Brewers 7, Mets 0: Flexing their Braun

Win: Kyle Lohse (3-4)
Loss: Bartolo Colon (6-2)

HR: Braun 2 (8), Parra (2)

Fangraphs Win Expectancy Graph
Boxscore

A couple years ago, after graduating college, I moved to New York. That's been fun and all, but it keeps me far away from being able to see the Brewers in person very often. Today, the Brewers began a series in New York against the Mets and you bet your ass I was there. Turns out, it was a pretty good game to attend.

After a year of struggles so far, Kyle Lohse had his best start of 2015. The veteran tossed eight innings of two-hit ball and, really, rarely allowed many well-hit balls. He walked one batter early on, but struck out eight others. He looked dominant for the first time in a long time -- for a bit, I thought I might just see a no hitter.

It's exactly the kind of start the Brewers needed from Lohse, too. And need him to keep having. Whether the Brewers somehow work there way back into contention or if they decide to make trades, they need Lohse to be good. Either to help the team win, or to recoup some of the value he may have lost so far this season so they can deal him for something halfway decent. Friday night was a start, but Lohse needs to keep it up.

And then there's Ryan Braun, who also had one of his best games of 2015. Braun hit two home runs today, a two-run shot in the third and a solo liner in the eighth. After the first, I was cheering and the Mets fan in front of me was very adamant about saying 'Have fun cheering for a cheater'. I dunno. The Mets are known to have tried to trade for him. I'm not a big anti-steroids guy. Ryan Braun served his punishment. And I'm not denying that he took performance enhancers. He plays for the team I cheer for and is really good at baseball. Hell yeah I'm going to cheer my brains out for the guy.

Gerardo Parra also had a nice day, hitting a homer while going 3-4 with two runs and two RBI. Aramis Ramirez, in his return to the lineup from a sore back, also picked up three hits.

All in all, just a really good game from the Brewers, which is great to see. I'll be at the next couple of games, too -- would love to see a couple more just like this!