Game One: Brewers 5, Rockies 4 (10)

Box Score

The last time John Axford blew a save on Opening Day the Brewers went on to win the NL Central. One might consider the 9th inning of today's game to be a good omen, but I'm more inclined to harbor concern.

Axford is one of my favorite players in the majors. I love how he spits hot fire and is generally a cool dude. That he picked 14 of 15 Oscar winners is just tremendous. I want him to do well because I like the guy and I need him to do well for my mental health as a Brewers fan because he's the closer. Unfortunately his blown save was far too reminiscent of his 2012 struggles for my liking.

After Axford struck out the first two batters of the 9th he was one out away from closing the victory. His attempt to seal the deal involved leaving a first-pitch 95-mph heater in a location best described as middle-middle. Dexter Fowler ripped it over the right field fence to tie the game at four. Though blown saves happen, on far too many occasions in 2012 Axford recorded the first two outs with ease before allowing the tying or winning runs to score, and far too often this was the result of a fastball the batter was sitting on. Given how hard he throws every batter is a potential home run threat. If he does not figure out his location soon the city of Milwaukee is going to quickly find itself in short supply of Tums.

Blown save aside, all's well that ends well. Axford's biff opened the door for Jim Henderson to show the depth he adds to the bullpen and Jonathan Lucroy to be hero for a day. Also of importance is that after three consecutive underwhelming home openers the Brewers gave fans a reason to get excited. The 8th inning rally was about as good as it gets.

Other conclusions from a sample size that's as small as it gets:

-Brewers pitchers came within three strikeouts of setting the major league record last season. Despite the struggles or Axford and Yovani Gallardo, Brewers pitchers stuck out 11 batters today.

-Other positive trends include Norichika Aoki getting on base twice and Aramis Ramirez ripping the would-be game winning double in the bottom of the 8th. Hopefully they're picking up right where they left off from last year.

Tomorrow it's former Brewers Jorge De La Rosa versus Marco Estrada. I'm expecting Estrada to have a solid year, so it'll be interesting to see how he pitches tomorrow. De La Rosa is a former Brewer pitcher, meaning you can pencil him in for 7 innings, 3 hits, and one run allowed.