Brewers record: 4-2 (week), 32-18, 1st place, MGL (season).
The week started wonderfully well and ended very poorly.
June 1-3, at Brooklyn:
4-3,
7-0,
5-1.
The Brewers marched into Brooklyn's Heritage Field and dispatched of their primary foe rather handily.
In game 1, Harry Lyerly continued his solid return to form season, allowing just 2 runs on 4 hits over 7 innings pitched, striking out 6 while walking 3. He improves to 3-2 with a 2.57 ERA. Tim Shore wasn't great in the 9th, giving up a run to allow the Aces to get within one, but then shut it down to get his 2nd save. And Chad Brown (.252/.287/.311), who has been starting to hit a bit better lately, was 2 for 3 in the game, driving in 2 runs on his 1st HR of the season.
Erik Sloan (4-1, 2.66) was masterful in the middle game, getting the complete game 3-hit shutout. It was a well-balanced offensive attack but special note should be made of Josh Schaeffer (.344/.438/.616) who went 2 for 5 with 2 runs scored and 2 RBI- his 2 hits being his 2nd triple of the season and team-leading 8th HR.
Another solid start from Matt Helm (4-1, 2.11) in the final game. Helm worked 6 innings, giving up 1 run on 5 hits (though he did walk 6 batters.) Jordan Stephens got his 1st save of the season. And youngster Jorge Gonzalez (.324/.342/.380) led the way offensively with a 2 for 4, 3 RBI performance and hit his 1st big league homer.
After a day off, the Brewers returned home to take on the Detroit Falcons. And in game 1 things went more or less to plan. Jorge Gonzalez was again the hitting star, going 3 for 4 with 5 RBI, hitting his 4th double and 1st triple of the season. Sadahige Kawasaki wasn't at his sharpest, giving up 4 runs (though only 1 was earned) on 6 hits in 7 innings pitched, but improves to 6-3 with a 2.24 ERA. RodRod (.357/.405/.493) also shone in this one, going 3 for 4 with 4 RBI and hitting two doubles to get to 11 on the season. On a negative note, Jordan Stephens had to leave the game with an apparent back issue after giving up a pair of hits and recording no outs. (As it turns out, he is having back spasms that will keep him out of action for likely as much as 7 weeks. And he was one of the more reliable relievers in our very unreliable bullpen so far.)
And then the curse of rancid 'pen returned again. The Brewers carried a 5-1 lead into the 9th inning of the second game before three relievers combined to allow 7 runs in the top of the 9th. Tim Shore took the loss, giving up 3 of the runs on 5 hits while also recording all 3 outs in the inning. He now has an ERA with the Brewers of 12.00. Cheol-han Lee was denied a win that should have been his. He gave up just 1 unearned run on 9 hits in his 7 2/3rds innings and his ERA falls to a more respectable 3.80. Cheol-han also hit a big 2-run double in the 4th inning. He was given some assistance in this area by RodRod, who went 2 for 4 in the game, hitting his 12th double.
And more of the same in the rubber match. Although in this case the early 7-4 lead mostly evaporated while starter Erik Sloan was still on the hill. Sloan allowed 6 runs on 8 hits (including 2 HR) in 6 innings pitched and sees his ERA rise to 3.22. But the bullpen then completely gave the farm away, giving up 5 runs over the final 2 innings. Another loss you can't blame RodRod for- he just went 3 for 5 with 2 RBI (although admittedly he did commit his 4th error of the season in this one.) Or John Flores (.394/.437/.755) who was 3 for 6 with a run scored.
Notes from around the league: The Columbus Whalers cooled off a bit this week but still have an impressive 38-13 record and lead the SJL by 7 game over the also cooling Boston Berserkers. The Philadelphia Mud Hens are making a bit of run for the top again, though they are only 7 games over .500, and sit 9 games off the pace in third place.
The Brewers, of course, remain atop the MGL standings, though after getting their lead up to 4 1/2 games over Brooklyn following the sweep of the Aces they now lead Brooklyn by only 2 1/2 games. Detroit follows at 3 back and the L.A. Spinners are now 4 1/2 games back in 4th place.
The Brewers offense is once again the best in the league, as we have a league-leading team batting average of .302 and league-leading OPS of .788 and have outscored our nearest opponent by more than 20 runs. And the starting rotation is doing very well, 2nd in starters ERA and largely responsible for the league-leading team FIP of 3.31, but the bullpen remains atrocious and is the number 1 priority, reportedly, of the front office. Expect more trades to be made to address this need.