Saturday, May 9, 2009

Power Outage Doesn't Affect Brewers Offense

Todd Coffey was looking for a key out as he was about to face Milton Bradley with two outs in the 8th inning, but it would end up taking him 20 minutes before he could throw his first pitch. Right before he wound up, a handful of lights went out at Miller Park, followed then by many more, leaving most of the 42,000 plus fans somewhat in the dark. My brother says it was because Todd Coffey was "lights out", but either way, it was just one of the many twists and turns in the latest matchup between the Brewers and the Cubs. The power outage didn't really affect either team offensively, but it was Milwaukee that came out on top by a score of 12-6.

Things started off very interesting in the first inning when Craig Counsell scored the games first run via a Ryan Braun double, as Counsell beat out the play at the plate. An interesting play at the plate it was, too, as Craig Counsell didn't even slide, although it was pretty close. With Prince Fielder next at the plate, Braun would steal third and then advance home on a throwing error, and like that the Crew was up 2-0.

The teams traded a run a piece and then things remained scoreless until the 7th inning, when I thankfully woke up from my nap (it's like subconsciously, I knew I couldn't miss what was about to happen next). Immediately after I awoke,  Craig Counsell took a Ryan Dempster fastball deep. And by deep, I mean he hit a hybrid pop-up/line-drive that just cleared the fence in right field. It was Counsell's first home run in nearly a year, and I think at that point we all knew the Brewers were probably going to win this game.

It wasn't as easy as it would have appeared to be though, even after the six runs the Crew tallied in the 7th inning, which included a moonshot homer from Ryan Braun (Cub Killer... Cub Killer....). After that point, the Crew was up 9-2, but the Cubs were able to knock in three runs off of Jorge Julio and one off of Todd Coffey, although all were credited to Julio. Coffey finished the game from that point on, as the Brewers were able to add on three more in the 9th inning, which allowed Trevor Hoffman to keep his arm rested for the night. 

In the end, the Brewers had RBI's from seven different guys, and they scored nearly every way imaginable. Home runs, throwing errors, based loaded walks, sacrifice flies, you name it. The Brewers took the Cubs to task on Saturday night, winning the series and putting themselves in line for a sweep on Mothers Day. 

Despite all that happened, I think my favorite moment in this game was in the 9th inning, when Todd Coffey was granted a rare at-bat. Now most of us were hoping to see our cult hero take a few whacks at the ball, but Coffey was instructed to not even swing, at least that's what we're thinking. Coffey took three straight strikes, stood there while being about as useless as a table leg (according to Rock and B.A.), and didn't even make an effort to swing. When Todd Coffey is throwing away an at bat in the 9th inning, that's usually a good sign for the Crew.

The series finale is slated for a 1:05pm start. It will be Sean Marshall on the bump for the Cubs, with your favorite and mine, Jeff Suppan, on the hill for the Crew.


TBC's POTG: Craig Counsell, my good my man.

2 comments:

b2 said...

i woulda still given potg to braun, on base 5 out of 5 plate appearances, but craiggers is the sentimental pick

Bear said...

Braun also had a stolen base, 2 RBI and 3 runs..... I suppose though, you can give it to Craig considering the fact I did give Joe Alexander the player of the game because I closed my eyes and pointed randomly at a Bucks boxscore.

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