Monday’s 6-4 loss: I was there–here’s what I remember

The Brewers dropped the first game of the series against the Cubs, 6-4. The Brewers are now two back of first.
I was in attendance…here is a list of my thoughts during and after the game.

1. Ted Lilly throws a lot of junk…but the Brewers sure had a hard time hitting it (Lilly also benefited from at least three pitches below the knees that were called strikes)
2. CC Sabathia did not have his best stuff Monday night–too many balls, too few strikeouts (I think he wound up with 3)
3. Alfonso Soriano figured out Sabathia early on
4. Bill Hall and Ryan Braun played their new positions very well (my apologies to Doug Melvin for doubting you)
5. The Brewers had momentum in the 6th inning…but gave it back by the 8th inning
6. Cubs’ fans were tolerable…but they were outnumbered Monday night by about 3:2; a young teenager driving his car with Illinois plates was nice enough to let us pass through so we could exit faster (thanks!)
7. While David Riske looked good, Eric Gagne and Salomon Torres were erratic
8. Chad Gaudin looked good…enough for Lou Pinella to leave him in to face Prince Fielder instead of going to a lefty
9. I counted 12 rather questionable calls on the evening, of which only 3 went the Brewers’ way…most were balls and strikes, but the corner umpires goofed on calls at their bases (only the second base umpire was perfect)
10. Carlos Marmol looked good, too…but his strikeouts of Bill Hall and Mike Cameron both had strikes that were below the knees
11. Yost looked like a genious for going to Russell Branyan in the 7th
12. Pinella looked like a moron benching Kosuke Fukudome for Reed Johnson just to take advantage of the right-handed hitter up against a southpaw starter
13. It looked like the weiner laid down in the Sausage race
14. Brewers’ female fans are hotter than Cubs’ female fans
15. We rode a tram in with a couple of female Cubs’ fans…one said, “I feel old.” I commented that 100 years of losing will do that to you (hey, it was before I found out that the drunk and obnoxious ones weren’t at the game)
16. The hat I was wearing was for sale at the concession stand for $20 (I paid just $5 for it at the Lake Delton Wal-Mart)

I had a good time (thanks Roger for the extra ticket)…pains me to say it, but the Cubs were the better team Monday night…but, despite the loss, it was still one of the more exciting games of the year.