with a single and Ryan Braun followed with a two-run homer to win it. At least this time that part of it was quick.

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Terrible game, and yet, not extremely surprising in any way. I find myself more just sighing at each mounting loss – there’s no real sense of urgency, and at the same time they act as if they are dead men walking into the inevitable collapse.

by WanderingMoses on Sep 26, 2009 10:43 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

they may be wondering what's the use, when they get to the playoffs

they have no one to hold a lead for them

by SmilingJPhilsPhan on Sep 26, 2009 11:42 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

zombies

time of the season

sort of the mental state of the team defensively.

by Wet Luzinski on Sep 27, 2009 12:34 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

a little perspective

This was an awful game tonight. Last night’s sucked pretty hard too. And they have Dave Bush, the Astros and the Marlins—pretty much a fatalist’s Murderers Row—the rest of the way.

Still, this is a good club. They have pretty good starting pitching, and they hit well. The odds are reasonably overwhelming that they’ll be okay, at least if you define “okay” as still playing baseball in two weeks’ time.

by dajafi on Sep 27, 2009 1:23 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I know that how managers implement their relievers has been a soapbox that mildly stat-minded fans have worn out over the past few years, but I think last night deserves special mention.

When the last week has been dominated with talk of not mindlessly sticking with Lidge and starting to “use the right guy for the situation,” how do we find ourselves in a tie game in the bottom of the 9th in a Walker-in-case-of-a-tie and Madson-in-case-of-a-lead situation? Shouldn’t the thought process be: We have the heart of a pretty formidable lineup coming up, what pitcher is best to get these outs? Instead of whether we have a lead or not? Does Charlie really think its harder to pitch to JJ Hardy with a lead than it is to pitch to Ryan Braun in a tie?

I have no problem with using Walker in that circumstance, just the justification that was pretty obviously behind the decision.

by Steve J on Sep 27, 2009 11:00 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs