[BirdWatcher]

Brewers record: 2-4 (week), 14-10, 4th place, 1 1/2 gb (season)

And then things started to slip again.

May 4-5, versus Brooklyn: 3-9,4-2.
The first game has already been reported on, in which we were bested by the best: Aaron McNally.
In the final game of the series the Brewers got a solid start from Steve Green (3-1, 3.62)- 6 IP, 7 H, 2 R- and probably the best game from the bullpen this season as three relievers- Ben Flynn, Liann-wei Hua, and Jaden Francis combine to hold the Aces hitless and scoreless for the final 2 innings. Zacarias Martell (.375/.444/.542), once again having a great start to a season, went 3 for 4 in this one, driving in 2 runs, hitting his 2nd double and 2nd HR of the season.

May 6-8, at Detroit: 1-3, 5-3, 2-4.
The Brewers head to Detroit and drop 2 of 3 against the surprising Falcons.
The recent trend of good performances from the starting rotation continues, though, as in game 1 Matt Helm (2-1, 3.00) allows just 2 runs on 4 hits over 7 innings. Andrew Kennedy (.420/.437/.478) went 2 for 4 and hit his 4th double in the loss.
Cheol-han Lee got the win in the middle game of the series to improve to 4-1 with a 3.47 ERA. He gave up just a single run on 5 hits over 7 innings. Josh Schaeffer (.404/.493/.719) continues to be the Brewers MVP in the early going and he went 2 for 5 with 2 RBI and hit his 4th double and 4th HR. Oscar Vargas contributed with his 2nd HR of the season while playing superlative defense at shortstop. And Bobby Erbakan (.284/.321/.432) showed some signs of coming out of his early season slump when he went 3 for 5 with his 2nd double.
Erik Sloan deserved a win in the third game, as he struck out 8 batters while walking just 1 and giving up 1 run on 5 hits over 7 innings. But he didn't get the run support and the bullpen blew the lead, with Eric Marino (0-1, 8.10) giving up 3 runs in 1 inning pitched to take the loss. John Flores (.390/.409/.805) did his part, going 2 for 4 with 2 RBI and hitting his 4th HR of the season.

May 10, versus L.A.: 2-5.
In the final game of the week, the first of 3 against the red-hot L.A. Spinners at Centennial Stadium, the strong starting pitching continued as Harry Lyerly (2-1, 3.10) allowed just 2 runs on 7 hits while striking out 9 batters and walking 2 over 7 innings of work, but so did the poor bullpen work Liann-wei Hua and Ben Flynn combined to allow the Spinners to break a 2-2 tie with 3 runs in the 9th inning. Josh Schaeffer went 1 for 3 with 2 RBI, 1 walk, and hit his team-leading 5th HR in the loss.

Brewers trends at this stage of the season: The starting rotation is looking quite solid since the disastrous first week of the season and surprisingly Harry Lyerly leads the team in ERA at 3.10. The bullpen continues to be in a shambles (6.18 combined ERA). Several left-handed hitters are off to great starts: Josh Schaeffer, who leads the MGL in batting WAR with 1.5, Andrew Kennedy, who leads in batting average at .416, and Zacarias Martell, who is 4th on the team among position players in WAR at 0.7 due to both his hot bat and his good work behind the plate. One right-handed hitter is also doing well- John Flores, who is tied with Andrew Kennedy for 2nd in WAR at 0.8 in spite of playing far less than the other top hitters on the team. But several key right-handed hitters are struggling: Bobby Erbakan (.268/.303/.402, 0.2 WAR), Jonathan Koch (.253/.298/.291, 0.1 WAR), Mike Foster (.227/.306/.273, 0.0 WAR). And switch-hitter Chad Brown, who is generally best from the right side of the plate, is off to another abysmal start (.226/.261/.250, -0.3 WAR). To make matters worse, there is a perception on the scouting staff that Brown has lost a step and his normally very fine range at short has been compromised. When you add to that his propensity to make errors (he has made 8 in 19 starts this year), there is much talk about the Brewers needing to make a change at this position.
And for awhile the answer was to play Oscar Vargas more. Vargas himself is not a very good contact hitter, but he has some pop, can draw a walk (unlike Brown) and remains a superior defensive infielder at three positions.
And that was all fine and good until Oscar suffered a concussion on a hit by pitch in the final game of the Detroit series. He is expected to be out 6 weeks. Joe Willemse was recalled to the big club.

Notes from around the league: Columbus remains hot and is off to a tremendous 20-5 start to lead the SJL. The Boston Berserkers have moved into second place, 4 games behind, at 16-9. In the MGL, the Brooklyn Aces and L.A. Spinners are now tied for 1st with 16-9 records. Detroit and Denver are tied at 14-10, 1 1/2 off the pace.