3B-man shines…only the wrong one

Friday night’s game between the Padres and Brewers in PETCO Park marked the MLB debut of Brewers’ third baseman prospect Ryan Braun…while both third basemen shined Friday night, one was a bit brighter–unfortunately, it was the Padres’ Kouzmanoff and his grand slam home run that led his team to the 8-6 victory.
Braun didn’t fare badly, however…starting at third and batting second in the line-up, Braun drove in a pair–including one on his first MLB hit in the 7th–and scored a run on J.J. Hardy’s 15th homer of the season in the 7th.
Brewers’ starter Dave Bush continued his struggles, notching his 5th loss of the season, after giving up 7 ER over 5 IP; the somewhat early exit, combined with the sparse bullpen, meant skipper Ned Yost and replacement manager Dale Sveum had to use Chris Spurling for two innings, and Matt Wise for one (if Yost sticks with his usual MO of only pitching Wise every other day, then only Brian Shouse and Derrick Turnbow are available for Saturday night’s game). Sveum had to fill-in for Yost, after Yost came in to support Geoff Jenkins on a horrible third strike call–Jenkins got tossed almost immediately for arguing the call, but Yost still ran up to give home plate umpire Jerry Layne some…er, “constructive criticism,” of his abilities. Both Jenkins and Yost were right to argue and get tossed–besides being a horrible call, the feist and angst displayed by both could easily have carried through to the rest of the team.
Saturday evening’s game pits Claudio Vargas (3-0, 3.68) against Justin Germano (2-0, 0.47). Germano is making only his 4th MLB start this season, but has put up impressive numbers so far–only 1 ER and 12 hits over 19 IP (note to self: if this streak continues tonight, I may need to pick him up in my fantasy league…oh, wait…only 5 K’s in 3 games…maybe not).

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