BALTIMORE — After preaching patience since the doubleheader loss on Friday, it’s time to be anxious.
As a matter of fact, it’s appropriate to panic. Fans, go right ahead. Shake your head, rub your temples so hard that you pass out, maybe even pound your fist on the table five, 10, maybe 20 times and cry out “Why?” as if you found your wife in bed with a White Sox fan.
As fans, this is our job. We couldn’t be described as fans if we weren’t a little apoplectic. After all, the Crew has had three chances to win one game and has failed miserably at each attempt.
It’s difficult to find words to describe how disappointing these past three games have been. Yesterday’s 11-3 loss was just the dingleberry on the crap sundae. The Crew seems to have no life, no fight in them. This is strange, considering the turnaround since Harvey Kuenn took over as skipper halfway through June. They’ve been a loose club that’s never played tight and haven’t yielded to anyone.
But now, they look beat. Maybe the O’s are riding a wave of emotion and want to give the irrascible Earl Weaver a pennant as a going away present. Maybe they’re just better than the Crew, from whom they’ve taken three straight and 9 out of 12 this season.
Yet, I can’t believe it. The Crew may not have the staff the O’s have, but the offense has never slumped for long. One has to think the lumber will awaken today for the mere fact it has to carry this team to a World Series. The Brewers’ staff won’t throw a series of one- or two- run games.
Fans, you can panic as long as your heroes don’t. That means Molly and Robin and Coop and Ben and Ted and Gorman and Gumby and Charlie and whomever Harvey decides to put at DH against O’s ace Jim Palmer (15-4) all need to stay cool. They know Palmer and what he can do on the mound. Maybe, like nervous public speakers, they can picture Palmer in his underwear.
Having Don Sutton take the hill (3-1) is also an advantage. The O’s have only seen Sutton once. True, the O’s scored six runs off him, but the Crew gave Sutton plenty of support with 15 runs.
But the Crew can’t rely on that kind of outburst, not against Mr. Bikini Briefs. The Crew needs Sutton’s cool. This is why Harry Dalton got him, to help get the Brewers into the postseason.
Make no mistake. Today’s game is a one-game playoff, a Game 7. Game time is 2 p.m. CT.
If the Crew loses, as great as this season has been, the season is a failure. The collapse, epic. It would be on par with the ’51 Dodgers, the ’64 Phillies and the ’78 Red Sox. It would be a black mark that could stain this franchise forever.
There’s only a tomorrow if the Crew takes care of business today.
Here are the lineups…
# | Brewers | POS | # | Orioles | POS | |
1 | Molitor | 3B | 1 | Bumbry | CF | |
2 | Yount | SS | 2 | Gulliver | 3B | |
3 | Cooper | 1B | 3 | Singleton | DH | |
4 | Simmons | C | 4 | Murray | 1B | |
5 | Oglivie | LF | 5 | Lowenstein | LF | |
6 | Thomas | CF | 6 | Dwyer | RF | |
7 | Howell | DH | 7 | Ripken | SS | |
8 | Moore | RF | 8 | Dempsey | C | |
9 | Romero | 2B | 9 | Dauer | 2B | |
Sutton | SP | Palmer | SP |