There’s not much to say about Friday night’s game, other than Adam Wainwright is a perfect example of how valuable a young ace can be. The Brewers were unable to put up much of a fight against Wainwright — Rickie Weeks doubled to lead off the game, but after that point, they were only able to muster one more hit and a walk. According to Brooks Baseball, Wainwright threw 102 pitches, and 72 of them were strikes. His highest-stress inning was a 19-pitch 4th, but that was the only inning in which he threw more than 14 pitches.
Simply put, he cut through the Brewers like butter, and he looked like the next Roy Halladay while doing it (really, we probably should have seen this coming — entering the game, Wainwright was 5-3 against the Brewers in his career, with a 2.25 ERA, a 1.024 WHIP, and K/BB ratio of 3.30).
Normally I wouldn’t be too distressed about losing a game like this — even if Randy Wolf didn’t struggle like he did at times, the Brewers had no chance of winning. But I am starting to wring my hands over what the standings may look like when the Brewers start their next homestand on Tuesday.
While the Brewers were struggling to get men on base against Wainwright, the Astros were beating the Cubs. After Friday night, last-place Houston is now just one game behind the Brewers for 5th place in the NL Central. Pitching match-ups (and national audiences) are not in the Brewers’ favor for the remainder of this series against the Cardinals, so it’s entirely possible that the Brewers could be in last place by the time they get back to Milwaukee.
The return of the last-place Brewers. That’s a fun thought for the weekend, isn’t it?
W: Wainwright (8-3)
L: Wolf (4-5)
MIL HR: None
STL HR: Rasmus (9)
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