Welcome to playoff baseball Brewers fans, where opportunities are few and mistakes are magnified. I've got a lot of notes from today's game, but I'll start first with the good things:
-Pitching wins championships, and Milwaukee's pitching was very good today. Yovani Gallardo gave up 3 runs, but those were due to a bobble by Bill Hall, an error by Rickie Weeks, and an error by Mike Cameron. Besides Gallardo, Mitch Stetter, Carlos Villanueva, Manny Parra, and Guillermo Mota all pitched well. Combined they allowed just 4 hits, 5 walks, and had 7 strikeouts. The relievers allowed just 2 of those baserunners.
-It was a rough day for the hitters, but they battled until the end, and the decision by Charlie Manuel to take Cole Hamels out of the game could come back to haunt him. The Brewers showed no fear against Lidge, scoring a run off of him while making him throw 35 pitches.
-Unfortunately the Brewer hitters were invisible for the first 8 innings. The best opportunity to score against Hamels came in the 6th, when Craig Counsell got a 1-out hit, followed by a walk by Cameron. But Bill Hall struck out and Ryan Braun popped out to end the threat. I think today's struggles were mostly due to the fantastic outing by Hamels, and the fact that Milwaukee is traditionally a bad hitting club against change-up pitchers. I don't think it had anything to do with playoff pressure. None of the hitters looked overwhelmed by the moment - just overwhelmed by change-ups.
-Corey Hart of all people got the first hit off of Hamels (with 2 outs and 2 strikes)...but then he struck out to end the game.
-The Brewers are not going to let Ryan Howard beat them. It worked today...the Brewers beat themselves.
-In addition to Hamel's great outing, the Phillies played solid defense and didn't give the Brewers any breaks.
-Only 3 NL teams have lost the first game in a NLDS and gone on to win the series. Milwaukee can come back, but they will need the offense to wake up. And tomorrow's start by CC just got even more important.
-Calling the game for TBS...Brian Anderson! Plus Joe Simpson and John Smoltz. Pretty solid crew. I was surprised TBS would assign Anderson to the Brewers' series, but I guess they needed someone who could correctly pronounce "Gallardo."
-Before the game, Cal Ripken Jr. said he'd be surprised if Minnesota beat Cole Hamels today. Well put, Cal.
-Isn't Frank Caliendo so funny? Wow, he can impersonate people! If only there was a way to get him and Carrot Top to work together.
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Last inning...Cameron leads off...you just know what he's going to do. Corey Hart comes up to bat...you just know what he's going to do. Does this sound like a broken record?
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