Brewers Miss Opportunity For Four Game Sweep, Get Blown Out 8-0 By Cubs

W: Matt Garza (1-0)
L: Zack Greinke (1-1)

HR: None

MVP: Ryan Braun (+.027)
LVP: Zack Greinke (-.319)

Win Expectancy Graph and Star Of The Game Voting

There's not much to do today except shake your head and move on.

Zack Greinke was rolling through two innings but melted down in the third today, as a combination of bad pitches and bad luck led to seven Cub hits in the inning and six runs. He didn't bounce back in the fourth and ended up leaving early after allowing eight runs on nine hits over 3.2 innings, walking one and striking out five.

Meanwhile the Brewers managed just three hits against Matt Garza, with two coming off the bat of Nyjer Morgan. Garza appeared to be done for the day after pitching eight shutout innings on 103 pitches, but Dale Sveum sent him back out for the ninth to unnecessarily strain his arm pitching the final inning of a blowout. The 119 pitches he threw today are the most thrown by a major leaguer in 2012. He had a chance to finish the shutout but threw the ball away on a Norichika Aoki comebacker with two outs.

The lone silver lining to today's game might have been the bullpen: Manny Parra and Tim Dillard followed Greinke to the mound and pitched 4.1 scoreless innings to limit the damage and allow the Brewers to escape without needing to use anyone else on the mound. The team still doesn't have an off day until Monday.

Now the Brewers will head to Atlanta, where they'll be the visiting team for the Braves' home opener at Turner Field tomorrow night. Randy Wolf will face Jair Jurrjens at 6:35.