Hnarrative

After discussing with several Brewer fan’s over the past about the prospects of the rest of the season the overwhelming response seems to be that it’s over. Those who still do have hope of a possible playoff run are very reserved on the actuality of that glorious event. You can definitely stick me in that latter camp, and I’m proud to be there. Of course most sports fans have a very short-term memory and after watching them drop two of three to the Padres (again), it was very easy to throw The Crew under the bus. Especially when in the one game you win you score 12 runs and still almost give it up because of poor pitching. The important thing though is that it goes down as a win and helped to propel us to the first three game winning streak since the middle of June.

It is largely due in part to these mighty struggles over the last several weeks that I have so much hope. I truly believe that we are a better team than we have shown over that time. The fact that we are still within striking distance of the Cardinals makes me so happy. We have a lot of games left against them, as well as the Cubs, and it would be very easy for us to close the gap during September. A friend of mine was expressing her hope that we would sweep the Cards for the rest of our season series against them. Although I find that extremely improbable and nearly impossible, it definitely is true that we can make some hay against them. Of course, it was my expectation we were going to be winning a lot of games and series since the All-Star break to where we stand today and I’ve been terribly wrong, but that optimism cannot leave me.

It is that same optimism that has led me over the last couple weeks to grow so excited about the changes our bullpen has experienced. I think Weathers is a tremendous set-up man and Vargas put together some great innings for us. After watching Weathers blow the game on Sunday, losing the chance for a series sweep, most would lose faith, but not me. This is due part to my optimism still, but more so my stubbornness that I was right about Weathers being a great set-up man. I don’t blame Weathers for giving up that two run homer. He pitched a good at-bat against Pence, and Pence hit a pitchers pitch for a home run. It was an impressive show by Hunter, and not much Weathers could have done about it. I was reading another blog in which the author suggested we should have given Pence a free pass to first and pitched to Pudge instead. That type of strategy is so stupid and will not work for you in most situations since you’re putting the go ahead run on first (and Pence has good speed to). I think that author also greatly underestimates Pudge, who is still a rather good hitter with decent power.

At any rate we’re eight games back and below .500. If the Brewers struggle any longer to win series and in all honesty begin to sweep some teams I’m afraid I’ll have the jump off the playoff prospective bandwagon. That has not happened so far though, so let’s just go out and continue our dominance over the Pirates. Oh, and screw you Thompson, I hope you enjoy watching the Eagles in the Superbowl this year, jackass.