Brewers’ fans still puzzled by which Crew will show up down the stretch

Well, at least I am.

In the past two weeks, the Brewers have:

• Split a 4-game series against the NL’s worst team, the Nationals, at home, surrendering at least 5 runs per game in the first three games and allowing an average of 7.5 runs per game
• Then dropping 2 of 4 at San Diego to the Padres, the last place team in the NL West
• Then winning 2 of 3 at Los Angeles versus the Dodgers…the best team in the NL, including a win by the up-and-down Manny Parra, followed by a 17-4 drubbing started by ace Yovani Gallardo (in the one game that they were supposed to win)…Gallardo gave up 9 ER’s over 5.3 IP…but also fanned 7
• Then losing the opener to Houston, 6-3, to drop back to a game under .500 at 54-55 and 5.0 games back of the Cardinals…but also 5.0 games back of the Cubs in the loss column (the Cards, although listed first in the newspapers, actually trail the Cubs by a game in the loss column, as the Redbirds have played 4 more games than the Cubs this year, having 3 additional wins, but one additional loss)
• A revamped rotation with Mike Burns returning to the rotation to spell the injured Jeff Suppan, and Carlos Villanueva filling in for the injured Dave Bush
• Of the 4 players who have played in all 6 games over the past 7 days, only Ryan Braun’s .407 BA is worth writing home about; Felipe Lopez’s .259, Prince Fielder’s .167, and Mike Cameron’s .158 show clearly how the Brewers’ hitters struggle on the road still

So…with 28 home and 23 road games left after this weekend’s series in Houston–with no games against either the Cubs or Cardinals in August but with 16 of their last 32 games against either Chicago or St. Louis, the Brewers are clearly still in the NL Central race.  But how they finish will depend on which team shows up in August…and, more importantly, if both the pitching and hitting can show up together after the September call-ups are added.