Each Sunday evening we will review our favorite and least favorite events of the previous week, and share our perspective on how the team is doing. Please enjoy responsibly.
Cheers! (Best event/news of the week)
Brewers Win in Front of Record Busch Stadium Crowd: It’s a little early for any one victory to be the best thing that happened all week, but the Brewers win on Monday was better than the average for a couple of reasons. Victories against the goddamn Cardinals are always extra sweet since they tend to be infrequent. On top of that, a win that spoils the Cardinals home opener is a real treat. On top of that, a win that spoils the Cardinals home opener in front the biggest Busch Stadium crowd in history is like having your cake and eating it too. As a bonus, the win included this badass play by K-Rod.
[mlbvideo id=”72349283″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /]He didn’t give up a home run either. K-Rod’s back, y’all!
Buzzkill (Worst event/news of the week)
Injury Bug Bites Early: With the Brewers getting off to a (ahem) slow start, the last thing anyone wanted to see was a star player going on the DL less than two weeks into the season. Brewers fans have barely had a chance to feel joy yet this season, and we find out Carlos Gomez is going to be out two to three weeks with a hamstring injury. I’m not a medical professional, so when I read things like “strain” or “defect/tear” it makes me wonder if this is going to be an injury that dogs Gomez all year. What’s next? Are Jean Segura and Adam Lind going to accidentally knock heads in the clubhouse and give each other mutual concussions?
Have One on the House (Brewers player who deserves a drink)
Jean Segura: Before he took the collar today in Pittsburgh (with an RBI, so it wasn’t all bad), Segura was the Brewers’ most consistent hitter. In five games in St. Louis and Pittsburgh, Segura was 8-for-21 (.381). On a team that’s been laying an egg on offense all month, Segura stands out as a guy that seems to have it figured out, at least for now. He’s had a fair number of errors and misplays at shortstop, but bad defense isn’t the Brewers’ most obvious shortcoming right now. Segura’s been getting his hits and that’s a refreshing change of pace compared to the rest of this non-productive lineup.
Time to Sober Up, Pal (Brewers player who made me want to drink)
Kyle Lohse: Opening Day was such a disaster it was easy to write off as an anomaly. In Lohse’s second start, he seemed to be having a fine outing, keeping his team in the game, and then gave up a three-run homer to Andrew McCutchen. Still – that was just one bad pitch, McCutchen isn’t just some chump, and the offense didn’t do Lohse any favors, so it was hard to get too mad at Lohse for that one either.
In his third start, Lohse gave up three first inning runs, but he was still in line for a quality start and it wouldn’t have been so bad if he had held the Pirates there. But with two outs and nobody on in the fifth, Lohse gave up a walk, a single, and a homerun. Lohse is now in the spot Marco Estrada was at this time last year – the pitcher whose next start we are really not looking forward to. One assumes he’ll be able to turn it around, but it’s been pretty tough to watch go far.
Back on the Wagon (Thoughts on the week ahead)
How long is it appropriate to say “it’s still early” as a way of dismissing weak-kneed fans who can’t handle a little adversity? Three weeks probably? “Must win” is another phrase that gets tossed around pretty casually, but you can understand how some Brewers fans might be having flashbacks to May 2013 and the heartbreak of digging a huge hole early.
With four games against the Reds and three against the Cardinals this week, can the Brewers survive a losing home stand? A 4-3 home stand triples their current win total and at least makes you think they might be able to put a winning streak together. A 3-4 home stand gets us closer to the point where the Brewers have to be red hot merely to get back to .500 by the All Star break. If they don’t do it this week, the entire month of May becomes “must win.” It would be a shame if the Opening Day loss to the Rockies – in which the Brewers fell behind early and were never competitive – becomes a microcosm of the entire 2015 season. Unlike 2013, we won’t even have a PED suspension to liven things up.
(Image: Jeff Curry/Getty Images)
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