The Brewers Bar Weekly Hangover 7/12/15

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)

K-Rod Adds to His Legacy: K-Rod’s 2014 was a mixed bag.  On one hand, he notched 44 saves with a great WHIP (0.985) and respectable ERA (3.04), and pitched a scoreless inning in the All-Star Game.  On the other hand, he surrendered 1.9 homers per nine innings, double his career average.  For a lot of fans, the homeruns surrendered was the more memorable aspect of K-Rod’s 2014 season.  At the start of 2015, plenty of us were concerned about his ability to keep the ball down.  When K-Rod gave up a homer and took the loss in his second appearance of the season, it was hard not to roll one’s eyes and think, “here we go again.”

Since that time, K-Rod has only given up on other homerun.  At of the start of play today, his ERA was sitting at a puny 1.41 and his WHIP at a miniscule 0.875.  Although save situations have been relatively few and far between this year, he hasn’t blown one yet and fans can rest easy when he comes into the game, even with a one-run lead – K-Rod is automatic right now.  He capped off the Brewers’ thrilling comeback against the Braves on Wednesday, and moved into eighth on the all-time saves list.  It was little surprise then that earlier this week K-Rod was added to the All-Star Game roster for the sixth time in his career.  With the trade deadline approaching, who knows how long K-Rod will be a Brewer (although his contract might make him difficult to move).  But watching K-Rod recapture what made him one of the game’s dominant closers has been a bright spot in a dim season.

Buzzkill (Worst event/news of the week)

Fan Takes Foul Ball to the Face: As the ballpark signage says, it’s important to watch for flying bats and balls, but you may not have time to react even if you are paying attention.  That seemed to be the case in the ninth inning of Monday’s game, when Atlanta’s Eury Perez lined a foul ball into the stands and injured a fan significantly enough to stop play for a few minutes.  The woman (who has not been named) was briefly hospitalized and we assume she’s feeling much better now, although she might not sit below Loge Level anymore.

It could have been worse.  I remember last year when a fan fell into the Brewers bullpen during a game against the Twins.  He was lucky to have survived.  There have been a handful of fatalities in the last few years as a result of fans falling over railings at sporting events.  Although there is always some risk in even innocuous activities that can’t be completely eliminated, it’s a reminder that y’all got to be careful out there.

For a more typical and lighthearted example of what happens when a foul ball goes into the stands, this also happened during that same game against the Braves.

Have One on the House (Brewers player who deserves a drink)

Taylor Jungmann: Who would have predicted Jungmann would be the guy to pitch the Brewers’ first complete game of 2015?  In his last start in Cincinnati, Jungmann only gave up one run in eight innings.  To follow that up by going the distance in Los Angeles, it makes you wonder what he’s going to do for an encore.  Anything less than a perfect game in his next start will be a letdown.

Time to Sober Up, Pal (Brewers player who made me want to drink)

Hernan Perez: Whenever a defensive substitution is made in late innings, Brian Anderson reliably describes the move as “shoring/tightening up the defense,” even if an unproven rookie comes in to replace a veteran with a long track record of fielding prowess.  I wasn’t awake for the late innings of Friday’s game in Los Angeles, so I don’t know for sure if that’s what Anderson said when Perez replaced Aramis Ramirez in the seventh inning.  If he did say that, he must have felt silly when Perez committed an error that ultimately cost his team the game.  Jimmy Nelson ended up being stuck with the loss, even though all the runs were unearned.  It was a perfect example of why we need an Unearned Loss statistic for pitchers.

Back on the Wagon (Thoughts on the week ahead)

All-Star week got a little more interesting for Brewers fans with the news that Ryan Braun was named as a replacement for Matt Holliday.  I assume fans watch the All-Star Game hoping their team’s players do well, and it will be hard to top last year from the Brewers’ perspective – Ramirez and Jonathan Lucroy went 4-for-5 with 2 RBI and K-Rod pitched a scoreless inning.  This year, if we get another K-Rod inning and Braun only gets a dispassionate crowd reaction, that will be perfectly satisfactory.

The season resumes on Friday and the Brewers go into full-blown spoiler mode, starting with the Pirates.  Last time the Brewers played the Pirates in Pittsburgh, they took two out of three, including Jungmann’s first major league win.  That was a good thing.  Here’s to good things.

(Image: Charles LeClaire/USA TODAY Sports)