Brewers Hit The Road - But Will They Hit?

Milwaukee starts a 9-game, 3-city road trip tomorrow night in Chicago. From there, it's off to Houston for the season's first series against the Astros, and then to Florida for another round with the Marlins.

There a few things to look forward to after a disappointing home series loss to the Marlins over the weekend. First, Ben Sheets (hopefully healthy) will be returning to the starting rotation tomorrow night at Wrigley. Second, Brewer fans will get their first glimpse of center fielder Mike Cameron, whose 25-day suspension is now over. He is now eligible to start Tuesday. Perhaps Cameron will be able to provide some type of offensive spark to the Brewers' lineup.

In Milwaukee's last 4 games, they have been outscored 12 - 7. The pitching staff has performed quite well the past few days, but the Brewer hitters have been slumping horribly. This leads me to yet another questioning of Ned Yost's thinking process: In Saturday night's game, Bill Hall went 2-for-2 and drew 2 walks. So what does Ned do the next day? Bench him of course, in favor of Craig Counsell, who went 0-for-3 and ended the game by striking out. When Yost finally brought Hall into the game as a pinch-hitter, he hits the game-tying home run, and later serves up a sacrifice bunt.

Looking ahead to the next series, the Brewers have a good chance of winning at least 2 games against the cubs. Milwaukee will send out Sheets, Jeff Suppan, and Yovani Gallardo to the mound in the 3 games. Chicago has lost 3 of their last 4 games, and are 2 games ahead of Milwaukee in the NL Central.