Inability to finish a sweep

[mtrebs]

Does anyone know of a site or other source that would show a team's winning percentage in games where the team is going for a sweep? I'd be really interested to see where the Brewers rate compared to the rest of the teams since it seems like they can rarely pull off a sweep. Now, I realize that the last couple of years the Brewers probably had many more chances than 5 to 10 years ago so there should be more losses compared to then since there's more opportunities, but it seems like it's almost a guaranteed loss when going for the sweep. My friend and I joked this morning about how there's no way the Brewers were going to win today since they were going for a sweep. I mentioned that maybe they have a chance if Gallardo pitches a good game and then my friend said they'd probably still lose 1-0. It's almost to the point where I don't even need to watch these games. Sunday's game had two things going against it...the Brewers were going for the sweep plus they were facing someone making their MLB debut...you could bet all the money in the world on a Brewers loss for that game and feel fairly confident...

[RightFieldCoder]

I think it has more to do with the fact that it is hard to sweep a major league team.

 

I'm also sure that the Mets fans were going nuts when they put a 2 time Cy Young award winning pitcher out there and he gets outpitched by a 30yo making his 2nd career start.

[ClubLevel]

I remember on the post game last night, one of the players interviewed (either Braun or Hart) was asked how big a sweep would be, and their response was along the lines of "the main thing is we won the series" as if they were happy to have 2 and this game wasn't as important.

[dlk9s]

Is winning the first and last games of a three game series more acceptable than winning the first two?

 

As Robin19 said above, it is really hard to sweep a team in MLB. It's not like they're not trying to win.

 

As for a player saying that the important thing was to win the series, I think that's the goal for most players/teams and since it is so hard to sweep a team, the sweep is gravy. If the Brewers won two out of every three games, they'd likely have the best record in MLB at the end of the year.

[kramnoj]

Brewers 2009 in broom games (the good kind)

 

04/26 L

04/29 W

05/10 L

05/14 W

05/18 W

05/31 W

06/7 L

06/17 W

06/28 L

07/01 L

 

If I looked at this right (from http://www.baseball-refer...9-schedule-scores.shtml) the Brewers are 5-5 in sweep games.

 

Cardinals results (4/12 W, 4/23 W, 5/2 L, 5/21 W, 06/18 L, 06/21 W. Cardinals are 4-2.

[mtrebs]

I think it has more to do with the fact that it is hard to sweep a major league team.

 

I'm also sure that the Mets fans were going nuts when they put a 2 time Cy Young award winning pitcher out there and he gets outpitched by a 30yo making his 2nd career start.

There is no doubt in my mind that it is hard to sweep a major league team going into a series, but once you won the first two games wouldn't you think that a team's winning percentage in the last game of the series should correlate with their actual winning percentage? I realize that during the course of a season you only have a small number of chances to go for the sweep so the sample size isn't that great. The Brewers have a .538 winning pecentage right now, so with this small sample size it would make sense that they be around .500 when going for the sweep. I was just wondering how they compare to everyone else.

 

I agree with your second comment...but being a Brewers fan I'd much rather have them face a team's ace than someone making their MLB debut or someone like Nelson Figuroa that always seems to dominate the Brewers. The Brewers seem to play better when facing some of the better opposing pitchers.

[mtrebs]

I guess if the Brewers are 5-5 in games where they had a potential sweep, I can't complain too much. It just seems like they have been worse.

[Baldkin]

They only had 11 sweeps all of last year, it just doesn't happen that much (except against the Pirates)

[stoutdude04]

I remember on the post game last night, one of the players interviewed (either Braun or Hart) was asked how big a sweep would be, and their response was along the lines of "the main thing is we won the series" as if they were happy to have 2 and this game wasn't as important.

 

They did interview Hart, he didnt act as though it wasnt important. He said something more along the lines of, sweeps are hard, we are happy to win the series. Not.....well, we won the series, so, we are just going to be lazy about it tomorrow and see what happens.

[NYChez]

I would think your winning percentage in sweep games might be lower than normal because chances are, if you won the first 2 games of the series, your ace had pitched one of those games, and the opposing team's ace hadn't pitched yet - today being an exception.

[bork]

I'd say it's largely due to their inability to hit during day games (10-15 record). They are dead last in hitting during the day (.209), but first at night (.274)

[BadgerFan]

I'd say it's largely due to their inability to hit during day games (10-15 record). They are dead last in hitting during the day (.209), but first at night (.274)

That is an unbelievable stat that does not bode well for the Cubs series (2 of 4 day games).

[brewcrewkid14]

I am hoping that stat has something to do with the Miller Park shadows.

[southpaw121505]

I think people make too much of simple comments made by the players, you really think they didn't want to win today because Hart isn't savvy in interviews?

[DHonks]

I love winning games 1 and 2, as game three can be lost while still claiming a series win. Remember, if a team won 2 of every 3, they'd have 108 wins on the year

[logan82]

I find it very difficult to believe that a player on a good team would not want to win every game.

[mtrebs]

I love winning games 1 and 2, as game three can be lost while still claiming a series win. Remember, if a team won 2 of every 3, they'd have 108 wins on the year

Obviously it's great to win the series, but it would have been nice to sweep some of these series that the Brewers had the opportunity to. Even though every game counts the same, the way that most of the division has been playing it would have been nice to pull a little further away in the standings. Also, every game they can win while they are playing "well" is very important because when they go in slumps it's nice to have those extra wins in the bag (like when they play the American League and can only beat Cleveland).

[Invader3K]

I was at yesterday's game and it was just frustrating seeing the offense not score a single run and waste Gallardo's effort on the mound. Having said that, I'll take a series win of the Mets any day.

 

It seems like not long ago the Mets usually dominated the Brewers. Every time these two teams play I think back to that encounter three years ago (I think), where Mike Piazza drew a walk on four balls in the 9th inning to walk in the winning run. I'm glad those types of games are generally behind us against New York these days.

[dlk9s]

Let's all just pretend that we lost to Santana 1-0 and beat Pelfrey.

[Invader3K]

Let's all just pretend that we lost to Santana 1-0 and beat Pelfrey.

 

I was actually thinking at the game towards the end, "This is the game that was supposed to happen yesterday."