“Bad” Loss and Brewers Division Lead Slips Again
I always was a bit perplexed at the term “bad” loss…as if there is a “good” one. But after tonight’s game, I think I am inching closer to understanding. See…the Brewers lost 5-2, and of the 5 runs scored by the Diamondbacks, four of them should not have actually been tallied. In the 4th inning, with 2 men already out, Kevin Mench slipped and fell trying to field a routine pop out. Instead of the inning being done, another cheap-o bloop single allowed Arizona to push a second run across. Then, in the 8th inning, Ned Yost made a rare managerial mistake. With the game tied, he opted to bring in a guy, Grant Balfour, who hadn’t pitched an inning of major league ball in 3 years. Things began well enough, with Balfour retiring the first two men he faced. But, as is often the case with newcomers, Balfour unraveled before recording the third out. He hit the next batter, walked the successive guy, and then served up one of the longest home runs hit in Miller Park this year. Bing bang boom…Brewers down 5-2. Game over.
And why game over when they had 6 outs left to get 3 runs? Well..because the furious rally in the bottom of the 8th ended with no runs scored after extremely poor decisions to swing at bad pitches by Tony Graffanino and Damien Miller. Then in the 9th, Ricky “I can’t hit to save my life” Weeks led the whimper of attempts to make a comeback and that was all she wrote.
Meanwhile, the Cubs slaughtered the Cardinals 12-1 (remember when the Brewers used to be able to score like that?) and thus, Milwaukee’s NL Central lead fell back to a dangerously thin 3.5 games. So again, since the 24-10 start, the Brewers are still playing sub .500 ball, and have allowed the competition to catch up. It is nice that they have the best record in the NL (or did before tonight’s games), but the simple fact is they have to play better. Giving away a game like they did tonight is the kind of thing that will come back to bite them in the ass. They cannot afford any more “bad” losses. And let’s face it…cutting down on the “good” ones would be nice too.