Milwaukee Brewers: 250 Words or Less: 9/16/11

The Milwaukee Brewers busted out of their hitting slump in a big way, beating the Cincinnati Reds 6-3 to open a 6-game road trip, the final of the regular season.

Truthfully, they only had 7 hits in the game, not exactly a full onslaught that Jonathan Lucroy stressed would show up soon. All 6 of the Brewers’ runs came on home runs, with Prince Fielder leading the charge in the 2nd inning. In the 3rd inning Nyjer Morgan got on base for Mark Kotsay’s home run, and Ryan Braun hit a solo shot in the next at-bat. George Kottaras hit his own home run in the 7th and Braun followed up with his second of the night, and 30th of the season. That put him in the 30/30 club, counting his 31 stolen bases so far this year.

Could it still be the sign of a rebound? They haven’t put up much of an effort at the plate in the last week or so, and they’ve suffered in the playoff run because of it. Instead of potentially challenging for the top spot in the NL, they are now fighting to not play Philadelphia in the first round. But Lucroy ensured that the team is focused without getting too frustrated.

Randy Wolf had a great start, breaking a stretch of quality pitching droughts that ha plagued the team. He went into the 8th inning but got in trouble, having to get lifted for Francisco Rodriguez. Wolf gave up 7 hits and no walks and got tagged for 3 runs, while K-Rod and John Axford finished the game. Both relievers got the benefit of a double play to save their innings.

Yovani Gallardo takes the game tomorrow as the magic number falls to 7 with 11 games left.

 

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: 250 Words, Cincinnati Reds, Francisco Rodriguez, George Kottaras, John Axford, Jonathan Lucroy, Mark Kotsay, Milwaukee Brewers, Nyjer Morgan, Randy Wolf, Ryan Braun, Yovani Gallardo