Wednesday's dramatic win over the Pirates may well be a microcosm of the Brewers winning ways of late and a sign there might be something special about this group.
Rickie Weeks was making a start in the leadoff spot with Carlos Gomez out serviing his suspension and when Yovani Gallardo gave up a couple long home runs, the Brewers put a rally together and got Chris Davis to come through.
It seems like a different guy has seemed to come through each night. It has the team on the cover of Sports Illustrated and holding a five-game lead in the NL Central Division. And me starting to think there might not be a huge "regression to the mean" coming in the form of a losing streak.
With Aramis Ramirez on the 15-day disabled list, the Brewers are missing some pop in the lineup and with a lefty going for the Pirates in the form of Wandy Rodriguez, manager Ron Roenicke gave Weeks the start today in Way back Wednesday fashion, hit him leadoff. Weeks did not disappoint, with three hits, falling a triple shy of the cycle. He has now hit safely in eight straight games he's played in and is hitting .360 for the season. As hot as he's been, I'm not sure how Roenicke can stick with his strict platoon at second base.
His fellow benchmate for most of the season, Martin Maldanado, also hit a home run that tied the game at the time. For as little as he has played as backup catcher, he delivers every time he takes the field.
Throw in Rob Wooten helping Houdini out of the eighth inning of a jam that kept the Pirates lead at one run. He ended up getting the win in going 1.1 innings. It's just be a great run by the bullpen. Even with Francisco Rodriguez's hiccups Wednesday night and Tyler Thornburg not finding the strikezone Thursday night,
That helped set the stage for Davis, who has certainly not performed to expectations and he'll be the first to admit to such. Hopefully this hit will give him the confidence to not be bailing off pitches as much and trying to pull everything.
When everything comes together like it as almost when needed this season, the Brewers have gotten it. Everyone around baseball is seemingly waiting for the bubble to burst on this team and another series win shows that it may be time to start believing this team could have something going. At the quarter-mark of the season, the Brewers are in control of a division and are in position to be buyers at the trade deadline.
Whether it will pan out, I'm not sure, but it will be fun as a fan of this team to watch!
