Brewers 9, Tigers 7
Brewers now 83-56 (1st by 4.0 games)
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MILWAUKEE — Yesterday, the Brewers dominated the Tigers with the suffocating pitching of Don Sutton. Tonight, well… They just found a way to win.
It wasn’t pretty. The Tigers outhit the Brewers 17-10. They had five extra base hits to only three for the Brewers.
“We scattered 17 hits very nicely tonight,” manager Harvey Kuenn joked to the Milwaukee Sentinel. “We just outscored them. It isn’t exactly what you’d call a well played ballgame. But you are going to play some of these and win them. This was a big win for us.”
When the Tigers started the game with two runs in the first, the Brewers responded with four, thanks largely to a three-run home run by Cecil Cooper before an out was made.
The Tigers tacked on a couple more in the top of the third on a double by Enos Cabell, and the Brewers fought back with three of their own. Take a jab, connect on two uppercuts.
It happened again in the fifth when the Tigers started with two runs on hits by Lance Parrish and Jim Turner. The Brewers countered with two of their own in the bottom of the inning, one on a two-out squeeze single by Charlie Moore and another on a hit up the middle by Ed Romero.
That’s the way it was all night long. The Tigers didn’t have much trouble scoring on Brewers pitching, but they simply couldn’t keep up. Bob McClure, staked to a 7-3 lead in the fourth, was unable to survive the fifth to get the win. Moose Haas, who moved to the bullpen to make room for Don Sutton in the rotation, allowed two runs in five innings of relief.
Of course, it was Haas who pitched the final two innings because Rollie Fingers is still nursing a slight tear in his forearm. He was originally expected to be out a week, but after an evaluation today it looks like he’ll be out another week.
Fingers says his arm feels a little better, but there is still pain when he throws. When will he return? “Your guess is as good as mine,” Fingers said.
The Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox, second and third in the AL East, both lost and fell to 4 and 5 1/2 games back respectively. The Orioles have won 17 of 19, yet gained only 2 1/2 games on the Brewers who finished up a solid homestand.
Next up is a four-game series in New York.
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