You might not hear about it in the papers, but "Roid Rage" could reach epidemic proportions today in Milwaukee. No, not from Barry B*nds' steroid use --- whoops! alleged steroid use --- in his pursuit of Hank Aaron's record. No, this is "Hemorrhoid Rage" from Barry sitting on the bench all day, and it affects all those people who will go to the park today to see him break the record, without knowing that B*nds usually doesn't play afternoon games following a night game. Hey, illegal drug use affects us all.
Of course, that's not the only reason why people would be upset, not after yesterday's performance. On offense, the Cream City Crushers were held to 4 runs or fewer yet again --- only 4 times this month have we reached as many as 5 runs in a game. Unfortunately, not even B*nds' 0-fer could bail out (haha!) our pitching:
- Jeff Suppan had a game WHIP of more than 2,
- First-half hero Carlos Villanueva is auditioning to be this year's Turnbow 2006, giving up 11 earned runs in his last 12 1/2 IP, including 3 in less than an inning last night
- Grant Balfour's ERA continues to balloon, reaching almost 17 after last night
- The much-maligned Derrick Turnbow looked like the Derrick of old --- no, the other one, giving up two hits and a walk while only getting one out (a strikeout of that B*nds guy) before being yanked.
- The only Brewers pitchers who escaped last night unscathed were Brian Shouse --- Ned, don't read too much into that --- and newbie Manny Parra, who struck out three of the four batters he faced.
And hey, don't forget about today's game! Two pitchers who had slow starts, Dave Bush and Timmy Lincecum, have been pitching very well over the past month or so, go at it again today. He's been pitching better lately, but this is the same Tim Lincecum who gave up 6 runs in 4 innings against us just one month ago.
Game time is 2:55 PM Central, to accommodate a nation-wide audience on FOX. You heard it here first: the Chorizo wins in a rout.
