Are They Really That Bad in Interleague and Nationally Televised Games?

Of course last night's game went a lot better than anyone expected based on the recent lack of Interleague success and how bad the team plays when the game is nationally televised - especially after going down by five runs - twice.

But if you take away last night's rousing success, Interleague hasn't seemed to be going so well for the Brewers.

Not sure about anyone else, but I've got a really low opinion of Interleague games, mostly because it feels like the Brewers never perform well, so I compiled a list of the team's record each season since Interleague play started. 

Year	W	L	Runs Scored	Runs Against
2009	2	5	34	45
2008	7	8	72	81
2007	8	7	82	74
2006	6	9	58	91
2005	8	7	58	64
2004	8	4	57	36
2003	5	7	67	60
2002	2	10	45	79
2001	5	10	65	77
2000	6	9	68	84
1999	8	6	86	78
1998	8	6	74	68
1997 (in AL)	8	7	48	56
Total	81	95	814	893

 

Turns out, it's not that bad. Clearly, it's not great, but it's better than I thought it was going to be. I didn't remember having a winning record in 2007 and I lived in another state in 2001 and 2002, so I missed out on the pain that was a combined 7-20 record. But overall, my impression that the Brewers have been complete crap in Interleague was easily proven false, no matter how hard it was to believe.

So maybe it just seems so much worse than it is – and for good reason. Interleague losses have been some major heart-breakers. Though the series in Boston last year ended up being a catalyst for the team to break out of their slump, it was also some of the worst, ugliest, most painful baseball of the season.

You’ll remember the loss to Minnesota in 12 innings in July of last season despite a 455-foot Braun homer and a pinch-hit Russell Branyan ninth inning homer to send the game to extras, where Prince was robbed of a home run by the umpires, all before the Twins scored five runs in the 12^th for the win.

How about the loss in Minnesota on June 17, 2007 when Prince hit an inside-the-park home run, Corey Hart hit two homers, including a back-to-back with Hardy, and the team still lost 10-9?

Or CoCo Cordero’s first blown save in 23 tries on his return to Texas as the Rangers had four-straight two-out RBI singles to snatch the win 4-3.

Or getting no-hit in Detroit in ’07?

Yeah - Interleague hasn't been kind to us over the past few seasons, no matter what the W-L record says. 

On the other hand, the Brewers really ARE as bad as they seem to be when playing in a nationally televised game. Admittedly, figuring out the record here is an inexact science – the schedule was difficult to find and piece together.

But the best I could figure, the Crew is 4-11 in nationally televised games over the past season and a little more than a third.

Here’s the games I compiled:

March 31, 2008  4-3 win over Cubs

April 30, 2008 19-5 loss to Cubs

May 10, 2008 5-3 loss to St. Louis

May 17, 2008 5-3 loss to Boston

May 18, 2008 11-7 loss to Boston

August 2, 2008 4-2 win over Atlanta

September 13, 2008 7-3 loss to Phillies

October 1, 2008 3-1 loss to Phillies

October 2, 2008 5-2 loss to Phillies

October 4, 2008 4-1 win over Phillies

October 5, 2008 6-2 loss to Phillies

April 12, 2009 8-5 loss to Cubs

May 24, 2009 6-2 loss to Minnesota

June 13, 2009 7-1 loss to ChiSox

June 16, 2009 14-12 win over Cleveland

I know I missed some games in there, but I was doing my research while watching last night's game and understandably got a little side-tracked at times. If anyone else has some to add to the list, please do, but I doubt any other unearthed wins will help dull the pain of the performance of this team when all eyes are on them.