Battling the Brew Crew

In the NL Central, while the Cardinals have been chasing the Cubs, they have heard the footsteps of the Milwaukee Brewers gaining on them.  The Cardinals got off to a great start this year, while the Brewers didn’t.  While the Cardinals have leveled off, the Brewers have been gathering steam.  This week in St. Louis, the Brewers made it clear that they are a force to be reckoned with.

I did not believe that the newly acquired Brewer,  C C Sabathia, could be all he was cracked up to be, but I was wrong.  I bow to the giant Sabathia.  He was effective and efficient, pitching a winning nine innings with just over a hundred pitches.  And, just having the ace in their dugout seems to have upped every Brewers game.

The Brewers would not die.  In three of the four games, the Cardinals had their foot on the Brewers’ throat, but they battled back to win.  In the third game of the series the Brewers dominated with Sabathia on the mound.

Winning in the 9^th is exhilarating.  Losing in the 9^th is disheartening.  So, it’s not surprising that there has been a great deal of grumbling in Cardinal Country.  Some blame the bullpen.  Some blame the cool bats. 

I will say this.  Saying, “we were swept by the Brewers” makes it sound worse than it actually was.  All the games were close, within reach.  They were not blow outs.  The Cardinals were on the cusp:  one more hit or one more out in each game, and the Cardinals would have won the series.  And, the story in Brewer Country would have been the plethora of Brewers were left on base

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  I know we need those clutch hits and outs if we are going to play in October.  So does every body in Cardinal’s dugout that actually gets paid to worry about such things.  So, they live, they learn and they play better another day.