W: Brian Bruney (1-0)
L: LaTroy Hawkins (0-2)
SV: Matt Capps (5)
WAS HR: Josh Willingham (3)
MIL HR: Casey McGehee (4)
We’re only 10 games into the season, but this late-inning loss thing is starting to get tiring.
LaTroy Hawkins had another rough outing giving up 3 runs — and a Brewers lead — in the 8th inning for his second consecutive loss. Hawkins has given up 7 runs in his past two innings pitched. I do think the some of the reaction in the moments following Hawkins givnig up the lead were a little harsh — frankly, the Brewers wouldn’t have won a couple games earlier in the season without him pitching as well as he did in the 8th inning.
Hawkins wasn’t solely to blame this time, though. Prince Fielder botched what looked like a pretty easy play to first, allowing a ball hit by Adam Kennedy to get past him and into right field, giving the Nats a 4-3 lead. It’s not like Hawkins was particularly bad, either, at least compared to his outing in Chicago. He was throwing strikes, but the Nats were able to find holes in the defense on weakly hit grounders.
The game wasn’t all bad — Ryan Braun and Casey McGehee continued their ridiculous hot streaks, goin 2-for-3 and 3-for-4, respectively. Braun is now hitting .400/.444/.675 through the first 10 games, while McGehee is hitting .378/.442/.784.
I thought Yovani Gallardo had his best start of the season, although a lot of hits are still falling in and he’s still walking too many batters (and thus wasting too many pitches — he was done after 6 innings with 107 pitches).
Has it been a fun first 10 games to watch? Mostly not. But I’m not ready to give up hope yet.
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