Results tagged ‘ McClung ’
Brewers (11) @ Pirates (3) 8/30 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
Tastes Great:
Jeff Suppan–Set a Brewes record by winning his 5th game in the month of August. Another 7 strong innings and only two runs allowed. At least he’s earning that $44 million in the key parts of the season.
Brewers offense–6 of the 8 Brewers position players had multi-hit games. When that happens you’re usually going to win. Weeks and Hardy set the table at the top and the bottom of the order was just as good with Mike Cameron making a big contribution with a home run, double, and 4 RBI.
Less Filling:
Seth McClung–Gave up yet another run in a relief role. He’s pitching himself out of the bullpen rotation for the month of September with all the call-ups. It looks like he’ll only be used in blowout and long relief situations for now. A long way from being the third or fourth best starter as he was for a while earlier this year.
Prince Fielder/Ryan Braun–Once again these two went 0′fer, but this time the rest of the lineup picked them up.
Brewers (0) @ Braves (5) 8/3 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
Tastes Great:
Hmm…..not really finding anything too positive coming out of this game. There was only 5 hits and only 1 extra base hit, and obviously a big goose egg on the scoreboard. We had an unearned run, plus the bullpen allowed a couple tack-on runs.
Less Filling:
Ben Sheets–I’ve been a little too lenient on Sheets lately perhaps. I keep saying how he’s battled and didn’t have his great stuff and yada yada yada, but the fact is since the Brewers acquired CC Sabathia Sheets is now 0-2 with a 5.53 ERA in five games. He’s pitched more than six innings only once in that time. I’m not sure what’s going on with him lately. Perhaps he’s hitting a bit of a dead-arm period or maybe, God forbid, he has some kind of health issue. He needs to get things straightened out and quick.
Seth McClung–It was finally announced that he would be sent to the bullpen full-time and they’d get rid of the ridiculous pitcher platoon. Seth was none too happy about that and made his opinion known. Its good that he’s confident in his abilities and wants to be in a bigger role, but he sure hasn’t helped himself lately. Last night he managed 1 1/3 innings and gave up 3 walks, 2 hits, and 2 runs. Not exactly the best way to get back into your bosses good graces.
Brewers offense–Seems like a nightly thing the past 2-3 weeks. No consistency, no plan, no focus, no sense of urgency. And its showing in their results. The Brewers took another 0′fer with runners in scoring position (0 for 8) and now have a .160 batting average in that situation since the All-Star break. And in the last 12 games they are hitting an impressive .096. Ouch!
Ned Yost–When is he going to realize he can’t run Jason Kendall out there 145-150 games? Kendall has looked tired the past week, and his performance is indicating that. He hit only .169 in the month of July yet only got 2 days off (besides All-Star break). His average dropped from .274 at start of month to .246 by end of month. His OBP dropped 24 points and he had a .225 slugging percentage in July to go along with a .492 OPS. Yet he doesn’t deserve a day off occassionally? He’s not 28 anymore and shouldn’t be expected to start 150 games like he did then. Plus his throwing percentage has gone down considerably (although he’s still leading the league) and he’s had some other defensive lapses. If he’s slowing down this much in July what is he going to have left in September?
Brewers (6) vs. Astros (11) 7/27 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
Tastes Great:
Ryan Braun–Another 3 for 5 with another home run. Superlatives exhausted.
Rickie Weeks–On base 2 of his 5 plate appearances and scored 2 runs. We’ll take that every day.
Less Filling:
Jeff Suppan–Cruising right along then hit the wall in the 5th. Is he pitching himself out of the rotation for a while?
Ned Yost–How the hell do you allow your starter to give up 7 runs in the 5th inning? And then trot him out for the next inning too? It was like Ned decided once the Brewers got behind that he was going to give up on this game and save his bullpen for the Cubs series. What an asinine idea…..and manager.
Seth McClung–He’s been much better this year as a starter than a reliever, and showed that again last night. Failed to keep the Astros in check to allow for a potential comeback.
I really hope Sunday’s game about the 4th inning wasn’t the high water mark for this season. At that time the Brewers were tied with the Cubs in the standings and up 4-1 on the Astros in the game. The Cubs meanwhile were down 5-0 to the Marlins and in danger of being swept at home. Within a half an hour the Cubs were winning, the Brewers losing, and first place just out of reach.
Brewers (2) vs. Reds (8) 7/12 — Tastes Great, Less Fillilng
Tastes Great:
Seth McClung–Bounced back after a couple rough outings to pitch pretty well.
Prince Fielder–His home run provided the only offense for the Brewers all day.
Less Filling:
Eric Gagne–The Brewers were already down 2 when he came in in the 9th inning, so its doubtful they’d be able to score off CoCo anyway, but Gagne proceeded to give up 4 runs (including 2 home runs) to put the game out of reach. After three pretty good outings after coming back, he blew up his ERA over 7 again with this one.
Guillermo Mota–Came in a tough spot and was basically just asked to somehow get that last out, but proceeded to give up a hit to allow two of Gagne’s runs to score.
Brewers (4) @ Diamondbacks (3) 7/2 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
Tastes Great:
Seth McClung–Didn’t have his best stuff, and gave up a lot of hard hit balls. But battled through 5 1/3 innings. Got helped out by some good defense and some bad baserunning by the D-Backs. These are the kinds of games that starters have to grind through sometimes.
JJ Hardy–Two more hits and his hitting streak has reached 13 games.
Mike Cameron–Had really been struggling lately, but came through big time in this game. Drove in the tying run in the 7th and the winning run in the 9th.
Rickie Weeks–Had missed the last couple games due to food poisoning, but came in and hit a pinch hit home run to put the Brewers up. Hopefully this jump-starts his season once again.
Late inning offense–After going over a week without scoring a run after the 6th inning or off a reliever, the Brewers scored a run in each of the last 4 innings in tonight’s game.
Less Filling:
David Riske–Just seems to make a mistake every time out and it gets hit hard.
Offensive patience–Where was it? The Brewers hitters saw only 125 pitches in 9 innings (an average of only 13 per inning) while the D-Backs saw 156 pitches.
Brewers (3) vs. Orioles (2) 6/21 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
Tastes Great:
Seth McClung–It would have sounded crazy before the year started, but I feel better about getting a good pitching performance when Seth is on the mound than any pitcher on the Brewers not named Ben Sheets. 6 2/3 strong with only 3 hits allowed. The 5 walks is a bit worrisome, but McClung pitched out of it.
Craig Counsell–On three times and scored the Brewers first run.
Corey Hart–A big 2 run homer in the third staked them to a nice early lead.
Less Filling:
The offense–I really thought that once we let Cabrera settle in and didn’t make him throw good pitches and attempt to draw walks that we’d be in trouble. It had all the makings of a typical Brewer game where they score a few runs early then can’t tack any on. That did happen, but thankfully the pitching staff held tight. With 9 hits and walks you really should score more than 3 runs.
Brewers (4) vs. Twins (2) 6/15 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
Tastes Great:
Seth McClung–Like Ben Sheets he’s really only a two pitch pitcher, but he throws pretty hard and his breaking ball is pretty solid, so he can get by as long as he is hitting his spots. When he pitches I feel comfortable that we’ll get a good outing.
Branyan, Cameron, Kendall–These three accounted for pretty all of the Brewers offense in this game as they were a combined 6 for 10 with 2 walks, 4 RBI, and 3 runs.
Bullpen–Outside of Tavarez they’ve been pretty solid lately and that continued today. Torres closed out his 8th save.
Less Filling:
13 strikeouts–Don’t like to see that many strikeouts, especially against a guy like Baker that isn’t necessarily a strikeout pitcher. Plus because of a passed ball 3rd strike, the Brewers had the dubious distinction of striking out 4 times in one inning.
Brewers (1) @ Astros (6) 6/10 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
I apologize for the absence the last few days. We’ve had some very severe flooding concerns in our area. Our house is fine and not close to the river, but the city has had a lot of very major flooding. We were without power from Sunday night to Tuesday afternoon.
Tastes Great:
Seth McClung–A solid start for Seth. He’s really solidified his spot in the rotation.
Ryan Braun–Hit his 17th homer of the season to plate the only run for the Brewers.
Less Filling:
The offense–Ok, we all know Oswalt is a great pitcher, but he’s struggled this year and it always seems that the Brewers turn around the fortunes for whatever pitcher they face. Oh, and did I metion 11 strikeots and NO walks taken?
Julian Tavarez–Hmm….didn’t I call his blowup in one of my last blog entries? Not only was he getting hit hard, but he compounded things himself by throwing away an easy play to first.
Mike Cameron–Hard to imagine that we would have seen him here because of his defense, but that misplay on a liner at him cost the Brewers a bunch of runs. It ends up it probably wouldn’t have mattered anyway since the offense only scored one run, but those are the defensive mistakes that don’t show as errors that the Brewers make too much.
Brewers (7) vs. Diamondsbacks (1) 6/3 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
Tastes Great:
Seth McClung–rebounded from a rough outing last time out and pitched 6 strong innings, allowing a few hits but no walks. Also picked up his first two Major League hits–off Randy Johnson no less. Seems to have cemented his spot in the rotation. Now just needs to build up the arm strength to go 7+ innings on occassion.
Ryan Braun–his towering home run sparked the once stagnant Brewers offense. Also made a nice catch in the left and threw a guy out on a very nice play at second.
Prince Fielder–Prince is heating up with the weather. 10-12 homers is a possibility this month.
JJ Hardy–He’s starting to get back to what I would expect out of him: .255-.265 batting average, ending up with 12-15 homers, 60-70 RBI, and playing solid defense.
Bullpen–Dillard and Shouse combined to go 3 innings and allowed only 1 walk with no hits. Shouse picked up the two-inning save.
Less Filling:
Bill Hall–Oh Billy. I find it hard to understand how a guy that is hitting and fielding terribly, and has been for a year and a half, can complain about being platooned. Rather than acknowledge his problems and actually correct them, he has his agent go to the media and complain about reduced playing time. I said in the off-season we should have traded him when he had value and we could have gotten rid of his salary. Now we’re stuck with a guy getting paid like an All-Star who is producing like crap. I and others shouldn’t have been surprised though; outside of two seasons he hasn’t produced on the professional level in the minors (.264 BA in minors) or the other 4 years in the majors. And then of course he goes out yesterday and ingratiates himself well to the already non-impressed crowd by striking out in his first two at-bats.
Mike Cameron–0 for 3 with 3 strikeouts and a walk. Ouch. As a total streak hitter though I’d still expect him to be at his career averages by the end of the season, plus he’s playing great defense.
Brewers (2) vs. Dodgers (7) 5/15 — Tastes Great, Less Filling
Tastes Great:
Ryan Braun–Very nice to see him sign an extension that ensures he will be a Milwaukee Brewer through the 2015 season. He gave up two free agency years for that security, but got 45 million dollars to show for it. A good deal for the Brewers certainly. Then he comes out today and belts a home run. What a day for the kid. And the Whos in Left Field? man-crush on Braun is ensured for another 7 years!!
Seth McClung–Another nice outing. With the turnover in the bullpen he is moving up into the category of setup guy. Hopefully he can continue the nice work.
Less Filling:
Ben Sheets–Cruising right along until that 7th inning when he gave up 6 hits and 6 runs. Probably could and should have been taken out before it came to all that, but sometimes your ace just can’t carry ya.
Mitch Stetter–Another wild outing led to his demotion. Too bad because since his callup he had been our best reliever in my opinion. Probably deserved it, but I think an example of the coaching and management finding a scapegoat to point the finger at to get the attention off themselves.
The lineup–Only 6 hits, and four of them were after the game was 6-0 in the 8th. Gotta give Ned credit for giving 2/3rd of the .200 Club the day off (Cameron, Hall), but unfortunately their replacements didn’t have anything to offer either. By the way, for all you Tony Gwynn, Jr. fans out there, his batting average fell to .250. I don’t think he’s the answer either, long-term or short-term.
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