Brewers record: 3-3 (week), 76-37, 1st place, MGL (season)
August 6, versus Baltimore:
4-8.
August 7-9, at Oklahoma City:
4-1,
7-6,
5-0.
August 11-12, versus Brooklyn:
1-9,
1-10.
The Brewers begin the week by losing the rubber match in the 3-game series against the Baltimore Lords as rookie hurler
Jim Atwell (12-5, 3.04) has one of his worst outings of the season, giving up 6 runs (all earned) on 8 hits and 3 walks over 6 2/3rds innings pitched.
Zacarias Martell was 2 for 3 with 2 runs scored and 1 driven in, hitting his 14th double and 3rd home run in the loss.
Next up the team travels east to Oklahoma City to take on the 3rd place (tied with L.A. coming into this series) Diamond Kings.
In game 1, veteran right-hander
Steve Green (9-7, 4.05) continues his second half resurgence, going the distance while allowing 1 run on just 4 hits and no walks, striking out 4. The only run he allowed was on an 8th inning pinch-hit solo homer.
Val Guzman went 3 for 4 with an RBI and hit his 20th double of the season in the victory.
Zacarias Martell,
Bobby Erbakan, and
Jake DiCesare also each picked up 2 hits in the game.
Game 2 saw the Brewers take an early big lead and then nearly give it back in the late innings before just barely holding on for the one-run win.
Erik Sloan (6-3, 4.85) got the win, giving up 4 runs on 9 hits over his 7 innings pitched.
Jason Gottula pitched the last inning and two thirds to earn his 3rd save of the season. Normally light hitting defensive specialist
Nick Ward led the way offensively in this one, going 3 for 5 with a run scored and 2 driven in from the leadoff slot, collecting 2 doubles to get to 7 on the season.
Brett Taranto,
Bobby Erbakan, and
Antonio Acuna, hitting in that order in the lineup behind Ward, all collected 2 hits in the game, with
Bobby getting his 18th double and
Acuna hitting 2 two-baggers to get to 8.
The Brewers got the road series sweep when staff ace
Sadahige Kawasaki (13-6, 2.10) pitched another gem, getting a 5-hit shutout, striking out 5 batters and walking 2.
Antonio Acuna, continuing to build his case for increased playing time and a big role in the Brewers outfield in the future, led the offense with a 3 for 5, 1 RBI game and hit his 3rd triple of the season while also stealing his 5th base (in as many attempts).
Bobby Erbakan chipped in with a 2 for 5 game, hitting home run number 5.
Coming off a big sweep of a dangerous rival, the Brewers had a travel day off as they returned to Denver to take on an even more dangerous competitor, the second place Brooklyn Aces.
And the Aces drew first blood in the game 1, with an easy victory behind 3-time Pitcher of the Year and 2-time pitching Triple Crown winner Aaron McNally (16-6, 2.91). McNally held the Brewers to a single run on just 5 hits. The lone run was driven in by recently hot hitting catcher
Zacarias Martell and was scored by
Geoff Bartholomew, who had hit his 7th double of the season ahead of
Martell's run scoring single.
Bobby Erbakan also hit his 19th double in the loss. After his nearly perfect first half of the season,
Sekien Hamasaki (14-4, 2.37) once again looked very human, giving up 4 runs (3 earned) on 9 hits over 5 1/3rd innings for the loss. Left handed reliever
Victor Colon has had a few bad outings recently and this one was particularly painful as he allowed 4 runs on 7 hits in his 1 inning pitched, and sees his ERA rise from 3.33 on the 2nd of August to 5.53 at the end of this one.
And in game 2 the Aces humiliate the home team once again, this time behind their phenomenal young starting pitcher Jose Hernandes (10-3, 2.00) who continues to lead the league in ERA. Like McNally before him, he went the distance, allowing just 1 run on 7 hits.
Jim Atwell (12-6, 3.26) suffered his second poor outing of the week, giving up 6 runs on 7 hits and 4 walks in 6 innings pitched.
Antonio Acuna was 2 for 3 with a walk and a stolen base (6) in the loss.
Geoff Bartholomew and
Jake DiCesare each collected a pair of hits as well, with
Bartholomew hitting his 8th double of the season.
With the two tough losses to their nearest competitor to end the week, the Brewers see their lead over Brooklyn in the MGL shrink to 10 games. Well, okay, sure, a 10 game lead if still pretty impressive. L.A. is next at 15 games out and Oklahoma City is in 4th place, 18 games off the pace.
Over in the SJL, where things are much tighter, the Philadelphia Mud Hens are holding onto a 2 game lead over the El Paso Dawgs while Boston and Columbus are in a tie for 3rd place, 6 games back.