Milwaukee Brewers drop rubber match in San Francisco, 4-2

A pair of bad pitches and single bad beat gave a very bad team a win over the road tripping Milwaukee Brewers Wednesday afternoon. Let's chat. But first, the chart.

Chart:

OBEYING THE WEATHERMAN: Matt Garza, +.157 WPA (5.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 6 K, 2 BB)

STARING DIRECTLY INTO THE SUN: Jacob Barnes, -.296 WPA (L, 1.0 IP, 2 R, 2 H, 2 K, 1 HBP)

Recap:

Milwaukee did something that's become something of a habit in the later stages of this roller coaster season; that is, they struck early in the first inning and then the offense took the rest of the day off.

The Brewers' first inning tally came off a pair of doubles from Domingo Santana and This Shaw, certainly two of the most reliable bats Milwaukee has deployed this season.

Their lead didn't last long, however, as Garza allowed the first three men to reach base on the bottom of the first. He was able to limit the damage to just a single run, however, and indeed retired 9 of the next 10 batters he faced.

Both offenses fell silent after the first, as both Garza and Matt Moore held their respective opponents to one run on five hits, striking out six and walking a pair (Garza threw five innings; Moore, six).

Jacob Barnes came on to keep the game tied in the last of the seventh. The right hander had been having a decent month after a disastrous June and July, allowing just a single earned run in 10.1 innings of work.

That run ended this afternoon, as Barnes allowed a pair of runs to score on a dumbass, check-swing double from some idiot I've never heard of (Jarrett Parker) that hugged the third base line and found it's way into the on-field bullpen from which Barnes had just emerged. The two-out hit was a spot of bad luck, but it wouldn't have hurt had he not allowed a regular-ass double and hit a batter earlier in the inning.

A ninth inning clout from Stephen Vogt might have made things a bit interesting had Shaw's leadoff walk not been erased on a double play. Eric Thames flied out to the idiot I mentioned earlier, and that was your ballgame.

On Deck:

The Brewers have a pair of off days sandwiched around a three game set with The Juggernaunt in the City of Angels this weekend. The Dodgers haven't lost a series since June 7th against the Washington Nationals, a stretch during which they have won 54 of their 64 games and put themselves on pace to break the all-time record for wins in a season (115, 2001 Seattle Mariners). The optimist says, "They're due for one." I'll say that if Milwaukee can escape with a win and fall just one more game back of the Cubs and Rockies, it'll be an okay weekend.