Monday, April 11, 2011

Game Ten: Brewers 6, Cubs 5

Box Score

I wrote yesterday that I enjoy watching the Brewers dominate the Cubs. A victory like this is a close second.

It was not the cleanest game you will ever see, but the excitement in the bottom of the 8th and top of the 9th is hard to match. First you had free-swinging Yuniesky Betancourt overcoming an 0-2 count to draw a walk. After he was sacrificed to second and George Kottaras struck out, Casey McGehee was called on to pinch hit. McGehee disregarded his .206/.243/.235 batting line to drive and hit the game winning home run. This is why despite the odds, it's hard to turn away from a baseball game.

I fully expected Betancourt to strike out. He walked instead. I fully expected McGehee to swing at the first pitch and hit a weak ground ball. He won the game instead. And then the parade of the unlikely kept rolling.

The Cubs made things interesting in the top of the 9th when Marlon Byrd led off with a single and Aramis Ramirez came to the plate. What happened next? George Kottaras, who threw out only 4 of 48 base-stealers last season, gunned down Byrd as he attempted to steal second. Axford then struck out Ramirez coxed a lazy fly to right from Carlos Pena to seal the victory.

It was an exciting and unlikely sequence of events. Best of all: it happened against the Cubs.

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