Tagged: Rivera

Brewers (5) vs. Nationals (4) 8/10 — Tastes Great, Less Filling

Tastes Great:

Mike Rivera–Nearly single-handedly kept the Brewers alive in a game they should have lost.  Three walks and a couple hits including a three run double to tie it up in the 8th.  He’s hitting about 80 points higher than Kendall this year, yet Ned apparently thinks he should play once every three weeks.  I don’t think he’d keep up that pace over a full season as a full-timer, but at least one start a week, especially in the dog days of summer, should be the standard.

Gabe Kapler–Well on his way to a Less Filling appearance after going 0 for his first 6 with 3 strikeouts and 6 men left on base.  But then he goes and does something like that…..and totally redeems himself. 

Manny Parra–He’d struggled in his last handful of starts, but came out and was rock solid today.  He certainly deserved a better fate after going 7 strong innings. 

Less Filling:

Eric Gagne–Ahh, Eric.  He’d been doing so well lately.  I was watching the 8th inning today and Gagne had 2 outs with no one on and 2 strikes on Ryan Zimmerman.  I went to change my little boy’s diaper and come back to find its all of a sudden 4-1.  He’s turning into Turnbow from last year.  Go 4-5 outings in a row and be good, and then all of a sudden blow up and allow 3 runs or more.  When he blows up, he really blows up.  Hopefully he can get things straightened out (again) unlike Turnbow last year.

J.J. Hardy–A very tough 0 for 6 with three strikeouts.  And his strikeout with the bases loaded and one out in the 10th could have cost the Brewers the game.  Luckily the rest of the bullpen was rock solid and Kapler came through in the 13th.

Brewers (11) vs. Rockies (1) 7/10 — Tastes Great, Less Filling

Tastes Great:

Dave Bush–I’ve been hard on him this year, but he’s really gotten the job done in the last 4-6 weeks.  Hopefully he can hold this form and be an asset to the team instead of a liability.

Brewers offense–Outta nowhere comes 12 hits and 11 runs.

2 out RBI–10 of the 11 runs came via 2 out RBI.  Quite a departure from what the Brewers usually do.

Less Filling:

Mike Rivera–Was the only regular without a hit.  Also allowed the Rockies to run roughshod on the bases.  3 steals plus a bad throw allowed an advance.

Brewers defense–Two errors today and that total has been increasing lately.  Gotta get it shored up for the pennant push.

Brewers (8) @ Diamondbacks (6) 7/1 — Tastes Great, Less Filling

Tastes Great:

JJ Hardy–Wow, what a hot streak.  Two more homers to go along with 3 runs scored and 3 RBI.  Threw in a stolen base to boot.

Corey Hart–3 hits, 2 runs, 1 RBI, and 2 steals.  Quite an all-around game for quite an all-around player.

The Replacements–Rivera, Kapler, and Dillon combined for 4 hits, 5 RBI’s, and a couple runs scored.  Plus some good defense as well.

Defense–Some great plays made including a couple by Bill Hall, the dive and tag the bag play by Rivera, and some nice running catches in the outfield.  Suppan was getting hit pretty hard so the guys had to be on their toes for sure.

Less Filling:

Jeff Suppan–Staked to a 6-1 lead early on he allowed the D-Backs to chip away.

Guillermo Mota–Yet another run allowed for our “8th inning guy”.  He had a 6.48 ERA in June and didn’t start July on a good foot either.

Brewers (2) vs. Marlins (3) 4/27 (10 innings) — Tastes Great, Less Filling

I’m back after a brief time off for a wedding over the weekend.  A great time was had by all, including myelf.  Thank you to Michael R. Hemling for filling in and doing a Tastes Great, Less Filling update for Friday’s game. 

Tastes Great:

Not much good to talk about in this game.  Only 5 hits in 10 innings.  Starter can’t get through the 6th inning.  Just crappy game kind of.

The team did show some patience and take 8 walks today.  Although as inconsistent as they’ve been lately in that department they’ll probably take 1 in the next game.

4 of the 6 relievers did excellent jobs.  Riske, Stetter, Mota, and Gagne combined for 3 2/3 innings, 5 strikeouts, only 3 hits with no walks, and most importantly no runs allowed.

A special Atta boy goes to Mitch Stetter.  He’s been money all year and came in in a heckuva pickle in the 7th.  Bases loaded and no one out.  He gets the first two guys to K and a pop out on the last one.  I really like how he works.

Rivera did a heckuva job on the steal of home attempt by Ramirez.  Blocked the plate well, made a tough pick of the Prince throw, and hung on to make the tag.  Good to see our catchers be able to make positive contributions with the bat and the glove this year.

Less Filling:

Ahhh, where to start.  How about the suddenly anemic offense.  Only 5 hits today in 10 innings (albeit the 8 walks did help) with 20 men left on base.  They scored only 6 runs in the 3 game series with Florida and scored only 24 runs in the 7 game homestand.  On the year they’ve scored more than 5 runs only 5 times in 25 games. 

That lack of punch offenisvely certainly isn’t helped by the large number of dormant bats from key players (Braun, Fielder, Weeks, Hardy, Hall, etc.) but it also speaks to the Brewers inability to play small ball or manufacture runs consistently if they aren’t hitting home runs.  It’s like they’re set up and Ned coaches them as if they’re an AL team.  That approach will not prove consistent as they strikeout too much, walk too little, and just don’t have that big of bats to make it work over the long haul.

Turnbow–yikes.  That one game mirage against Philly when he got the save sure feels like a long time ago doesn’t it.  He’s gotta be gone soon wouldn’t ya think?

Parra- I know he only gave up two runs today, but he also only was able to make it through 5 1/3 innings again.  Now that Bush is getting sent down, it looks like Manny’s gonna stay in the rotation.  He needs to be able to manage his pitch count and make it through 6 to 7 innings at least occassionally.  Today’s outing is his longest of the year, and that just can’t happen as it taxes the bullpen and leaves your team in a bad spot.