Around 27,000 tickets were sold for Tuesday night’s game as of last weekend. 42,533 were sold by Tuesday night. The reason: the fans wanted to welcome reigning A.L. Cy Young Award winner C.C. Sabathia to Milwaukee…and what a welcome he received. Three standing ovations BEFORE he threw to Rockie’s leadoff hitter Willy Taveras, managed to electrify Miller Park and, according to the hefty southpaw, overexcited him just a bit. His game was solid, but not flawless. He walked and surrendered hits to as many Rockies as he fanned (five), but managed to wriggle out of trouble in the first, third, fourth, and sixth innings.

Unlike many of his starts in Cleveland, Sabathia was provided ample run support, beginning with Ryan Braun’s three-run tape-measure shot to left field, scoring Rickie Weeks and J.J. Hardy. In the top of the fourth, Rockies’ speedster Willy Taveras coaxed a double down the left field line with only one out, threatening the Crew’s three run lead. Sabathia promptly retired Tulowitzki’s replacement, Clint Barmes on a first pitch flyout to right field. With a pair of Rockies out, the left hander managed to get the deadly Matt Holliday to ground out to third on a jam-job slider to squash the rally. Milwaukee tacked on an insurance run in their half of the third on a Prince Fielder RBI fielder’s choice, giving the Crew a 4-0 lead.

Colorado made a strong bid to ruin the party in the next frame, as they loaded the bases with no outs. Sabathia immediately induced a double play groundout…Hardy to Weeks to Fielder, which scored a run but kept the lead well intact. Omar Quintanilla was then retired to finish the frame. After an uneventful fifth, the Rockies loaded the bags again, but this time, cashed in in a big way. Backstop Yorvit Torrealba smashed a two run double to the right field corner, which would have tied the game had outfielder Ryan Spilbourghs not strained his oblique while rounding the bases. So with zero outs and two runners in scoring position, Sabathia speared a looping line drive off the bat of Jayson Nix and flipped it to third to double off Scott Podsednik at third (Spilbourghs had since been removed from the game). After walking the next batter, he whiffed pinch hitter Brad Hawpe, sealing his eventual victory.

The Brewers’ offense put the game out of reach in the seventh. The bases were loaded and two were out when Corey Hart, continuing to make a strong case for the All Star game, walked in a run. Third baseman Bill Hall singled to left and although Rickie Weeks scored easily, Prince Fielder would have been meat at the plate had Hart not distracted the Colorado infield by getting himself caught up in a rundown between second and third. With the score 7-3 Relievers David Riske, Eric Gagne, and Brian Shouse made the final three frames largely uneventful, and sealed what I hope will be the first of many National League victories for Sabathia.

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