Tag Archives: world series

SIX

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And this is why we don't overreact to losses.

Before yesterday's game it seemed like the Brewers, losers of two in a row, were done. Who cared if it was a seven game series? The team that goes up 2-1 wins the series most of the time! AHHHWEARESOSCRWED ITS OVER But it wasn't because of one man. Randy Wolf walked in yesterday and it was WRITTEN IN THE STARS as he turned in the best playoff start of his career and saved the Brewers season. I love it.

Randy Wolf isn't the best Brewers pitcher in any category really. He doesn't strike people out like the other guys, he gives up more hits and walks than the other guys and he can't dominate like the other guys. He just goes out there with a game plan and pitches his ass off. He lives and dies with every pitch. He's not going to dominate anybody because that's not his job. His job is to eat up some innings and put the team in a good position to win. He does his job very well and yesterday it changed everything. I love him.

I don't know what's going to happen tonight or after that. We keep hearing that Zack Greinke's "peripheral stats" point to him being better than he has pitched, but that doesn't change the fact that he has been getting rocked. Can Good Zack Greinke show up? Just once? We're about due for him. We could really use him about now. No pressure or anything.

And then? And then? I don't know, man.

TWO MORE TO WORLD SERIES

SIX MORE TO YOU KNOW WHAT

Seven

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Yes, there was Braun.

And yes, there was also Prince.

And UGH, there was Greinke.

via @mkollat

But when I think of where I was and what happened on 10/9/2011 in Game 1 of the 2011 NLCS I will think of only one person and that person is Yuniesky Betancourt. MY MAIN MAN YUNIESKY BETANCOURT. YUNI YUNI YUNI YUNIIIIIEEEEE.

Yuni has gotten a lot of crap from people throughout the season and rightfully so, but one thing we should never discount is that when he swings the bat at a (good) pitch and makes (good) contact he can do very good things. He has power in that bat of his which is probably why he swings it so damn much. We can argue the merits of Yuniesky Betancourt as a major league shortstop until we are blue in the face, but the fact remains that Yuni can hit a lot better than a lot of shortstops out there. Yes, other people have higher batting averages and higher OPS, but Yuni is always among the top half of ISO because he just hits the ball harder than most people. Yuni isn't the best, but he is not without value. He is a valuable member of this team. 0.5 Wins Above Replacement is still above replacement and we shouldn't forget that.

That being said, is Yuni the most MLB playoffs baseball player ever? Continue reading »

eight.

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Yesterday is one of those days I wish I could do over. I was too nervous, too anxious and thus too drunk to enjoy it like I should have. I was a mess of emotions that could barely even concentrate. I'm not even sure I talked to anyone throughout the entire game. (Sorry about that Tyler.) Despite being in the stadium I just wanted to watch it on TV. I don't really know why. It was just too much. None of this matters now.

What matters is the Brewers won the biggest game they've played in twenty years. The Brewers won the biggest game of my lifetime in exciting fashion. The Brewers are now four wins away from the World Series. Holy shit, the Brewers... the Brewers!

The new series will start tomorrow and this insanely good feeling we have right now will be gone. In it's place will be more angst, more nervousness and tons of Cardinals hate. We can talk about that stuff later, but for right now I am just going to enjoy this. The Brewers are 8 wins away. That is not many. This is happening. Continue reading »

The Milwaukee Brewers’ Finest Hour

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Five days ago I wrote a post titled "NINE" that captured the feelings of a nation. The Brewers were fresh off of two amazing wins in front of a crazy hometown crowd and it felt like they could beat anyone. ESPN and other major websites were writing articles about how the Brewers were "the team nobody wanted to face" and a "World Series favorite." Everything that could go right did and everything that could go wrong didn't. Everything was clicking, everything was perfect and the whole thing just felt amazing. An entire state was on top of the world. At the end of that post I wrote the following:

I am going to try and not get too excited. I'm going to try and not let these two games cloud my vision. I know there is a long way to go. I know these are only two games, but wow... just wow. What a weekend.

Last weekend was awesome, no doubt, but the odds of the Brewers sweeping the playoffs were slim. The odds of them sweeping the Diamondbacks were good, but they weren't a sure thing. A loss in this series was to be expected as the Diamondbacks are a very good baseball team. Two losses, while not ideal, was also a possibility. Losing these games was not the end of the world. Although it certainly does feel that way. Continue reading »

NINE

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If game 1 was the game that everything went right for the Brewers then game 2 was the game that everything didn't. Zack Greinke alternated between being a good pitcher and throwing batting practice for Diamondbacks hitters. Once up 4-1 the scoreboard read 4-4 after Justin Upton's homerun to tie the game. The mood was quiet in Miller Park when the Brewers came to bat in their half of the inning and to say the crowd was nervous at this point would be an understatement as few seemed to realize the Brewers were in the middle of a tie game. The anxiety was magnified in the 6th inning when Roenicke decided he'd had enough and turned to the bullpen. The message was clear to those looking for a reason to panic: Zack Greinke, the former Cy Young winner who was supposed to save our pitching staff, couldn't make it through the sixth inning. Takashi Saito came in and did a good job keeping the game tied, but the crowd remained reserved. When Rickie Weeks led off the following inning with a groundout it did nothing to help stir the sleeping crowd. It was a tie game that felt like a 6-4 game. Then this happened:

  • Jerry Hairston doubled.
  • For the first time in recorded history a reliever was brought in to face Yuniesky Betancourt.
  • Brad Ziegler BALKED Hairston to third.
  • Yuni WALKED. (!)
  • Jonathan Lucroy did the sweetest squeeze bunt ever and the Brewers took the lead.

The Brewers would go on to add five more runs in the inning, but this sequence right here is what sealed it. This sequence turned the crowd from lethargic to "Miller Park is shaking right now. Should we be worried?" mode. Just like Braun throwing out Bloomquist the night before, this was the moment that you KNEW the Brewers were going to win.

There have been only two games thus far, but the numbers look so good it's hard not to mention them. Ryan Braun is hitting .750 in the playoffs. Seven fifty. The Brewers bullpen hasn't allowed a run in five innings. Jerry Hairston is the starting third baseman all of the sudden and he's hitting .500. Yuniesky Betancourt drew a walk. Everything is looking good for this team. Everything. If the playoffs are all about luck (and I'm inclined to believe that they are) then the Brewers have got to be the favorite from here on out because at this moment every single thing is going their way.

I am going to try and not get too excited. I'm going to try and not let these two games cloud my vision. I know there is a long way to go. I know these are only two games, but wow... just wow. What a weekend.