Last year, the Brewers were horrible away from Miller Park. I'm sure there are good reasons why some teams are much better at home: you get used to the bounces in the outfield, maybe you're built a little better for the quirks of the ballpark, maybe you're just more comfortable in your own friendly confines. But come on, it's all baseball, and batting last doesn't make that much of the difference.
So, to kick off this season of road games, let's set a new tone: the competition isn't too rough, so a 5-4 or 6-3 record on the nine-game trip seems reasonable. I certainly hope we can take the initial series in Florida.
Taking the ball tonight is Jeff Suppan, coming off a loss in his first outing, but a pretty solid start nonetheless. I'm afraid that the unspectacular Suppan we saw last week is what we can expect; the bad news is that he's not the best $10M starter on our team; the good news is that his performance will still probably be good enough to win 12-15 times this year. But to do that, the Brewers will have to score against Anibal Sanchez, and that'll require getting some production out of the guys who should be starting, including Bill Hall.
Here's my series preview from earlier today; it actually gets easier as the week goes on. If we take this one, we're in prime position for a sweep. That is, if Claudio Vargas and Dave Bush can pitch more like major leaguers than whatever they were doing this past weekend.
Go Brewers!