Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Series Recap: Brewers (mostly) maintain dominance over Pirates

The vast majority of the series against the Pirates was highly successful. The first two games featured 8 homers and 22 total runs. Those in attendance for the series finale saw Hiram Burgos toss his finest game in the majors, allowing two runs in seven innings while striking out six. His efforts did not yield a win as the black cloud of John Axford rained on gravy day. There is much to discuss, so let's get this series-winning party started.

1) I'd rather see dingers than learn the awful truth

The Brewers have finished in the Top 3 in the NL in home runs since 2007. After a sluggish start the ball is once again flying out of the yard for the hometown nine. The Crew blasted ten homers against the Bucs, including three back-to-back jacks. The recent power surge has been aided by unlikely sources (Betancourt) while the usual suspects (Weeks, Ramirez) have been either horribly slumping or injured. Even so, it's a testament to the depth of the roster that the offense can perform so well despite not being at full strength.

2) When Carlos Gomez is hot, he's hot

Gomez collected six hits (including two homers) while continuing his ridiculous beginning to the season. Though his .403 BABIP will normalize at some point, he's hitting line drives at a career-high 20.6% clip and has yet to hit an infield fly. I feel confident saying that Gomez has figured out how to be a pretty good major league hitter. I hope this stays true because few players are as amusing to watch round the bases after hitting a home run.

3) Few things can ruin a gravy day like blowing a late lead, though the lead should have been larger

I have nothing against the Pirates and I generally root for them when they are not playing the Brewers. They are a long-suffering franchise in a small market and they have a beautiful ballpark. With that said, I get extreme satisfaction from watching the Brewers beat them like the Washington Generals. I have come to expect victories against the Bucs, so a game like today does not immediately register with me. This would not have been an issue had two things happened, one of them forgoing insurance runs.

The Brewers had Jeanmar Gomez on the ropes in the first, but he was able to wiggle off the hook by striking out his homonym and retiring Betancourt. The Crew's opportunity to break the game open in the bottom of the 7th was stifled when Braun grounded into a double play. This leads me to the other things that could have happened and spared me some cognitive dissonance...

Axford Watch

...This was not a good series for the Ax Man. Most troubling is that he's seemingly at his worst when the count is most in his favor. On Tuesday he gave up two hits on 0-2 counts and today he allowed the go-ahead run to be driven in on a 1-2 count. In today's game he was beaten on pitches outside of the zone, so part of the performance can be attributed to good hitting. Even so, given the demands of his role he needs to be able to finish off batters when he has the chance. This is not accomplished with middle-middle fastballs or hanging sliders.

Looking ahead...

NL Central Week continues as The St. Louis Cardinals make their first trip of the season to Milwaukee. Runs will be tough to come by as every starter scheduled to pitch for St. Louis has an ERA of 2.50 or below. On the bright side, Aramis Ramirez is scheduled to return on Friday. Ideally he will hit 10 consecutive home runs upon his return, and hopefully that will be enough to win. And yes, I always expect the worst when playing the Cardinals.

Also: The Brew Crew Project will be off until Monday. The ironic reason is I'll be in Wisconsin watching Fox Sports North and taking in at least one game in person. I'll be the guy wearing the mid-90s style jersey.

Go Crew!

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