Another loss today by the Brewers has Wilber's Way making its May debut. Being shutout for the third time in four games has me changing a bit of what I was going to write here.
Regardless, the Brewers have now lost 8 of their last 10 games and were outscored by the Padres 21-2 in four games. So while pitching was a question mark coming in, the offense made sure to not let us forget about it having problems and being inconsistent.
Doug Davis, who has had his problems, was not so reliable in Game 1 of the series and the guy that came on in "relief" of that one was Jeff Suppan. When all was said and done, the Padres won 9-0.
Dave Bush did pitch pretty good in Game 2 of the series, giving up just three runs in seven innings of work. But the offense couldn't get anything going and fell 5-0.
It marked the first time since 2005 the Brewers had been shut out in back to back games.
It was the best starting pitching showing since Yovanni Gallardo was solid against the Pirates on Monday night at Miller Park, but this time the offense did not back the up. Just the bad luck of baseball.
The Brewers did get a win Saturday night behind Gallardo. But even that was a chore. Yo went seven innings and struck out 11 on 118 pitches and had to hit a home run, his fifth of his career.
Hawkins, who has seen his share of troubles came on in the eighth and Trevor Hoffman, who you all know about his struggles, returned to the city where he saved 552 games, and closed the game out.
That sets the table. Now I have to ask the question. Who do you trust on the mound for this team? The problem has been mainly the starting rotation. Here are the lines (From Baseball-reference.com):
Yovanni Gallardo: 3-2, 36 IP, 40 K, 16 BB, 32 H, 15 R, 12 ER, 3.00 ERA
Randy Wolf: 2-2, 37.1 IP, 27 K, 16 BB, 41 H, 18 R, 16 ER, 3.86 ERA
Dave Bush: 1-2, 29.1 IP, 15 K, 12 BB, 30 H, 17 R, 15 ER, 4.60 ERA
Doug Davis: 0-3, 22.1 IP, 24 K, 10 BB, 38 H, 23 R, 22 ER, 8.87 ERA
Jeff Suppan: 0-1, 14.1 IP, 11 K, 3 BB, 22 H, 14 R, 13 ER, 8.16 ERA
Chris Narveson: 1-0, 15 IP, 12 K, 9 BB, 22 H, 12 R, 11 ER, 6.6 ERA
Now you can't take everything by those numbers, but know this. The team ERA ranks 13th of 16 teams in the NL. The staff has given up the second-most hits in the National League. That heps rank them 14th in the NL in home runs allowed (33).
Where was the help Doug Melvin was supposed to bring in? Nothing has changed from last year, at all. Now people claiming Doug Davis should be taken out of the rotation, are crazy. Who are you going to put in that spot? They made the one move with Narveson going in. I'm sure we'll see Manny Parra starting at some point this year, but not in place of a healthy but struggling Davis.
Like I said, this isn't going to be all about the pitching. The last three series' dating back to getting swept by the Cubs, then dropping two of three to the Pirates has worn on this team, which has lost 8 of 10.
The offense, up until this point, was one of the best in baseball. The numbers show that.
After checking Baseball-Reference.com, I found some pretty interesting numbers that I didn't realize (maybe because the pitching was so awful).
The Brewers are second in the NL in runs scored (128), first in doubles (56), fourth in homers (28), first in on-base percentage (.355), third in batting average (.273), second in slugging percentage (.452) and second in OPS (.807).
Those are some pretty staggering figures. To me, that says this 10-14 start is something that is on the pitching. Yes the last week has been rough for the hitters. I'm not going to put it on all of them, but I am going to single out one guy, Rickie Weeks Now I'm not coming down on Rickie, just pointing out some numbers.
Since the Brewers drilled the Pirates for that 20-0 win on April 22, Weeks' average has dropped from .344 to .258.
It's been seven games since then and during that time Rickie is 4 for 34 (.118 AVG), with 17 strikeouts, just one RBI (which came on his home run) and he's taken only five walks. Here's the link, again on Baseball-Reference.com. For a team built around Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder, having guys on base in front of them makes them dangerous. That makes Rickie getting on base imparative to the success of the team. It doesn't help that Macha is still struggling to find a suitable guy to put in the No. 2 spot. With Carlos Gomez and Jim Edmonds hurt, that has made things a struggle and put guys you wouldn't necessarily want in front of Ryan and Prince.
Ok, enough on the Brewers for now. That will resonate throughout Monday for me. We need some funny to lighten the mood. Leave it to Jimmy Kimmel and his unnecessary censorship. Damn funny!
I'm pretty sure these next two ladies are Brewers fans and would be very interested by the success of the team. Yep, the Maxim Hometown Hotties Contest is in full swing and we got a double feature of Nussies for you.
First is Franklin's Andrea. She likes Wii (take a look! Haha.) And Susana is from Richfield, which is like 15 minutes from me. The links take you to their profiles. There were a handful of other Wisconsin girls that made the initial cut. Be sure to check out the rest of the Hometown Hotties.
Here's Andrea.
Here's Susana
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