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Win: Matt Garza (1-2)
Loss: Carlos Villanueva (1-5)
Save: Francisco Rodriguez (10)
HR: Lyle Overbay (1)
So, I get that the Cubs aren't very good this year. That sentence is probably being fairly generous to the Cubs.
But no win ever feels like a sure thing, of course, and I guess to be frank less than one month into the season it seems like we shouldn't really trust the results entirely yet. We can adjust some, sure, but we shouldn't be expecting the Brewers to be juggernauts or whatever.
But, man, after each win it seems to settle in a bit more. The Brewers are 17-6, gang. They've had the best record in all of baseball for, what, a week and a half? Two weeks? Three? And the crazy thing is not everything has been clicking for them. The offense has been iffy. Jean Segura has struggled, Khris Davis has struggled, there have been times where it seemed nobody could hit.
But if we do the whole gamblers fallacy thing and say that, like most people, we originally expected the Brewers to go .500 on the year, we would now expect them to end up with a 86-76 record. That's good. But I don't buy the gamblers fallacy. I think you have to adjust and say that the Brewers are better than people expected. There's a totally real possibility Milwaukee finishes with 90 or more wins.
Coming into the year, my personal thoughts were along the lines of yes, the Brewers could win 90 games. The talent is there for it. But they need things to go right. I didn't expect them to top out. Maybe I still shouldn't. But this was supposed to be the hardest month of the season for them and there is no chance that they come out of it with a losing record.
Anyway, about the actual game tonight: Matt Garza kicked his old team's butt a bit. He allowed two runs, but only gave up four hits over seven innings with seven strikeouts.
Meanwhile, the Brewers' offense took the lead early with a two-run first inning. Carlos Gomez singled to lead off the bottom half of the frame, then stole second, then scored on a Scooter Gennett double. Gennett then scored when Ryan Braun singled. Milwaukee then scored one run in each of the third, fourth and fifth innings to secure their lead. Those runs included a solo home run from Lyle Overbay, as if the Brewers need Lyle Overbay to start hitting dingers now. Stop making me like you again, Lyle, I had gotten comfortable with making fun of you.
Zach Duke and Francisco Rodriguez combined to strike out five batters in the final two innings of play. Rodriguez has now pitched in 6 of the last 8 days, but has yet to allow a run this year. The guy is going to have to switch to pitching left soon just to keep some health.
Game 2 of this series is scheduled for 6:10 CT tomorrow. Marco Estrada vs Travis Wood. Don't miss it, don't even be late. It's dollars to doughnuts that our Game 2 is the best Game 2 in the series.
