This just in from Milwaukee: The Brewers actually lost a game Thursday night. No, seriously, they failed to close out their potential sweep of the bankrupt Dodgers.
They lost 5-1 to Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw. Milwaukee had won six games in a row and an amazing 19 of 21 games to pull away from the Cardinals in the National League Central.
The Cards, in fact, had been the only team to beat the Brewers during their amazing three-week span.
After this loss, the Brewers remained brave in the face of their rare failure.
“We're going to have those games. I'm not that concerned about it,” manager Ron Roenicke said.
“We won the series. We won three out of four. We swept the Pirates. I'm really happy with the homestand,” catcher Jonathan Lucroy told reporters. “We're not going to win out the rest of the year. We're still going to lose games. Even though we got beat today, we got beat by a pretty good pitcher.”
Prince Fielder expects his team to shrug off the loss. “Beyond the way we're playing, I think we've gotten closer as a team,” Fielder told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I think that's the key. We're a real team now. The record's going to be fine. With the talent we have, we're going to win. As long as we're together as a team, I think you're usually going in the right direction.”
One loss does not a Brewers downturn make. Fans in Philadelphia and Milwaukee are already looking ahead to the potential second-round playoff showdown between the Phillies and Brewers.
Journal Sentinel columnist Michael Hunt wrote this: “But if the sagacious Philadelphians are looking ahead to a second-round matchup with our local nine, who are we to argue? That carries more weight than the fact the Brewers had the fourth-best record in all of baseball at the start of business Thursday. More clout than the reality the Brewers are playing with more confidence than Neil Peart at a village drum-off. More sense than the astonishing sight of the St. Louis Cardinals struggling to fundamentally master the game they invented.
Ouch!
THE SEC IS NOT ALONE
While the Southeastern Conference tends to take the most grief for its “aggressive” recruiting in football, commissioner Mike Slive must be happy to see all these non-SEC teams taking heat these day: Miami, USC, Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan, North Carolina and Georgia Tech.
Wish the NCAA luck in cleaning this up.
MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE
Questions to ponder while wondering if the Cardinals can finally assemble a significant winning streak:
What's better for international relations than a wild basketbrawl?
Will NFL commissioner Roger Goodell ever ease up on his players?
Should Brock Lesnar leave the praire dogs alone?
So how does the Miami recruiting process break down on a flow chart?
QUIPS ‘R US
Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:
Steve Rosenbloom, Chicago Tribune: "(Carlos) Zambrano’s annual suspendible/fine-able/laughable act is yet another case of Jim Hendry’s big money gone bad. You know that rap sheet, too: Zambrano, Alfonso Soriano, Aramis Ramirez, Kosuke Fukudome, and don’t forget Milton Bradley, totaling the national debt.”
Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle: “Twenty-one straight Giants home runs with the bases empty. Here's an idea for a Giants promotion: ‘Solo Night.’ Free admission to everyone dressed as Charles Lindbergh.”
Jim Caple, ESPN.com: “One of the year's best stories took another positive step when Seattle reliever Tom Wilhelmsen won his first major league game Monday night. Once a promising prospect with the Brewers, Wilhelmsen was out of baseball for six years, backpacking through Europe, playing co-rec softball and, as recently as last December, bartending at a Tucson Tiki bar called The Hut. Now he has a major league victory. When I asked how he would celebrate the victory, Wilhelmsen said his teammates gave him a nice beer shower. ‘I've had people spray beer on me [at the bar] before but not like that. It's a little better this go-round,’ he said.”
Jeff Schultz, Atlanta Journal Constitution: “It’s understandable why A&M would want to escape Texas’ shadow in the Big 12 and come to the SEC, where member schools split a record $220 million in a revenue-sharing plan this fiscal year. I’m not quite as sure why the SEC wants A&M, because other than getting its toes into the state of Texas — assuming College Station counts — this is like a high-end mall expanding to add a Walgreens.”
MEGAPHONE
“The Red Sox were able to do it. Communism ended in Russia. That's what I'm talking about when I say improvement in culture.”
Cubs first baseman Carlos Pena, to the Chicago Sun-Times, on his franchise’s need for cultural change.
