Game One Hundred and Fifty One: Brewers 6, Reds 3

Box Score

Tonight's game was a breath of fresh air. The Brewers broke out of a long stretch of futility at the plate by smashing four home runs en route to a (mostly) easy victory at the House of Horrors that is the Great American Ballpark.

On opening day the Crew led the Reds 6-3 heading into the bottom of the 9th. I had visions of that game running through my head tonight and almost had a heart attack after Yuni B booted an easy grounder to start the frame. Fortunately the next batter hit into a double play and Axford was able to close the door from there, lowering the magic number to 7.

The star of tonight's game was Ryan Braun who had two more home runs, raising his season total to 30. He now how 30 homers, 31 stolen bases, a .330 batting average, and leads the NL in slugging percentage. I will be shocked if he does not win the MVP.

Meanwhile Randy Wolf was played the part of crafty lefty and kept the potent Reds offense at bay for most of the game.

The Cardinals prevented tonight from being perfect by overcoming a blown save and beating the Phillies in 11. While this is bummer, the Brewers can't rely on the Cardinals to lose. It's great when it happens, but you want to see your team win a division title due to being generally awesome and not because of crappy competition (though that does makes life less stressful).

Tomorrow it's Yovani Gallardo (16-10, 3.66 ERA) versus Edison Volquez (5-5, 5.80 ERA). I like the Crew's chances in this game. Hopefully they'll take care of business, the Phillies will knock off the Cardinals and celebrate their NL East title, and we'll go into Sunday with a magic number of 5.