Pitching? What Pitching?
Uniforms weren’t the only thing to look like old school Brewers Friday night. The pitching looked like its old crappy self too. Everyone from the highly overpaid Jeff Suppan to the normally reliable Carlos Villanueva, to the “I struck out Barry Bonds so I don’t need to concentrate anymore” Derrick Turnblow contributed to the disaster of the arms. Not unlike the “bad” loss from Wednesday night, the Brewers continue to believe that only two outs are required to end an inning. I won’t bore you with the details about Suppan’s outing; suffice it to say that his pitch count neared 100 in the fifth inning. Very efficient, Jeff. At least we got our money’s worth on sheer volume tonight. After retiring the first two in the 7th, Villanueva walked the bases loaded, gave up a run on a wild pitch, of all things, and then of course, allowed the other two free passes he issued to score on a cheap-o single. That was the killer right there. However, not being able to stay out of the potpourri of pitching poop was Mister Turnblow himself. He thought he was the shit after striking out Bonds with two men on and only one out. Trouble is, he let Ryan Klesko nail one off the wall and then gave up another single to Rich Aurilia, each hit producing a run. Not a good night for the staff, huh?
Of course, the Cubs won again to draw within a bad weekend series of taking the division lead. It is making me sick to my stomach to think that this season is headed exactly in the direction I spewed about in my rant after the no-hitter. But again…these are your Milwaukee Brewers.