The Brewers end the month of August on a sour note in the first of three games versus the Detroit Falcons at Centennial Stadium when they lose 10-4. Matt Helm gives up 6 runs (5 earned) on 9 hits in 5 innings pitched to take the loss and drop to 6-9 with a 4.33 ERA. Bobby Erbakan (.349/.402/.478) was 3 for 4 and hit his 19th double in the loss. Pat Rondeau (.359/.383/.446) went 2 for 4 and hit his 24th double. Mike Foster (.274/.307/.387) hit his 9th HR.
It required walk-off heroics in the bottom of the 9th, particularly on the part of Josh Schaeffer, but the Brewers get September started on a better note with a 4-3 victory. After the Brewers blew a 1-run lead in the top of the 9th to allow the Falcons to tie the score at 3-3, they got a lead-off walk from Ryan Rodgers to start the bottom of the frame, saw him erased at second on an attempted sacrifice bunt by Oscar Vargas. Chad Brown then flew out to left with Vargas still stuck at 1st base with two outs now. Josh Schaeffer came up and the question on everyone's mind was whether the Brewers manager would pull the left-handed hitting Schaeffer with the Falcons lefty closer Jon Schmidt on the mound. And at the time pretty much all agreed that he should, with all indications being that the young Schaeffer is much less proficient hitting against same handed pitchers. But for whatever reason the skipper stuck with the young right fielder. And on the very first pitch of the at-bat this decision was rewarded as Schaeffer went with the pitch and lined a drive deep into the gap in left-center, with the strong running Vargas hustling all the way home with the winning run. Steve Green pitched a strong 7 innings, giving up 2 runs on just 5 hits, striking out 8 and walking 2 batters. The decision went to left-handed reliever Jeremy Walker in his first WPK appearance of the season and just his 4th overall. It was Walker's first big league win. Schaeffer (.321/.411/.487) went 1 for 3 in the game, drawing 2 walks in addition to his game winning double.
In the rubber match Harry Lyerly gave up a lead-off HR to open the game which was then followed by a single and it looked like maybe Harry didn't have his best stuff on this particular day. But baseball's a funny game and two at-bats generally mean very little. Lyerly, in fact, had fine stuff indeed and was largely lights out after that. He hurled 7 innings, giving up just that 1 run on 6 hits, striking out 7 and walking 2. His teammates gave him good run support to get an 8-2 win and Lyerly improves to 13-6 with a 2.91 ERA. The three top hitters in the MGL (in terms of batting average) are Pat Rondeau, Bobby Erbakan, and Andrew Kennedy. So it should probably come as no surprise that Rondeau (.362/.387/.448) was 3 for 5 with 3 runs scored in this one (and stole his 23rd base), Erbakan (.350/.400/.481) also was 3 for 5 and he drove in 3 runs, hitting a pair of doubles to get to 21 on the season, and Kennedy (.348/.391/.465) chipped in with a 3 for 4 game, hitting his league leading 31st double.
With the series victory the Brewers remain in 3rd place but now trail by just 2 1/2 games again.