Hawkins Ruined My Buzz

This wasn't a game that was supposed to go the Brewers way, we could tell that from the very beginning. The offense became stagnant, yet another rookie pitcher in John Ely was shutting us down, and it just felt like a loss. But then Gregg Zaun notched a couple of RBI, and then Craig Counsell somehow squeaked a ball through the edge of the infield to score Prince Fielder and tie the game. Things were looking up my friends, until LaTroy Hawkins entered the game.

Hawkins might be the only pitcher on the face of the earth that worries me right now as much as Jeff Suppan does, and Suppan actually pitched well on Thursday (you have no idea how much that hurt me to say, no idea). I guess in that situation though, who else do you put in? Coffey has been getting a lot of work lately, as has Villanueva. And Hawkins was brought in precisely to be the guy for that situation. You could argue that we could have had an early appearance from Trevor Time, and I did want to see him once Hawkins put two guys on with only one out. But instead, Hawkins loaded them up and Andre Either ended the game with a no doubter, a grand slam and the Dodgers got the 7-3 win.

These West Coast games are what I wait all season for, because I love staying up just a little later to watch the Crew. Thursday night was one of those occasions where as a 25-year old man with little direction I found myself drinking alone, and having the Brewers playing late into the night almost justified my drinking. When Prince Fielder scored to tie the game at three in the top of the 9th, I figured that would buy me a bit of time and a couple more 7 and 7's. Hawkins ruined that for me, but at least I was able to squeeze out another drink while posting this article.

The problem though is that our bullpen issues again cost us this game. Dave Bush didn't pitch overly well tonight, but he kept us in the game. As I mentioned before, Suppan pitched decent enough and Claudio Vargas got out of a bases loaded jam in the 6th which was very impressive. But when it came down to it, the bullpen failed us when we needed it as it has done so many times already this season. I understand the frustrations of our fans, especially when we have a kid in Zach Braddock in Nashville who is throwing with a 0.00 ERA right now. That's 13.1 innings of work with just four hits allowed. I'd say he at least deserves a shot in the bigs, unless we are in the business of continually giving away games and shooting ourselves in the foot.

POTG: Gregg Zaun

I walked on your face!