Milwaukee Brewers take first game against Washington Nationals 8-0

WP: Zach Davies (14-4)
LP: Edwin Jackson (1-1)

HR: Travis Shaw (23), Eric Thames (24), Manny Pina (7)

Box Score

It’s too bad the Milwaukee Brewers have already been eliminated from the playoffs or tonight would have been a great night. Not only did the Brewers go into the house of one of the top NL teams and obliterate them, they acquired some much needed bullpen help.

Oh wait, despite a week of Twitter ranting, the Brewers are in first and today was a great day for the franchise. The offense went off and showed that it’s in great shape, along with finally getting some lucky breaks.

Most impressive was Zach Davies. Davies has had quite the bad season compared to expectations, but he went 7.2 scoreless innings in tonight’s game, giving the awful bullpen a much need break. In fact, a hitter never made it past second on Davies and the Brewers’ light-throwing pitcher only allowed one extra base hit.

Of course, as it has been all season, the Brewers’ offense showed up with Zach on the mound, totaling 8 runs against the Nats’ Edwin Jackson.

To get things started, the Brewers needed some sloppy defense by the Nationals. A poorly played squeeze bunt by Zach Davies pushed the first run across and the second run scored after the Nats couldn’t field another Davies bunt.

After Davies helped get the scoring going, the big bats took over. Travis Shaw hit a 3-run jack to put the Crew up 5-0. In the next inning, Shaw and Pina would homer to make it 7-0 and chase Edwin Jackson. The Brewers’ only needed one to push their way to victory and maintain sole possession of first place.

Season ace Jimmy Nelson (8-5, 3.43 ERA) leads Milwaukee again the Nats in game two of the series tomorrow. The Milwaukee Nine faces off against Gio Gonzalez (8-5, 2.83 ERA) who’s had a resurgent season with Washington. First pitch is at 6:05 p.m. CST.