Prior to Wednesday night’s game, Ben Sheets remarked that he was going to show C.C. Sabathia who the Brewers’ real ace is. Just kidding. But Sheets did display brilliance early on, striking out the side in the first two innings and finishing with eleven. Third baseman Bill Hall crushed a Glendon Rusch changeup and sent it well over the left field wall to give the Brewers an early 1-0 lead, but the offense provided Sheets no further run support, and once Big Ben surrendered a two-run blast by Garret Atkins, the game was not looking great, with the Brewers down by two.
Enter Mitch Stetter, give the Rockies another run off a two out hit by former Brewer Scott Podsednik, (his second such hit of the game) and the score is 4-1 Colorado. Bill Hall then doubled and scored on a looping hit to center field by Mike Cameron, cutting the lead to 4-2. Cameron, ever the savvy base runner, stole second, advanced to third on a Jason Kendall groundout, and trotted home on a clutch pinch hit by Russell Branyan.
The Rockies were not satisfied with the one run lead, though, and Garret Atkins hit another round tripper off of struggling reliever Guillermo Mota. Catcher Chris Ianetta followed with a triple, allowing to swell the Colorado lead to three again. Adding insult to injury, young first baseman Joe Koshansky hit a two out, two run homerun to center field, blowing the game wide open. The Brewers offense was lethargic after the eighth inning outburst, and Milwaukee dropped a listless loss to the banged up Colorado Rockies. Their 2008 record against the Rox is now an unimpressive 2-4.
Alex’s Take:
The Brewers continued a disturbing trend of being shut down offensively by less than great pitchers, not to take anything away from Glendon Rusch, who pitched his heart out Wednesday night, but his E.R.A. coming into the game was over 7. Not to mention the Achilles’ Heel of the Milwaukee baseball club: the bullpen. Guillermo Mota has tremendous stuff, a fastball that occasionally gets up to 97 MPH and a nasty changeup, but nothing, absolutely nothing he throws is fooling the hitters he is facing right now. He should be given a much lesser role in the pen and Eric Gagne, who has been throwing very effectively since returning from the disabled list, should be promoted to the eighth inning role. Mota’s potential is quite high, but the amount of games he is costing Milwaukee should be a warning flag to Ned Yost that this reliever is either way past his prime or should at least be taken out of this high pressure job.
