Monday, May 25, 2009

Brewers Find Unlikely Hero in Hall

It was a game that lived up to it's billing as an incredible pitchers duel, but will ultimately be remembered for the unlikely heroics of Bill Hall in the bottom of the 10th inning. After he came in for a defensive switch for Mat Gamel, Hall somehow found a way to hit a gapper off of a righty and the Brewers won in walk-off fashion (actually, it was more like a sprint-off, which was weird). Once again, the Brewers were able to knock off the Cardinals 1-0, and take sole possession of first place in the NL Central.

Yovani Gallardo pitched incredible today, taking a no-hitter through the 6th inning. However, his performance was overshadowed by the Cardinals' Chris Carpenter, who actually had a perfect game through the 7th inning. Oddly enough, you could credit Craig Counsell with breaking up both no-hitters. His arm wasn't strong enough to throw out the runner at first to keep Gallardo's going, and then he was the one that knocked the first hit off of Carpenter. (Inside joke reference: and Collin thought there was only one CC in Wisco).

There was only a total of five hits in this game, but it was one of the more exciting games of this Brewers season. Frank Catalanotto almost had the game winning hit in the 8th inning in his first appearance in a Brewers uniform, but it was not to be. Nice to have another option like him off the bench though now.

As for Gallardo, ended up going eight innings, giving up just two hits and while striking out four Cardinal batters, all while rocking the strange Brewers red Memorial Day hat. Gallardo threw 126 pitches in this one, so Macha decided to pull him in the 9th to give Trevor Hoffman a non-save appearance. Hoffman was solid again, and Villanueva then came in the 10th inning and snuck into a victory.

Despite the clear fact that Gallardo earned the Player of the Game, I think the story emerging out of this one (again, besides the weird way Milwaukee bolted off the field after the game) is the hit from Bill Hall. Hall was stuck in a 1-for-28 slide and has all but entered a platoon with Gamel at 3rd for the time being. But he responded when his number was called upon today, and it just shows to show that competition within a ballclub can only be good for that given ballclub.

The Crew will have the night to enjoy some brats and the much anticipated 2009 debut of Rays pitcher David Price, and then take on the Cardinals again tomorrow on both FSN Wisconsin and ESPN.

3 comments:

Chad said...

Apparently the Brewers running off the field was a jab at the Cardinals for always complaining about the untucking of jerseys and celebrating on the field. So today, the team ran into the clubhouse and celebrated there. I love it.

I also heard that the Brewers could be looking to make a move for Peavy. How awesome would that be?!

Chad said...

And oh yeah, those red hats are dumb as sh*t. Especially when playing the Cardinals.

Anonymous said...

I agree the red hats are dumb as shit. They especially looked bad with the Royals powder blue unis.

It's hard to say what's up with Peavy. Say he did actually want to come over to Milwaukee. The next two questions would be:

1) Would the Brewers be willing to take on the rest of Peavy's contract?

2) Would the Padres, who have made it known that they are looking for solid pitching prospects, be willing to accept position players and/or low level minor league pitchers? Something tells me they aren't interested in guys like Mike Burns & Chase Wright.

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