7/27/2004: Brewers (Sheets) v. Cubs (Maddux)

[brettac1]

After another tough loss in which the Brewers failed to provide any run support to their starting pitcher, the king of no run support - Ben Sheets - takes the mound tonight against Greg Maddux and the Cubbies. Maddux dazzled the Brewers at Wrigley on July 17 with a 6-hit shutout for his 297th career win, and threw another complete game in his last start for number 298 against the Reds allowing two runs. In his career against the Brewers, Maddux is 8-2 with an unreal ERA of 1.19 spanning 12 starts and 90.2 innings. Sheets, on the otherhand, is coming off his worst start (relatively speaking) of the season in St. Louis last week. In his career against the Cubs (12 starts, 81.2 innings), Sheeter is 7-3 with a 2.76 ERA. This game should be another great one, similar to when they faced off in Wrigley on the 17th - prior to Sheets leaving the game, only two runs had been scored, both on solo HR's by Alou and Sosa. GO CREW!!!

 

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[rluzinski]

Hard for me to get too excited anymore. Even is Sheets pitches great, the offense is so horrible that it won't matter.

[packfan79]

I agree with you it is hard to get excited about this team maybe sheets will shut them out and we will manage to score a lousy run. I still can't believe that we are averaging under 3 runs a game for an entire month!!

[stkmtimo]

Well, Sheets could become the team's first 10 game winner (how many times have we been saying that!?) If he doesn't succeed, the next chance will be for Doug Davis against Sean Burnett of the Pirates on Friday. Go Crew..."let's score some runs!" as Sutton would say.

 

Tim

[BrewCrewForever]

I know that Sheets is gonna do his part and pitch a good game, ecspecially because its at home in front of a big crowd. I just hope that the offense scores more then 1 freakin run like last night when I was at the game. I couldn't stand to hear all the Cub fans cheer when Lee hit that homer and Grudzy got that two rbi hit. I swear I was the only Brewer fan in my entire section it was all red, white, and blue with my the only one wearing blue and yellow. Go Brewers!!!!!!!

[Dogger192003]

Maybe we'll get lucky and Maddux will forget to bring his "Paintbrush" with him to the mound tonight!

[brettac1]

Just saw this on the Bottomline on ESPN2: the Brewers are 3-55 (.055) with RISP over their last 7 games. Unreal how impotent this offense is.

[stkmtimo]

SICK stat...in a BAD way. That's crazy, and most of the time it's due to Jenkins, Helms, etc.

 

Tim

[bryan]

Lineups from CBS Sportsline

 

Branyan getting his starting debut at 3rd tonight batting 4th. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

Chicago Cubs

1 Todd Walker, 2B

2 Alex S. Gonzalez, SS

3 Sammy Sosa, RF

4 Moises Alou, LF

5 Derrek Lee, 1B

6 Aramis Ramirez, 3B

7 Corey Patterson, CF

8 Paul Bako, C

9 Greg Maddux, P

 

Milwaukee

1 Scott Podsednik, CF

2 Craig Counsell, SS

3 Geoff Jenkins, LF

4 Russell Branyan, 3B

5 Lyle Overbay, 1B

6 Brady Clark, RF

7 Bill Hall, 2B

8 Chad Moeller, C

9 Ben Sheets, P

[stkmtimo]

Quote:

---

6 Brady Clark, RF

---

 

And this is why the team is so bad.

 

Tim

[batboy37]

Why is Jenkins batting 3rd again and again??

[DHonks]

And this is why the team is so bad.

 

why, cause he's batting 6th and not Jenkins. Face it, Clark isn't terrible. He's not great, but he's solid. But right now he's on fire, and I'd rather he be batting 3rd than Jenkins

[JaNelson52]

And this is why the team is so bad.

 

No, its actually because of this:

 

5. Lyle Overbay, 1B

 

It's a joke that Overbay is batting fifth. I mean, what the hell do you have to do to make Yost actually move our best hitter UP in the lineup?

 

And mark my words...this acquisition of Russell Branyan officially makes Ben Grieve the last man on the bench. Its a shame, especially while watching Geoff Jenkins continue to suck on a nightly basis.

[bryan]

At the least I would like to see Overbay and Jenks swapped.

 

-Bryan

[shelmark]

Does anyone have some stats regarding Maddux to suggest why Grieve is not starting again? I have my theory but many on here yell at me quite vociferously when I point it out so I'll keep quiet. Big mistake putting Jenkins and Branyan back to back....should have Overbay in betweenst them...shame on you Ned.

[bjamesw22]

MY lineup:

 

1. Pods - CF

2. Grieve - RF

3. Overbay - 1b

4. Branyan - 3b

5. Jenkins - LF

6. Ginter/Hall - 2b

7. Moeller - C

8. Counsell - ss

9. Pitcher

[JaNelson52]

Does anyone have some stats regarding Maddux to suggest why Grieve is not starting again?

 

Yeah...Clark is 2-for-4 against Maddux, while Grieve is only 1-for-4. Im sure Yost saw that and said, "Well, case closed...Brady, you're in!"

 

Grieve's patient style at the plate and his great eye seems like a good fit against Maddux. But, Ben draws walks instead of slapping weak singles all over the place, so he is in Ned's doghouse.

[monkeyploop]

You must have forgotten that Mr. Yost doesn't look at the stats to make his decisions. Besides Brady Clark is on fire right now...cut the man a break.

[JaNelson52]

Besides Brady Clark is on fire right now...cut the man a break.

 

Yes, he is...so why can't Jenkins or Podsednik, who have both been sucking for quite a while now, take a seat for a few games?

[DHonks]

right now I think we can all dream of:

cf Pods

ss Counsell

rf Grieve

1b Overbay

3b Branyan

2b Hall

lf Clark

C Moeller

 

put the OBP guys before Lyle, then the slugger, and please give Geoff a day--no no, a week--off.

[stkmtimo]

Sorry about that (Clark is better than I give him credit for). You can put Jenkins, Helms, etc. in there too. It's a shame that Grieve and Clark (better than Jenkins) don't start over the guys who are really sucking.

 

Tim

[hawing]

You know what I really detest? Having the game on the radio in the next room, hearing a big cheer, and realizing it's probably *not* for the home team. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/mad.gif

[stkmtimo]

Great night for Sheets to be sucking...

 

Tim

[7rebmun]

Can we stop calling for the high fastball EVERY TIME we have 2 strikes on someone?

[ja002h]

Jenks?? Single??