Brewers are hitting from every position

Congratulations to the Brewers, who, with yesterday’s win equaled their season high of 14 games above .500.

It couldn’t have come at a better time, heading into the weekend series at the Cubs, who are currently 7.5 games behind the Brewers in the NL Central.

Of course, the last time the Brewers were 14 games above .500 they were 24-10. They then lost 20 of their next 30 games. Let’s not go there again.

Yesterday’s game was full of big moments:

Backup catcher Damian Miller hit his first homerun of the season. It just so happened to be a walk-off 3-run homer. In the 11th inning.

The team swept the Houston for the first time in a 3-game series. We had swept them in a 2 game series in the past – but that really doesn’t count, does it?

Dave Bush came out of the bullpen to pitch the 10th and 11th innings. It was announced after the game that Bush would be the starting pitcher on Sunday at Wrigley.

The Brewers have now won 5 straight series after taking 2 of 3 from the Royals and the sweeping the Astros

This season the Brewers have a promotion called Walk-Off Wednesdays. On Wednesdays you can buy a player’s name and number tshirt for $5 in the Fan Zone shop at Miller Park. If that person hits a walk-off homer, you win an autographed bat. It’s unconfirmed whether or not they bought the shirts at the game, or beforehand, but there was a large group of Damian Miller fans in the stands from his hometown of LaCrosse all wearing Miller Tshirts. Apparently, it was their lucky day.

I was all prepared to talk about Ryan Braun’s hitting proficiency after he had gone 5-8 in the first two games, with a homerun and 3 RBIs. Of course he followed that up with a big 0 in yesterday’s game, thus making him 5-12 in the series, which is not really something to be excited about.

Last weekend’s series was also full of stellar performances. Friday night’s game featured a stellar performance from Ryan Braun who was 4-4 with a walk. Corey Hart had another great start in the leadoff position as he his another homerun.

Saturday’s game featured some creative double plays by the Crew due in part to some horrific base running by the Royals. Shortstop Craig Counsell was about 4 steps into the outfield and caught a pop-up, then flipped the ball to second to tag out the runner who decided to leave the bag on a pop-up.

There was also a 3-6-1 in which Prince fielded a ball and shot it down to second, where Rickie then fired it back to pitched Dave Bush who was covering 1st.

Sunday’s game, despite being a loss, featured spectacular play by Kevin Mench, of all people. Mench had 3 leadoff doubles and was stranded on base each time. He also caught a pop fly to left for an out, then rifled the ball to home where catcher Johnny Estrada made a play at the plate and got the runner out.
Also in extra innings, Mench led a surge that should have won the game for the team, but once again we weren’t able to bring him home. He stretched a single to right center into a double, beating the throw and almost sliding right past the bag. He was hugging the bag for dear life to keep himself anchored.

Corey Hart also stepped up in the bottom of the ninth, after Turnbow had blown another lead. Corey hit a homerun that was so close, I’m pretty sure the outfielder’s glove provided the extra inches to get the ball over the fence.