Brewers/Reds Game 2

The Score:
Milwaukee Brewers 4 Cincinnati Reds 12

Players of the Game:
Jason Kendall: 2/4, 2B, R
Corey Patterson: 3/5, HR, 2B, BB, 2 R, 2 RBI and some fierce defense

Game Recap:
It a pretty much brutal game by both sides in Wednesday, the Reds trounced Dave Bush and the entire Brewers bullpen at Miller Park. Brewers pitching struggled mightily with control the whole evening and eventually it would stop leading to walks and start leading to cob balls and assisted homeruns.

It never really was pretty. In the second inning, Dave Bush gave up two runs on poor pitching and lackadaisical fielding by Corey Hart. Brandon Phillips lead off the inning with a solid single and was followed by Adam Dunn's first walk. A close play at third went to the Reds as Phillips stole third, followed two plays later by a steal of second from Dunn. And then Corey Hart showed his youth. After Keppinger struck out, Scott Hatteberg hit a routine fly ball to shallow right. Hart had plenty of time to get behind it and step into a throw. Instead, he stood right under the ball and fired a flat footed duck towards home plate. I say towards because it was about 10 feet up the third base line. Kendall did all he could to try a sweep tag, but the ball scooted past, hitting a bat weight in the Reds on deck circle and scooted into the stands, allowing Dunn a free ride home.

After a Braun homerun in the 4th, Brandon Phillips made a 2-run error on a routine groundball to second by Rickie Weeks, but then everything fell apart. Yost's unnerving confidence in a long pitch Dave Bush led to three hits and a sac fly. Bush's command was never any good and with it being the third time through the lineup, Yost should have thought twice about keeping the ball in Bush's hands at the very beginning. Instead the Brewers relinquished the lead, giving up 3 runs. An assisted homerun by Gabe Gross ruined Turnbow's outing. Gross managed to shove Adam Dunn's ball over the center field fence in a play the Tony Gwynn makes with ease. Gross could be the odd man out in a trade for McClung or Bush in the deal. Everybody should see appreciate his play when he gets to play every day. Side note: Gross is NOT a centerfielder. He has the worst range on the squad. McClung then sealed the deal for the Brewers by giving up 5 runs in just two innings.

Game Changing Play:
The Brewers didn't seem to be showing any confidence the entire game. It's like they don't like playing ball when Dave Bush is pitching. On top of that, it looked like Dave Bush wasn't even trying that hard out there. His velocity was down and there was zero intensity behind everything he did. So it seems pretty moot to say that Dunn's homerun off Turnbow was the Game Changing Play. However, at the time the Brewers were only down 5-3 and Baker had pulled the plug on Josh Fogg, who was just dealing. The result would have been a reachable game with a pretty weak bullpen in the wings. Instead, it was 7-3 and an eventual blowout.

Predictions Good:
If anybody expected a repeat of Tuesday's battle, they are clearly not baseball fans. Bush was not good, not bad, but barely mediocre. The surprise was Josh Fogg whose off speed pitches really frustrated Milwaukee's free swinging offense. Adam Dunn and the Reds offense kept the pressure on the whole game, and watched the Brewers completely fold in the process. Dunn only had one hit yesterday, but scored twice, had three RBIs and walked twice. I don't care if his average sucks, his OBP is higher then 95% of the leagues.

It was disappointing to see the Brewers give away at bats most of the night, swinging at first pitch breaking balls they hadn't seen before, but at least Bill Hall has his power stroke this year.

What's on Tap?
The good ole rubber match pitting two guys who have a ton of success against the opposing team. I'm sure nobody needs a reminder of Harang's 10 inning performance against the crew last year. Villanueva can definitely solidify his spot in the rotation with a quality start, and put the pressure on Parra to weed out Dave Bush if Yost hasn't handed him the spot yet.

Here's to a quality game!