Brewers Split Team, Win Twice

During the Battle of Chancellorsville in the American Civil War, Major General John Hooker advanced his union troops towards Robert E. Lee's confederate army. Hooker had many more soldiers than Lee did, and a Union victory seemed imminent. With the cards stacked against him, Major General Lee performed a risky maneuver. Instead of holding a defensive front, Lee split his armies and attacked the Union forces as Hooker hesitated to push forward with his initial attack. The strategy worked, and the Confederates would gain a crucial victory. Ultimately, Chancellorsville would be called Robert E. Lee's "perfect battle." Today can be known as Ron Roenicke's perfect spring training battle.

Roenicke took a page out of Lee's book and split his troops, attacking both the Los Angeles Dodgers and Kansas City Royals head on. Despite both the Royals and Dodgers having twice the available men as the Brewers, Milwaukee held victorious over both with a 7-3 win against the Royals and a 7-1 win against the Dodgers.

Scooter Gennett hit for the cycle against the Royals as he went 4-5 on the day with three RBI and two runs scored. Taylor Green was 3-4 with a double, a triple, a run scored, and an RBI. Edwin Maysonet also picked up a couple hits and scored and drove in a run. Marco Estrada allowed just four baserunners in four scoreless innings. Josh Butler had a rough go of things, allowing two men to score in two innings.

In the Dodgers game, Norichiki Aoki, Rickie Weeks, and Logan Schafer all had a couple hits. Aoki also hit a home run, while Schafer scored twice. Aoki had an interesting day on the basepaths, getting picked off once and caught stealing once. Shaun Marcum pitched in his first major league game and made it three scoreless innings. He gave up a hit and a walk, but struck out three. John Axford struggled in the fifth inning, giving up a run on two walks and a hit. He somehow was credited with a blown save for that. In addition, the Brewers must have had some fan contest where several people in attendance received actual playing time in this game. Today Matt Cline and Nick Shaw were the lucky winners. They both were fortunate enough to get an at-bat, and Cline even had an RBI single and scored a run! What a great promotion the Brewers are running!