RSS
Home
Brewers post losing record versus playoff teams
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Milwaukee Brewers' Alcides Escobar beats St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher Jason Motte to first base during the eighth inning of a baseball game Friday, Oct. 2, 2009, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Curry)
The regular season is over and playoff berths are decided (-ish, the Tigers and Twins will have their one-game play-off Tuesday in Minnesota). As consolation that the Brewers finished way out of the race for anything, let's take a look at a small snapshot of the team's regular season record.
The Brewers' record against playoff teams: 17-26 (Twins) or 16-24 (Tigers). This is not very reassuring. The Crew only won one game against either of the teams that can claim the AL Central crown on Tuesday. If the team had faced the Yankees, Red Sox or Angels in the regular season, they may not have won a single game.
A smaller snapshot. The Brewers' record against National League playoff teams: 16-21. We're getting warmer.
An even smaller snapshot. The Brewers' record against National League Playoff teams who aren't the Rockies: 16-15. Here we go. The Crew was swept twice by the NL Wild Card winner -- those six games helped put Colorado four games ahead of San Francisco for the fourth spot. Milwaukee got to sit and watch the Rockies celebrate their Wild Card berth after they lost at Coors Field on Thursday. Hopefully, the memory of winning the Wild Card win in 2008, then sitting on the sidelines as another team celebrated the feat in 2009 will motivate returning players for next year.
Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Manny Parra sits in the dugout after being removed during the third inning against the Colorado Rockies in a baseball game in Denver on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009. The Rockies won 9-2, clinching a spot in the National League playoffs. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
But wildly enough, the Brewers actually played one game better than even against the three National League divisional winners. They were able to do that mostly by figuring out those teams bullpens. The Phillies and the Cardinals in particular made many moves to solidify their pitching staff -- some documented here -- but still have concerns.
The Crew and Manny Parra suffered through a rain-delayed 11-4 bloodbath loss in their first game against the Phillies -- a defining low point in the young season. But they bounced back to win the three-game set in Philadelphia, and 21 of their next 27, up to a three-game sweep at the hands of the aforementioned Twins on Memorial Day weekend. In the first game of the second series, the Brewers couldn't survive a 6-run beat-down of Jeff Suppan in the fifth, but they responded in the next game, taking the Phils hired gun Cliff Lee for seven in five innings. The next night, Ryan Braun hit a walk-off and on Sunday, the Phillies bullpen actually held a one-run lead through the 7th, 8th and 9th to salvage a split of the four-games series.
The Brewers went down to Busch and swept the Cardinals during their mid-May hot streak. Then Yovani Gallardo and Chris Carpenter dueled it out on Memorial Day, and the Brewers walked-off with a hit from Bill Hall. It looked like the Crew could go back to owning the Cards as they did in 2008. But the Brewers lost six of the next eight games against the Cardinals, only pulling even in the season series by pulling off a sweep in St. Louis on the last weekend of the season.
Milwaukee Brewers' Prince Fielder watches his solo home run during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009, in St. Louis. The Brewers won 9-7. (AP Photo/Jeff Curry)
The home team was 2-6 in Brewers-Dodgers games this year, as both teams won series at their opponents ballpark. This series featured the Major League rematch of "Manny vs. Manny" who had faced each other earlier in the year in the minors. It also featured Prince Fielder storming off to the Dodgers clubhouse following a beanball from former teammate Guillermo Mota as the Brewers were losing by 14.
So if the records of the National League playoff teams against a small-market, under .500 team with a shattered pitching rotation is any indication, the Colorado Rockies must feel good about their chances against three divisional champs with big upsides, but shaky pitching staffs.
