Sunday's Game Notes

Since I'm at work again today, and reading more physics and magnetic resonance stuff, I'll chime in with some notes about the game, so that people can get a little bit more information about the game rather than the minimal updates given by ESPN, JS or MLB.

1st Villanueva pitched a flawless first with a strikeout, groundout and fly out.
I missed quite a bit of the remaining sections, but Cameron and Fielder both got base hits in the bottom half, both were stranded.

2nd I caught Villanueva giving up a leadoff base hit, but he managed to get out of it unscathed followed by a 1-2-3 out for the Crew in the bottom half.

3rd Cappy pitched a flawless third, followed by a one hit (Kendall), scoreless bottom half for the Crew.

4th I caught the bottom half of the inning and Powell said that Cappy gave up 2 runs on 3 2-out hits. A tough finish to a pretty solid outing. Hopefully it was just a bit of fatigue for the start of the year. Fielder just got drilled in the right leg by a pitch from Bootcheck to open the inning. That's the second big bopper to get hit by a pitch this year. Braun got drilled two days ago. Bootcheck is apparently hurt after pitching three straight balls to Braun, so that may have had something to do with Fielder getting drilled.

Braun walks, Hart pops out in 3 pitches on what sounded like a pretty poor at bat, Hall gets ahead 3-1 in the count and walks. Abraham Nunez walks to the plate and Powell indicates that Nunez has every intention to go to AAA and play no matter what the situation is. Line drive to right center gives Nunez a 2-run single and a 2-2 game, with Hall moving to third. A quality AB and solid baserunning from Hall is always good to hear. Another base hit from Nix scores Hall and Nunez moves to third as well. That's two guys moving from first to third this inning, though Nunez was on the run during the pitch. Kendall fought a few pitches off before grounding out softly into a DP. 3-2 Crew

5th A flawless inning by Choate who is trying to find a spot in the bullpen. Lead off walk for Counsell, a jam job fastball pop up by Cameron, Fielder gets hit again, fly out for Braun, a liner from Corey scores Cousnell, but Fielder gets caught in a run down to end the inning.k

6th Luis Pena is in now. He's the wild card depth in the minors. If he can keep his fastball into the high 90s, you might see him move into a closer prospect in a year or two. A quality inning for him as he goes through a perfect outing with two groundballs and a fly out. I missed the bottom half but it looks like a hit by Nunez and no runs.

7th Big time subs start the inning as everyone gets replaced with the exception of Braun who was replaced last inning. LaPorta makes a solid catch on a long run in the sun and keeps the leadoff man on first. Powell is taking this time to praise his range as a surprise to most people since all you hear about is his power. Lindsey Gullin pitches a scoreless 7th giving up one hit. Not really an up and coming star, but he'll do some good work at AA-Huntsville.

Interesting note. The Brewers have 4 runs on 7 hits, but zero extra base hits.

Alcides Escobar is up right now. Kind of fun to hear Powell talk about this guy, but he flies out on cue. Excellent play by the third baseman robs Kapler of an infield hit bringing up Nelson who flies out to center. Still 4-2 Crew.

8th Rivera throws out a runner trying to steal 2nd to end the 8th. Bray gave up one base hit in yet another scoreless inning. Laporta grounds one into the gap for a lead off single. Sac bunt by Gwynn moves him over. No idea if it was meant to be for a hit though. Dillon pops out to the infield and Iribarren grounds out to end the inning.

9th Mota goes in the 9th. He needs to focus on location this Spring because his ball doesn't have that much movement on his ball. Starts off with a K on a 2-2 pitch. Grounder to Brad Nelson in the hole gets out two and starts 0-2 before striking out the last batter looking for a Brewer win. Very very promising from Mota. Let's hope he's got something going.

Final score 4-2 Crew!