Opening day reactions and my beef with G-mail.

So during the opening day game against the Cincinnati Reds I had a nice running blog going on. I stole this idea from my favorite sports writer Bill Simmons, and it was going pretty good. During the end of the sixth inning I checked my school email and because my school email is a G-mail account it logged me out of my account linked to my blog without telling me. So i continued to write the running blog only to discover that after the game everything I typed after the sixth inning was not saved. So not only did I have to deal with the gut punching loss but also the loss of the last half of my work. Oh well, here is a reaction to the game.

Right up until the 9th inning everything was looking good. Weeks and Gomez hit back to back homers to start a season for the first time in MLB since the 69 Reds. Gallardo had a solid start, the bullpen was doing well, minus the home run given up by Loe, the offense was looking great and the defense was holding up. It looked like we were going to win this game easy and start the season off on a great note. Then the 9th inning happened.

The inning started with a first pitch shot by Brandon Phillips that Braun played perfectly off the hall and held Phillips to a single. No real nerves yet, but not the start you hope for.

Joey Votto was next and walked on 5 pitches. Still not worried, but then came the key play.

Scott Rolen grounds to third and McGehee tries to tag Phillps going to third. He misses the tag and can't throw out Rolen at third and everybody is safe, loading the bases with no outs. I can what McGehee was trying to do but in that situation you go for the standard double play. You have a 3-run lead in the 9th, just get those 2 outs. Needless to say I am very worried now.

Axford gets Jay Bruce to strike out after a long at bat. One out bases still loaded. Deep exhale, but not out of it yet.

Johnny Gomes flies out on the first pitch which took a jumping catch by Gomez to get the out. Run scores by a sacrifice fly but still 2 outs and a 2 run lead, only one more out to go, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Axford starts out Ramon Hernandez with a slider for a strike, good start.....

Axford throws a high fastball and it gets hit out of the park for a walk off 3-run home run. Dammit.

Everything the Brewers had going for them seemed to go against them in the 9th. They had played good defense the whole game but McGehee's mistake hurt. The pitching was good but Axford looked flat. He struggled with location and relied very heavily on his fastball. He only threw two sliders and one curveball the whole inning.

I don't want to jump to any rash conclusions as it is only one game but its not a way you want to start a season. The whole team looked really good up until the 9th inning and then the meltdown began. I'm not sure what was with Axford but he just looked flat. It could be nerves being opening day or the fact he didn't pitch much during spring but its something that needs to be resolved fast because we need him to be locked in all year. Also you don't want to be blowing games to division opponents, especially the Reds who will be the main contender for the division title.

Still got 161 to play, lets just hope we don't have many more like this one.