I'll keep this short, especially since there's so much to read in the Mug today.
But I have to pile on. It's almost impossible to overstate how much CC has done the second half of this year. There may have been deadline acquisitions who have been more dominating (Randy Johnson's insane 1998 with the Astros comes to mind), but it's hard to imagine any player meaning more to, and doing more for, a team in the playoff hunt.
Quick rundown:
- 17 starts in 73 Brewers games
- Seven complete games (average of 7.7 IP per start, went 7 or more all but four times)
- Three shutouts, and that doesn't count yesterday: nine innings, zero ER
- Last three starts on short rest--probably with more to come
- 1.65 ERA, less than one HR allowed per *20* IP, and a K/BB ratio of better than 5:1
And somehow, that doesn't even seem like it does him justice. He did much of this while the rest of the team was slumping; he picked up the slack for an inconsistent bullpen; he kept the team in the hunt even when almost everybody else in the starting rotation couldn't.
Just...wow.