Milwaukee Brewers: 250 Words or Less: 8/22/11 Part 1

The Milwaukee Brewers kicked off tonight’s double header in exciting fashion, beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-1.

Hoping to get at least a moderate effort, Chris Narveson went 5.1 great innings of shutout baseball, allowing just 5 hits. His day ended early with an injury on his throwing hand, different from the one that put him on the DL. The pitching strategy for the late game would depend largely on how Narveson did in his first game back, having missed 2 starts. They can hardly ask for better.

Kameron Loe, Takashi Saito and Tim Dillard all came on it relief, Dillard with the game solidly out of hand. Dillard surrendered the only run of the game in the 8th, but it was a dominating win and no better way to win the first of a double header.

The game broke open in the 4th for the Brewers, who answered an intentional walk to Craig Counsell with a 2-out, 2-run single by Narveson. The threat from the Pirates really wasn’t much after that. The game became comfortable when Milwaukee scored 4 times in the 8th. With 2 outs again, the next 5 batters all worked their way on base. Ryan Braun hit a 2-run home run in the 9th for the final margin.

If the theme of the second half of the double header is momentum, things could get ugly for Pittsburgh. Zack Greinke takes the mound for the finale.

Follow me on Twitter (@MilwaukeeBrian) and don’t miss the Brewers’ “A Simple Kind of Fan” each Tuesday from Pocket Doppler’s Brew Town Boozer.

Tags: Chris Narveson, Craig Counsell, Kameron Loe, Milwaukee Brewers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Ryan Braun, Takashi Saito, Tim Dillard, Zack Greinke