Clearly, the key to beating the Cardinals is keeping their pitchers off the basepaths. I meant that as a joke, but with Jason Marquis on the mound for the Birds, it might not be such a funny one. Regardless, now that the Brewers have done the sporting thing and let St. Louis win their home opener, we can get back down to business and take the last two games of the series.
Despite the disappointment of falling short with the 9th inning comeback, I thought Monday's game had a number of promising aspects. First, the Cardinals bullpen is very fallible, at least for now. Second, even against the best team in the league, with the crowd against them, the Crew battled to the very last out. One or two breaks go the other way, and we're 6-1 instead of 5-2.
On to tonight's game, starting at 7:10 CT:
| Brewers | Cardinals |
|---|---|
| Brady Clark - CF | David Eckstein - SS |
| JJ Hardy - SS | Juan Encarnacion - RF |
| Geoff Jenkins - RF | Albert Pujols - 1B |
| Carlos Lee - LF | Jim Edmonds - CF |
| Corey Koskie - 3B | Scott Rolen - 3B |
| Rickie Weeks - 2B | Skip Schumaker - LF |
| Prince Fielder - 1B | Yadier Molina - C |
| Damian Miller - C | Aaron Miles - 2B |
| Dave Bush - P | Jason Marquis - P |
Tags: Scott Rolen, Jason Marquis, David Eckstein, Juan Encarnacion, Aaron Miles, Jim Edmonds, Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, Milwaukee Brewers, Skip Schumaker, St. Louis Cardinals
Update [2006-4-12 22:43:18 by Jeff]: Not a pretty game. Dave Bush gave up eight runs, though he didn't look that bad. The Cardinal hits came in bunches, unfortunately very large bunches. Despite a really ugly stat line, I'm not worried about Bush at this point. The Brewers left eight guys on base, including three with two outs by Fielder in the 8th. The one bright spot: Jose Capellan absolutely mowed down the Cardinals lineup in the 7th and 8th inning, allowing no baserunners as he faced the 2 through 7 spots in the order. He looked great.
Everybody else...not so great. Brady Clark looked particularly lost, at the plate and a bit on the field. I hope he gets a day off tomorrow. Either Hall or Hart should be entrusted with CF every once in a while...maybe more than every once in a while.
Tomorrow, the game is an early start: 12:10 CT. Jeff Suppan, eminently hittable, just not by Brewers, goes against Doug Davis, looking to bounce back from his rough start against Arizona.