Some things to read while protecting your stinger.
If you didn't stay up late with us last night, you didn't miss much. The Padres scored four runs in the fourth and five in the fifth, and the Brewer bats never came to life in a 9-0 loss. As The Bucky Channel noted, the Brewers got about what you'd expect from a game where Doug Davis and Jeff Suppan each pitched four innings.
With that said, if you missed last night's game, here are two things to know from it:
- Both Suppan and Davis allowed several runs, but I'm not sure runs alone are a fair indication of either's performance. Neither pitcher was hit exceptionally hard - the Padres had seven straight singles at one point, many of the "blooper" and "bleeder" variety.
- With that said, I've seen the loss attributed in several places to bad luck, and I don't think that's fair either - even if most of those hits hadn't fallen in, the Brewers still would've needed to score to have a chance, and they were shut out by Wade LeBlanc (who has now allowed just one earned run in 17.1 IP this season) and Tim Stauffer, who hasn't been scored upon in 13 innings.
So, in short, the pitching wasn't as bad as you might expect, but no one else was any good, either. Doug Davis vented his frustration to Anthony Witrado after the game.
With the loss, Looks Like I Picked the Wrong Week noted that the Brewers are 5-11 and have been outscored 109-65 in games not involving the Pirates.
Other notes from the field:
- Wade LeBlanc, Oscar Salazar and Yorvit Torrealba are leading FanGraphs' Star of the Game Voting.
- CoolStandings dropped the Brewer playoff chances to 14.8%
- It was a little too cool for it last night, but @notkenmacha is hoping the west coast weather will allow Rick Peterson to finally shed the jacket at some point.
- No Brewers were hit by pitches last night, but Doug Davis did hit David Eckstein, sparking a flurry of activity over at Plunk Everyone.
-
Dave Cameron noted that the Brewers aren't playing many close games this year.
- Baseball Brew has a list of former Brewers working for the Padres, including former Brewer catcher and bench coach Ted Simmons.
As expected, Trevor Hoffman received a day off yesterday. With that said, Ken Macha clarified the reason for it, acknowledging that Hoffman will remain in the closer role for the time being. Gaslamp Ball has some Hoffman quotes from a local sports radio appearance (FanShot).
In the minors:
- MLB Daily Dish has an interview with Jake Odorizzi.
- Rattler Radio reports that Kyle Heckathorn, Nick Bucci, Damon Krestalude and Odorizzi will pitch for Wisconsin over the next four days, with Maverick Lasker, Del Howell and Efrain Nieves pitching in relief.
While the Brewers are in San Diego, my thoughts (and likely many of yours) will be back in Milwaukee, where Bob Uecker's heart surgery is expected to be performed today. Hopefully we'll have good news soon.
It's been overshadowed a bit by this week's news about Uecker, but I'd like to take a moment this morning to also send out best wishes to Brewer bullpen coach Stan Kyles, who underwent prostate cancer surgery yesterday in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Also, congratulations to Casey McGehee and his wife Sarah, who gave birth to their second child, daughter Cooper Reece, yesterday (FanShot). McGehee is expected to rejoin the team today.
Despite being in the middle of a discouraging stretch of games, the Brewers are still doing well at the ticket office: They sold their 2 millionth 2010 ticket yesterday. I would guess that if this team doesn't improve soon ticket sales for late-season games will begin to decline...but even if they do, the team is probably in position to sell roughly 2.7-2.8 million.
On Power Rankings: Yahoo bumped the Brewers down two spots to 24.
Elsewhere here, if you haven't been visiting the comments or FanPosts sections lately, you've been missing out on a lot of great photoshop entries. After popular demand, nullacct has created a Photoshop Archive for you to go back and remember your favorites, or experience them for the first time.
Around baseball:
Angels: Claimed infielder Kevin Frandsen off waivers from the Red Sox.
Diamondbacks: Placed pitchers Kris Benson (shoulder soreness) and Leo Rosales (sprained foot) on the DL. (h/t AZ Snakepit)
I usually do my best to steer way clear of politics in this space, but since this issue actually seems to have a direct impact on baseball I'll mention it. Jeff Passan of Yahoo has one of the more thorough stories I've seen on Arizona's new law requiring all foreign citizens to carry their passport and work visa at all times, and its potential impact on the Arizona Diamondbacks, Summer League and the Cactus League.
Today's headscratcher line of the day comes from Astros beat reporter Brian McTaggart, who tweeted the following:
#Astros shortstop Tommy Manzella is turning heads with his defense. And it's not surprising.
Wait...what?
Happy birthday today to 1992-99 Brewer manager Phil Garner, who turns 61.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to my cereal.
Drink up.