Brews hang on to avoid sweep, 3-2

With the prospect of getting swept by the team with the worst record in the NL, Ned Yost played the odds and started 8 right-handed batters against Rockies’ southpaw Jeff Francis–including opting for Joe Dillon at second base in place of the injured Rickie Weeks.
The move paid dividends right away; Dillon drew a walk to start off the game, moving to second on Gabe Kapler’s single, and scoring on Ryan Braun’s single up the middle. While Kapler was thrown out at third, the Crew stayed alive as the lone lefty batter, Prince Fielder, drew a walk before Corey Hart flew out for the second out. But Bill Hall, whose playing time has been cut dramatically in the past few weeks, came through against the lefty Francis, singling with two outs to plate Braun and to spot starter Jeff Suppan with a 2-0 lead.
After a scoreless inning by Suppan, the Crew got another run in their half of the second–again, this time with two outs on the board already, Dillon draws another walk, and steals second. Kapler then singles him in to spot Suppan with a 3-0 lead.
Suppan got into a bit of trouble in the second–so much so that Yost called for Carlos Villanueva to start warming up. After leading off the inning by walking the #6 and #7 batters in the Rockies’ line-up, Suppan got Rockies’ shorstop Omar Quintanilla to hit into a fielder’s choice, putting runners on the corner with just one out. Francis, then, helped his cause by singling, plating catcher Chris Iannetta to cut the lead to 3-1. Suppan then walked the lead-off hitter, former Brewer Scott Podsednik, to load the bases. But Suppan got Seth Smith to line out to J.J. Hardy, and then Todd Helton to fly out to Corey Hart, averting disaster.
Suppan went 5 1/3 innings and allowed a second, unearned, run on the day…but that was the end of the scoring as Villanueva, Brian Shouse, and Salomon Torres together only allowed two more hits and two walks over the last 3 2/3rds innings. Suppan improved to 4-4, 3.78 on the year.
The Crew gets a day off and then faces the Astros on Tuesday.