Okay, it's two and a half months until the season starts, and I'm getting really antsy. You can only project stats so many different ways before you want to see how things actually turn out. So, thanks to Dan Szymborski's DMB projection disk I was able to simulate opening day.
The good news is that the Brewers beat the Pirates in their home opener. The bad news is that I got really nervous for a guy piloting a simulated computer baseball team in January. It was a close one.
Zach Duke pitched brilliantly for seven innings, not racking up too many strikeouts but shutting down the Crew. Ben Sheets was shaky in the beginning, allowing all three runs in the first four innings, not retiring the side in order until the sixth. It wasn't until the 8th inning that the Brewer bats, aided by a timely error from Pirate 2B Jose Castillo, came alive, scoring two runs. Brady Clark and JJ Hardy each drove in a run before Jim Tracy brought in Damaso Marte, who quickly disposed of Jenkins and Lee.
That left the Brewers down by one, which was still the case in the bottom of the ninth after a nearly perfect top half from Matt Wise. Against Roberto Hernandez, Prince Fielder opened with a single (his first hit of the season), though Rickie Weeks flied out to follow. Billy Hall, the opening day third baseman, sent a deep single to right that advanced Fielder to third. With righty Hernandez on the mound, Gabe Gross came in to pinch-hit for Damian Miller, and struck out.
With two outs and runners on the corners, Corey Koskie pinch-hit and sent a sharp grounder to second that was booted by our good friend Jose Castillo, scoring Fielder, tying the game. Brady Clark followed with an infield single, loading the bases again. Jim Tracy, who was, uh, so excited about the rally that he forgot to change pitchers until now (oops), brought in Mike Gonzalez to face JJ Hardy, 2-for-4 entering this at-bat. Hardy singled, driving in the winning run. A good time was had by all.
I can't get the box score to format very nicely, but if you're interested, it follows the jump.
I don't know whether a team that cyber-squeaks past the Pirates on opening day is playoff-bound, but it's a heck of a lot better than getting routed by one of the worst teams in the league.
4/3/2006, PIT06-MIL06, Miller Park
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP
2006 Pirates 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 10 2 6 1
2006 Brewers 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 4 9 0 8 2
Pirates AB R H BI AVG Brewers AB R H BI AVG
Duffy cf 4 0 0 0 .000 Clark cf 5 0 2 1 .400
Castillo 2b 4 1 1 1 .250 Hardy ss 5 0 3 2 .600
Bay lf 4 0 1 0 .250 Jenkins rf 3 0 0 0 .000
Burnitz rf 4 0 2 0 .500 Lee lf 4 0 0 0 .000
Casey 1b 4 0 0 0 .000 Wise p 0 0 0 0 .000
Marte p 0 0 0 0 .000 Fielder 1b 4 1 1 0 .250
Hernandez p 0 0 0 0 .000 Weeks 2b 4 0 0 0 .000
Gonzalez p 0 0 0 0 .000 Hall 3b 3 2 1 0 .333
Randa 3b 4 2 2 0 .500 Miller c 3 1 2 0 .667
Wilson ss 4 0 3 1 .750 Gross ph 1 0 0 0 .000
Doumit c 4 0 0 0 .000 Sheets p 1 0 0 0 .000
Duke p 3 0 1 1 .333 Cirillo ph 1 0 0 0 .000
Wilson 1b 1 0 0 0 .000 Hart lf 0 0 0 0 .000
36 3 10 3 Koskie ph 1 0 0 0 .000
35 4 9 3
Pirates INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Duke 7.1 5 2 2 2 2 106 68 2.45
Marte H 0.2 0 0 0 0 1 13 8 0.00
Hernandez BS , L 0.2 3 2 0 0 1 20 12 0.00
Gonzalez 0.0 1 0 0 0 0 4 3 0.00
8.2 9 4 2 2 4 143 91
Brewers INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Sheets 8.0 9 3 3 0 3 105 69 3.38
Wise W 1.0 1 0 0 0 2 12 11 0.00
9.0 10 3 3 0 5 117 80
PIT: Wilson inserted at 1b in the 8th
MIL: Cirillo batted for Sheets in the 8th
Hart inserted at lf in the 9th
Gross batted for Miller in the 9th
Koskie batted for Hart in the 9th
E-Castillo 2. 2B-Randa, Wilson 2, Clark. HR-Castillo(1). K-Bay, Burnitz,
Casey, Randa, Doumit, Jenkins, Lee, Sheets, Gross. BB-Jenkins, Hall.
SH-Sheets.
GWRBI: Hardy
Temperature: 66, Sky: clear, Wind: right to left at 3 MPH.