4/5 Game Recap

The Brewers won 3-2, behind the strong pitching of Tomo Ohka. Recaps are here and here. On to the bullet points:

• Can't say enough about Tomo Ohka. If you go through the comments in the game thread, you can see I was nervous for the first few innings. But he settled down, threw more strikes, and made it through seven innings, only giving up a monster shot to Jason Bay. His cutter, which is only a few mph slower than his fastball, is an incredible weapon when he keeps it down.
  
  
• Also deserving of serious praise is Zach Duke. He didn't look quite as consistently good as Ohka did, but he got the outs when he needed to, and he, like Oliver Perez, has the capability to batters look absolutely stupid.
  
  
• Someday someone is going to score a run or two off of Matt Wise--they have to, right? But I'm not going to believe it. His changeup is devastating.
  
  
• Three nights, three saves? Derrick Turnbow did it, just barely. He left the bases loaded after walking both Craig Wilson and Ryan Doumit. Gotta respect D-bow for gutting it out, but I really don't want to see that again this year. Jose Capellan or Dan Kolb (or anybody else, really) needs to step up so that, occasionally, Wise can handle the 9th.
  
  
• JJ Hardy: 3 games, 2 HRs. Someone IM'd me during the game and suggested that we start a pool for the date when Prince Fielder passed Hardy's HR total. After initially saying April 20th, I joked that it'll never happen: Fielder will get 30, but Hardy will end the season with 32. Heck--it could happen, he's on pace for over 100.
  
  
• Speaking of Prince, I'm guessing I was not the only Brewer fan to breathe a *huge* sigh of relief when he got his hit in the 8th. It's not even that I was worried about whether he'd break out of the slump; it's just painful to watch a guy struggle through that when he knows the spotlight is all over him.
  
  
• 3-0, second consecutive year we've swept the Pirates to open the season. Best record in baseball. It's a bit early to predict that we'll win the division, but it's tough not to be excited about this team.

Today's an off-day; the Diamondbacks arrive in Milwaukee tomorrow for a three-game weekend series. Dave Bush will pitch against Russ Ortiz. And maybe we'll see Rick Helling, Jared Fernandez, or Jorge de la Rosa (because we'll be leading by seven in the fifth inning, of course). Maybe even a Corey Hart at-bat? I can only hope.

Tags: Zach Duke, Arizona Diamondbacks, Oliver Perez, Pittsburgh Pirates, Ryan Doumit, Jason Bay, Milwaukee Brewers, Craig Wilson, Russ Ortiz, Jared Fernandez