Two inescapable truths were on display tonight:
1) Ryan Braun can hit a baseball a very long distance. After being victimized by Joey Votto on Wednesday, Braun promptly evened-out the Brewers' fortunes with a pinch-hit, go ahead homer in the top of the 9th that may still be flying. Yuniesky Betancourt did his best to make sure it would be a game-tying homer, but he was able to (miraculously) able to avoid getting tagged out after an unlikely base hit. And it's a good thing he was safe, because the Brewers were in need of a road victory like this. Even more impressive: the homer occurred on Braun's one and only swing of the day. The home run both provided the decisive margin of victory and provided me a highlight that will give me enjoyment for years to come.
2) John Axford is having control issues. He threw 29 pitches and only 11 strikes. His command was so bad that he almost threw an errant intentional ball. Fortunately he was able to strike out the Brett Hayes with the bases loaded to end the game; otherwise I would have been in a very, very bad mood. Axford got the save, the Brewers won, and I was made happy, but jeepers creepers, did the bottom of the 9th have to be so difficult? I don't want to think about how anxious I will feel if the Brewers are one win away from making the playoffs and it's up to Axford to protect a one-run lead. Yikes.
Other Notes:
-Corey Hart is currently hitting .292. This is good news.
-Casey McGehee is currently hitting .244 and has generally looked crappy this season. If it seems like he's hitting a lot of routine ground balls, it's because that's what he's been doing. This season 54.5% of the balls he's put into play have been on the ground. His career rate is 46.2%, which makes me hopeful that he'll turn his season around soon. In the meantime he does not exactly inspire me with confidence.
-The stats in the above note came from fangraphs.com. FanGraphs is one the best baseball websites out there. It has an absurd amount of data and cool features, such as win-expectancy graphs. Speaking of win-expecancy graphs, here's what the one from tonight's game looks like:
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