What I love about games like today's is that a whole bunch of stuff went wrong, but enough things went right so that we still won the game. Sure, seven runs in the first four innings never hurts, but we struggled through Suppan loading 'em up in the first and Turnbow nearly melting down in the 8th all with little ill effect.
We can't expect everybody to be perfect every night--especially somebody like Turnbow--so it's great to see us pull out the victory even with that imperfection. A few of the bright spots:
- Hart, Hall, and Mench stayed hot. Hardy got in on the action, too, contributing to the total of thirteen Brewers hits.
- Jeff Suppan gave us a quality start, despite some shakiness throughout.
- Ned pulled Suppan before it was too late. I wouldn't have objected to letting Jeff try the 7th, but usually Ned goes too far in the other direction, leaving a starter (especially a durable vet) out until it's 100% obvious that he's done.
- Turnbow melted down, but he got himself out of it. That's huge.
- Francisco Cordero is absolutely filthy. That's not news, but it's impressive every single time. Especially when Freddy Sanchez is flailing at balls a foot out of the zone.
As the title suggests, this was Ned Yost's 300th career win. What makes that impressive is that he's done it all in a Brewers uniform: there aren't many managers these days who stick around that long with one team. We'll probably be criticizing him until the day he's booted out of town (or takes the Braves job), but in the meantime, let's be thankful we've got him, and not Jerry Narron or Jim Tracy. (Or Phil Garner. Or Dusty Baker. Or Tony LaRussa. Or Ozzie Guillen. Or Jerry Royster. Or Charlie Manuel. Or Buck Showalter.)
Congrats, Ned.