Tigers 4, Brewers 3 (11)
Brewers now 84-60 (1st by 2.0 games)
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DETROIT — The news coming in from Tiger Stadium kept getting worse and worse.
After Gorman Thomas hit his 35th home run to give the Brewers a 3-2 lead in the top of the 11th inning, Pete Ladd took the mound for the bottom half of the inning.
You know Pete Ladd. He’s the rookie filling in for Rollie Fingers who allowed a home run to Jerry Mumphrey in the 10th inning in New York three days ago to lose to the Yankees.
Well… It happened again. But worse.
This time, Ladd had a lead. This time, he walked Larry Herndon to lead off the inning to bring the winning run to the plate. And then he allowed the home run, this time a two-run shot by Lance Parrish.
The Brewers miss Rollie Fingers. It’s painfully obvious. Three of the team’s last four losses could have been prevented with Fingers on the mound.
A diplomatic Harvey Kuenn understands the impact of Fingers: “He could have made a difference. Anytime you have Rollie in the pen and you’re ahead by one run, you certainly have the edge.”
Then Harvey dropped a bomb: “At this point, we really don’t know if we’ll have him or not. We’ll have to move things around if he doesn’t pitch anymore. He have to have someone pick up the slack.”
WHAT??!! First, Fingers was out for a few days. Then a week. Then another week. Now for possibly the season? What have we seen that tells us the Brewers have anyone who can step up and come even close to picking up the slack?
Jim Slaton? He’s a long reliever. Jamie Easterly? Jerry Augustine? Dwight Bernard? Please, please, PLEASE! Not even close.
Then, the trifecta of bad news. The Baltimore Orioles came from behind to beat the Yankees 8-7 and pull to within two games of the Brewers.
Kuenn tried to stay calm: “All I can say is we have to come back and beat them tomorrow. We still have a two game lead.”
Sure. Now. But without Fingers, does anyone think this team can hold off the Orioles for 19 more games?
I don’t.
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