Well that sucked. Two days after I was ecstatic the Brewers were able to take a series win against their rivals, the Cardinals, the Brewers headed into Chicago for a three game set against the White Sox. The White Sox, a team with only 16 wins on the season. Milwaukee had 36 wins on the season. That means Milwaukee was playing a team with 20 less wins on the season. That’s 20 LESS WINS. And do you know what happened? I know – Milwaukee proceeds to lose 2 out of the 3 games against the White Sox. You know what also happened? The Cubs and Cardinals continued to win. That means that Milwaukee is now only +2 games on CHC and +3.5 games on STL after playing a team that only had 16 wins on the season.
Did I mention the White Sox only had 16 wins on the season compared to Milwaukee’s 36 wins heading into the last Friday night? Let’s see how bad it was :
Top 5 / Worst 5 Plays by Game
I turned yesterday’s game on knowing Milwaukee was up 1-1, only too Albers serve up some meatball specials, and then see Lorenzo Cain misplay a ball in deep center that turned out to be a homerun. Didn’t Lorenzo Cain play in the AL Central? Didn’t he play for the Royals? Don’t get me wrong, Cain is an excellent outfielder, but how many games has he played at US Cellular Field? Over 30 games, if you must know. How did that fence sneak up on him? I mean, I don’t mean to be critical, but catch the ball already. I couldn’t catch it, but I don’t make $5 million a year. I’m probably whining, but when I saw that play, I thought “how does a guy that has played over 30 games at that ballpark over the past 8 years not make that catch?” Do you think the Cubs or Cardinals misplay that ball? Probably not.
So much for that vaunted Brewer bullpen. Albers managed to show up 4 times in the 3 games as yielding the best plays to the White Sox. How do you do that in 1 and 1/3rd innings?
As for the offense, it’s not looking good. Lots of bases loaded, 2nd and 3rds with no one out, and the meat of the Brewer lineup doing nothing. Do you remember those days in baseball when there was a runner at 3rd base with 1 or fewer outs, and you knew that a sacrifice fly ball to the outfield would happen? What happened to that? The Brewers managed to strike out or have weak ass fly balls 5 times in that series. And if I have to hear Rock or Lepay say “Braunie really hit that ball hard” into an inning ending double play, I’m going to lose it. Look at how often he shows up in the “worst 5 plays” matrix above. Pathetic.
I didn’t get to catch much of the games on TV, but I’m sure Sedar did something awful too that I missed.
Upcoming Matchups
Junior is sporting some so-so peripherals, nothing overly outstanding. Kluber is, well, Kluber, and you see lots of Green on his #s. How about that Chase Anderson? Talk about the wheels completely falling off this guy. I guess the belief that statistics are the key to the Universe is true…you take one very good statistical year of Chase, and the universe requires one very bad year of Chase to get back to what is commonly known as Chase Anderson career statistics. C’mon Stearns, you knew this! Make a move for a starter already!
Upcoming Hitters
Wow, this looks promising for the Indians. The Indians absolutely MASH right handed pitching. Throw in an awful Chase Anderson into the mix tomorrow afternoon, and look out. Ramirez is having a world class season, and Brantley and company aren’t too far behind.
The Crew continues to see success with Shaw and Yelich vs rhp, but expect Kluber to be lights out tonight after their last matchup. And since Brent Suter isn’t playing, don’t expect much for home runs. The Crew’s best opportunity is to tag Carrasco tomorrow night, but they will need a lot of runs to stay in that game.
Bullpens
Albers tried his hardest to fall out of the “above average” category this past weekend, but is now barely hanging on by a thread. Williams is now statistically the third best reliever in the Brewer bullpen.
Cleveland is awful; look at those home run stats…of course, that would require the Brewers to get to the Cleveland bullpen tonight and tomorrow. If Kluber is efficient this evening and Cleveland hits Junior hard, it won’t matter. And we already know where tomorrow’s Chase encounter is going – Cleveland fireworks.
Predictions
I think Cleveland wins both games, and the Brewers continue to slide. I think tonight’s game will be close, but tomorrow might be a blow out by the 5th inning. The key for Milwaukee is to get to Cleveland’s bullpen early, which is a possibility tomorrow against Carrasco.
If we look at the corresponding matchups in two separate graphs (the higher the score, the better the pitching performance):
Junior has done very well, but still significantly less than Kluber. Both Anderson and Carrasco are volatile, at best. Carrasco has a had a few gems this season; Anderson? Not so much.
I hope I’m wrong; let’s go Crew.