The Brewer Chronicles

The Brewers continue to play extremely well at home.  With the win today, they won their 30th home game of the season which is the most in all of baseball.  And with the three game sweep over the Astros, the Brewers have won eight of their nine games in this most recent home stand.

And they’ve done it in a variety of ways.  On Monday, Ben Sheets gave up just one run in six innings in a 6-1 win and yesterday, the Brewers got their bats going with an 11-5 blowout.  Then today they needed eleven innings but the end result was the same.

Ryan Braun has lived up to his hype and despite going 0 for 5 today, he’s still hitting .328 with some nice power numbers (six homeruns, 26 runs, 21 RBIs in 29 games) to go with them.  And prior to today, he had driven in runs in his past seven games. which is the longest streak by a Brewer since 1957.  His OPS had gone over 1.000 but with the 0fer game today, he’ll probably slip back below that exceptional mark.

Damian Miller of all people had the big hit in today’s game.  He belted a three run homer in the eleventh inning to win it and he finished with four RBIs in the game.  The backup catcher saw his batting average rise by over twenty points with the three for five game and the homerun was his first of the season.

The only down side to all of the wins is that the Cubs have kept pace with a six game winning streak of their own so they still sit just 7 1/2 games back.  The silver lining is that the Brewers can take care of them this weekend because they travel to Wrigley field for a three game series with the Cubs.  More importanly, Carlos Zambrano threw today so he won’t be going for the Cubs.  Yovanni Gallardo throws for the Brewers tomorrow and he’ll go head to head with Rich Hill in a touch matchup for the Brewers.  Still two wins out of three would go a long way towards burying the Cubs.   A sweep would obviously be even better.

Good for Prince.  The Brewers slugger has a huge lead in the National League with 26 homeruns now and the next closest guy is Adam Dunn with 20.  Throw in a league leading 59 RBIs and a .379 OBP and you’re looking at a guy who’s an early MVP candidate.  And the voters have rewarded him as he now leads a tight race at first base for the All Star Game.  I knew Prince had a 50 homer season in him, I just didn’t know it’s be this soon.

The Brewers extended their lead over the (enter name of second place team, currently the Cardinals) to 7 1/2 games after a three game sweep over the struggling Giants.  They got some solid pitching in the first two games and while Claudio Vargas wasn’t all that great in the finale, he was picked up by the offence and he improved to 6-1 on the season.  Bill Hall hit his eighth homerun and he drove in five runs.  With J.J. Hardy an Fielder having the seasons they’re having, Bill Hall has only been okay so you wonder what’s going to happen when Bill Hall finally catches fire.

Ben Sheets is starting to pick it up as he gets back that ace tag.  His strikeout rate is way down, but he’s won his last four and seven out of his last eight.  Just as impressive, when Sheets gets the start, the Brewers are 9-1 in his last ten starts, which is the very definition of ace.  He also finally notched his first complete game and he’s been pitching into the seventh inning more regularly.  The Brewers have a nice lead, but they’ll need Sheets down the stretch if they really want to do something.

Francisco Cordero has been quite the pick up for the Brewers.  He has 44 strikeouts in 31 1/3 innings and he has 27 saves in 29 attempts.  Not too shabby for a guy making just over $5 million.  Then again, he is playing for a contract so there’s some motivation there.  As is the chance to play for a ring.

Johnny Estrada has done what we expected when we dealt for him.  He leads the team with a .291 batting average and while there’s not a lot of pop, it’s there.  The defense has been below average but the offense more then makes up for it.  And you know what you get.  He doesn’t walk a lot, but he also doesn’t strike out a lot so you’re getting a catcher who puts the ball in play more times then not.

This weekend is a three game set against a poor Royals team and the Brewers have a 1-0 lead in the third.  Two out of three and maybe a tough series by the Cards sure would be nice.  I’d like a ten game lead by the All Star break.