It started with the home opener. Things were looking good, taking a lead into the 8th inning but Takeshi Saito gave up two solo home runs and the Brewers lose the game to start the season 0-4. It was another painful loss that made you think horrible thoughts about the team. Maybe we hyped them too much? What if they aren't that good? Then came Gallardo.
Just when the team seemed to be at its lowest Gallardo rose to the challenge and turned in the best performance of his career. A two hit shutout of the Atlanta Braves gave the Brewers the first win of the year. The masterful performance from Gallardo seemed to boost the teams confidence and it carried over into the next game.
The next game Prince Fielder came alive and carried the team offensively going three for four and driving in three runs to lead the Brewers. Marco Estrada looked good minus a three-run home run given up to Jason Heyward. The bullpen shut down the rest of the game and the Brewers had their first winning streak of the season and looked to win their first series of the season with a win the next day.
In the finale against the Braves, Shaun Marcum found his groove for the most part and the Brewers scrapped together just enough runs to pull out the win. The key sequence from this game came from the newest Brewer, Nyjer Morgan. He doubled, then stole third, and scored on an infield grounder by colliding with Braves catcher Brian McCann, knocking the ball out of his glove. This sequence sums up pretty much everything Morgan has done for the team so far. The guy can hit, plan and simple. His speed is unbelievable, he is a real exciting player to watch and has already won over a good majority of Brewer fans with his play. I look forward to seeing more from him this season and hope he can continue this level of play.
Wolf got the start in game one against the Cubs and although the defense was not spot on behind him he still struggled with location and it cost him. Although it is very hard to be successful when you need to acquire extra outs, its his job as a pitcher to put that behind him and get outs, and he was not able to do that. Wolf has had a rough start to the year but we saw how good he can get in the second half of last year and hopefully that Randy Wolf will show up soon because he has looked pretty bad in his two starts this year.
The bad taste left by Wolf's start was quickly washed away the next day with Narveson's fantastic outing. With all the hype around Greinke, Marcum, and Gallardo, Narveson got overlooked by many but you could tell he was beginning to fully figure out the major league level and it has shown this year. After his 7 shut out innings, complimented with 9 strikeouts, one shy of a career high, which came against the Cubs as well, he has started the season with 13 scoreless innings. He looked fantastic in this game, mixing all his pitches well, getting the big outs to escape jams when he needed to and had the strikeout pitch working all night. Fielder did his part yet again with three doubles and four rbi's. It was an all around fantastic game and the Brewers were set up to win back to back series.
In the finale of the series and the home stand, the Brewers found themselves back in "wall-banger" mode hitting three different two-run home runs, and they all came at clutch times. It was obvious right from the get-go that Gallardo did not have his best stuff. He struggled with location, gave up easy pitches to get hit and just didn't look like he had the same pitch quality he had in his shut out. The Brewers fell down 2-0 going into the bottom of the first but Fielder tied it up with a two-out two-run homer to tie it up at 2. In the third the Brewers found themselves down 4-2 but Braun tied it up with his own two-run home run. Then came the biggest one of the game. Finding themselves down 5-4 with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Casey McGehee hit a pinch-hit two-out two-run home run to give the Brewers the lead. Axford came in and closed the door and the Brewers found themselves back at .500 and heading out on the road after a 5-2 home stand.
This was the team we knew we had. The offense stepped up big. The pitching looked great, minus Wolf. The bullpen stepped up when we needed it for the most part, and it all came together to form a fantastic home stand. Fielder exploded this week hitting .440 with 11 rbi's in the seven games. Narveson continued to shine, and Nyjer Morgan made his case for why he deserves to start every day. With a road trip that contains six out of nine games against the Pirates and Nationals you have to think this hot play will continue and could possibly evolve into an extended winning streak. I stated this team was better than their 0-4 start and they showed it. Now they just need to continue it.
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