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’82 World Series: Game 5 Preview

October 17

MILWAUKEE — Simply put, in a seven-game series there is no more pivotal game than Game 5. If you lead 3-1, you can clinch the series. If you’re tied 2-2, as the Brewers and Cardinals are, the winner of Game 5 only has one more to win.

For the Crew, Game 5 is a must win. It’s at home with the next two* (one more game for sure, another if necessary) scheduled for St. Louis. Yes, the Crew split the opening two games at Busch Stadium, but we’ve seen what has happened to the Brewers when they’ve tasted success. Their gag reflex kicks in. Then, their fight or flight instinct revs up as they realize they may not be able to keep playing baseball.

Or as Gorman Thomas told The New York Times, he fully expected submarines to be waiting for the Brewers: “[They] are out there waiting for us. They are lurking in some estuary. But hopefully our sonar will be on track today.”

Gorman said, “estuary.” Erudite.

But there is still plenty of baseball to be played thanks to a rally that … well, a rally that showed the Crew must need to go all Fonzie on their sonar. Down 5-1 in the seventh, the Crew staged a remarkable six-run rally to stun the Cards, 7-5, in Game 4.

“It’s just like an avalanche,” Thomas said of the rally. “The more space it takes up, the bigger it gets. The more guys we got on base, the more runs we scored.”

It would be nice for the Crew not to need to rely on another late-game rally, but then these are the Brewers. I don’t know if they know any other way. It would be cool of the Crew cruised for a change. The Brewers don’t cruise. Drama is their thing.

Except in Game 1, where Mike Caldwell and the Brewers offense blunted any sense of drama by winning 10-0. Iron Mike takes the hill in Game 5. Brewers fans would welcome a similar caning of the Cards at County Stadium today. Their Game 1 victim, Bob Forsch takes the mound for the Cards. Game time is 3:25 pm ET.

If you can’t watch the game or listen to it, you can follow our tweets at @tweetsfrom1982

Brewers Come Back, Win Game 4

October 16

Brewers 7, Cardinals 5
World Series now tied 2-2
Box Score | Season Schedule

Robin Yount and the Brewers found a way to win Game 4

MILWAUKEE — Gorman Thomas led off the bottom of the seventh inning, the Brewers trailing 5-1, by popping out to catcher Darrell Porter for the second time in the game. Through that at bat, he had five hits in his last 59 at bats. For the first time in recent memory, Brewers fans booed Gorman.

“You don’t hear that,” Brewers pitcher Jim Slaton would say later. “Not with Gorman. Gorman’s a favorite around here.”

By the time Gorman batted again, he would have a chance to redeem himself. And it was in the same inning.

The inning started innocently enough. After Gorman’s pop-up, Ben Oglivie hit a routine grounder to first baseman Keith Hernandez. Hernandez flipped to pitcher Dave LaPoint who took a step and dropped the ball, allowing Oglivie to reach safely.

A single and another pop-up later, the inning should have been over. Then Jim Gantner took advantage of the extra out by hitting a double into the gap in right center that scored Oglivie. Next? The Brewers took over.

Molitor walked. Yount singled, scoring Money and Gantner. Cooper singled, scoring Molitor. Simmons walked.

Gorman Thomas then came up for the second time in the inning and redeemed himself, stroking a two-run single to give the Brewers a 7-5 lead.

“I started the inning with a pop-up to the catcher,” said Thomas. “Hey, you could say I started the winning rally.”

The Brewers faced four pitchers in the inning, but none could stop the bleeding. When the inning started, it appeared the Brewers’ season was coming to an end. When the inning ended, they had all of the momentum in the world.

Why not? This series is all tied up at two. They aren’t consistently playing their best ball, yet the Brewers remain in good position to win this thing.

First thing’s first: The Brewers must-win Game 5 in Milwaukee. It is their final game at home. If they win Game 5 to take a 3-2 lead, this team should win one of two in St. Louis.

’82 World Series: Game 4 Preview

October 16

MILWAUKEE — Willie McGee with two home runs and four RBI from the eight hole. Of course that’s how the Crew would fall into a 2-1 hole.

After all that has befallen our beloved baseball team, it would figure that a guy who hit only four homers would hit two in a game. Because that’s how the Brewers roll. Or, in this case, stumble. Right, Gorman?

“We’re in the same boat we were in against Baltimore, in the same boat we were in against California,” Thomas told The New York Times. “The boat hasn’t changed. We’re still riding the same boat. Call it PT-109 or the Love Boat, the boat’s been bottom up in the bay before and we always seem to rise to the occasion.”

Pete Vuckovich hasn’t won since Sept. 20. You may remember that game. Vuke went 11 innings, threw close to 165 pitches. He may be asking if it was worth it. Meanwhile, the Crew couldn’t figure out Joaquin Andujar, who only gave up three hits in 6 1/3 before a Ted Simmons rocket clipped Andujar in the knee.

If Cards pitchers keep befuddling Crew batters as Andujar did, the Brewers may be reduced to caning Cards hurlers in the knees in the bowels of the Stadium.

But if we know anything about these Brewers, it is that they bounce back. Moose Haas will take the mound for the Crew while rookie Dave LaPoint gets the egg for St. Louis.

As always, if you can’t watch the game or listen to it, you can follow our tweets at @tweetsfrom1982.

Brewers Lose, Down 2-1

October 15

Cardinals 6, Brewers 2
Cardinals now lead World Series 2-1
Box Score | Season Schedule

MILWAUKEE — I should have felt good about the fact that the Brewers were leaving St. Louis tied at a game apiece. After all, they say that all you need is one in that situation. But there was something about losing a game that should have been won that bothered me. I had a bad feeling that, even though the Brewers had stolen home field advantage, losing that second game would haunt them.

Exhibit A is tonight’s game. Back in Milwaukee, in front of the home crowd, you’d expect the Brewers to go up two games to one. Particularly with the leading American League Cy Young candidate, Pete Vuckovich, on the mound.

But things didn’t go as planned in this 6-2 loss to the Cardinals. Vuke only allowed six hits in 8 2/3 innings. He didn’t allow a single hit to the first three batters in the Cardinals’ lineup, and the top five went a combined 1-for-19. You’d expect that this would be the reflection of a win, in a typical game. But this game was not typical.

First and foremost, Joaquin Andujar owned Brewers batters. While Harvey’s Wallbangers haven’t been owned consistently of late, they certainly haven’t been banging walls with regularity either. But Andujar kept the bats silent all night long.

It wasn’t until a Ted Simmons liner knocked Andujar out of the game in the seventh that the Brewers’ offense started to see life. His rocket struck Andujar in the right knee, and the pitcher writhed in pain on the ground until he was finally replaced.

“I was just glad it didn’t get Andujar in the head or some place where it would hurt him real bad,” said Simmons. “You don’t say, ‘Wow, I knocked him out of the game. Oh goody for us.’ It’s not like that at all. You hope the guy isn’t hurt.”

It certainly wasn’t “goody for us.” The Brewers squandered a major opportunity that inning, loading the bases on four Cardinals pitchers before closer Bruce Sutter ended the inning on a Charlie Moore pop-out caught on the top dugout step.

The Brewers would finally break through on a two-out, two-run homer by Cecil Cooper in the eighth. But other than that, nothing.

That doesn’t mean we let Vuke off the hook. He’s supposed to be our Cy Young candidate, after all. And when you are supposedly one of the best pitchers in the American League, you should be up to any challenge. Well, he lost his last big game of the regular season to the Orioles. He lost one game to the Angels in the ALCS and got no decision in the other. And today, he lost again.

But it wasn’t the top of the order that got to Vuke. It was the bottom. And most specifically, it was rookie Willie McGee. In a scoreless game in the fifth, McGee hit a three run homer. McGee, if you did not know, had four regular season home runs. But because of his bomb, the Brewers were down 3-0.

McGee then came to bat again in the seventh. The result? Another homer to give the Cardinals a 5-0 lead. It’s tough to explain.

“A guy hits four home runs all year,” Vuke would say, “you won’t expect him to hit two in a game. But he did.”

McGee wasn’t done torturing the Brewers. With Oglivie on first after an error by Keith Hernandez, Gorman Thomas launched what appeared to be a home run to center field. But McGee raced back, leaped at the wall, and pulled it back in.

Ridiculous.

The Cardinals scored their last run when Vuke pitched around light-hitting Ozzie Smith with the bases loaded and walked in a run in the ninth.

“I tried to get him to fish inside. He didn’t fish,” explained Vuke.

Unacceptable. Why in the world do you need to get a guy with no bat like Smith to fish? Just throw him a strike, Vuke. He can’t hurt you. It’s painful.

Honestly, I don’t know who needs to pay for this loss. Pete Vuckovich is certainly at the top of the list. I’m tired of defending him as a Cy Young caliber pitcher when he can’t pitch close to that caliber in the postseason. That said, we’ve been drooling over this offense all season long, and they are giving us little to be excited about of late.

Paul Molitor, who had five hits in Game 1, went 0-for-4 in Game 3. Robin Yount, the likely regular season MVP, went 0-for-3. Ben Oglivie went 0-for-4 to lower his postseason average to .111. Gorman Thomas went 1-for-4 and actually raised his postseason average to .115.

Oh, and the defense committed three more errors leading to two unearned runs.

It’s frustrating. It’s frustrating to know how fortunate this team is to be in the World Series right now considering how poorly they’ve played overall. And it’s frustrating to sense that if they’d play even average baseball, they’d be up three games to none. But instead, they’re down two to one.

But I’m just a passionate, overreacting fan. Sure, it’s just one game. And they may win the next three. But it’s painful to watch the Brewers under perform, and they did so in every facet of the game on this night.

What do you think? Is it too early to panic?

’82 World Series: Game 3 Preview

October 15

MILWAUKEE — With a day to ruminate about the Crew’s silly 5-4 loss to the Cards in Game 2, some of the pain from a painful defeat has abated.

Pete Vuckovich — He’s the man on the hill for the Crew today.

The beauty of today is that it was once a tomorrow to look forward to. If blowing a game as they did in Game 2 happened in a clincher or a Game 7, then it would be a longer, colder winter than usual in Milwaukee.

Yet, only a game, and some momentum, was lost. The series stands at 1-1 and the next three are at County Stadium. The last time the Crew played three in a row at the Stadium, they won all three to make the World Series. Win all three again and the world championship is theirs.

Sounds good doesn’t it? Then, only four of the last 13 World Series have ended in five games or less. The historic trends don’t suggest this series will end early in favor of the Crew. Or the Cards for that matter.

For one, the Brewers are rarely ever comfortable when they’re comfortably ahead (see also: last week of the regular season). Watching them race to leads, whether it’s in the standings or a game, only to see them cough up one or the other or both is still disheartening, but not surprising. Brewers fans have been on a wild ride all season. Why should we expect smooth sailing now?

We shouldn’t, which is why Game 3 will be an interesting litmus test for the Crew. How do they respond to Game 2? How will they handle Joaquin Andujar, the Cards starting pitcher? All those questions will begin to be answered when Pete Vuckovich throws the first pitch at 7:30 p.m. CT.

As always, if you can’t watch the game or listen to it, you can follow our tweets at @tweetsfrom1982

Missing Fingers

October 14

ST. LOUIS — It’s as painful as the headline sounds, Brewers fans. For the first time this postseason, Rollie Fingers’ absence hurt the Brewers.

Fingers, who has been out since Sept. 3 with a strained right forearm, was sorely missed as the bullpen collapsed late in Game 2. The Crew could have used their ace closer as Bob McClure and phenom Pete Ladd couldn’t keep the Cardinals off the board in a disastrous eighth inning.

Instead of flailing at Fingers’ forkball, the Cards waited patiently as McClure and Ladd gagged on the mound. McClure could only retire one of the three batters he faced that inning, while Ladd, who was lights out in the ALCS against the Angels, walked the first man he faced and then the next, which brought home George Hendrick with the eventual winning run.

Three walks and a single, and two of the walks were complete free passes with not one strike thrown. The most galling may have been Ladd’s four-pitch walk of Steve Braun.

Steve Braun? Who the f#ck is this guy?

This guy is a 34-year-old utility stiff who hit .274 in 62 at bats this season. Granted, he also walked 11 times to bring his OBP to .384, but make the guy put the ball in play. He hadn’t faced live pitching since Game 2 of the NLCS and he grounded out to Phil Niekro in his only postseason at bat.

But you also know what he is? A voyeur. The man makes his bones by watching. And he’s proud of it.

“I’m a hitter,” Braun told The New York Times. “I’m a professional hitter. You always want to swing the bat if you get the opportunity. [But] If I swung at pitches like he threw, I’d have been out of the big leagues years ago.”

Instead, he got a cheap RBI. It’s imperative Ladd makes Braun put it in play. Ladd has an exceptional fastball and the guy has never seen the rookie before. Braun hadn’t played in a week. Ladd has to make him do something with it other than watch it go high and wide for four straight pitches, damn it!

Apologies for the rage, but it was frustrating to watch the Crew let slip an opportunity to put the Cards in a two-game hole with the next three games at County Stadium. But a tip of the cap to Cards manager Whitey Herzog for recognizing the situation and putting a professional hitter such as Braun in the game in that situation. Then again, if the Brewers have Fingers, they’re probably not in that situation.

Porter’s two-out, two-run double in the sixth was a crushing blow.

Crew skipper Harvey Kuenn said Fingers could have pitched, but not in that situation.

“Yes, Rollie was well enough to pitch,” Kuenn said. “And no, I didn’t consider using him. I’ve used Rollie Fingers when we’re ahead, not in tie situations.”

While it’s admirable to save Fingers to lock down a W, the ace said he probably couldn’t have gone even if Kuenn had called on him.

“I couldn’t have pitched,” Fingers told The New York Times. “I’m a little stiff from not pitching for a month, not the injury. It’s like the fifth or sixth day of spring training.”

Only it’s not. It’s baseball’s biggest stage and the Brewers fell off of it in Game 2. Don Sutton doesn’t escape retribution either. Twice the offense gave him leads (3-0 and 4-2) and twice he gave up two runs with two outs. You would expect that from a rookie pitcher, not a vet of Sutton’s stature.

Then there was the botched hit-and-run in the ninth where Robin Yount, in one of the only times this season he hasn’t come through, swung through a Bruce Sutter pitch and former Brewer Darrell Porter, who killed the Crew with a two-out double in the third, gunned down Paul Molitor, snuffing any Brewers hopes.

Game 3 is tomorrow at County Stadium. Let’s hope the Crew, who has responded well to adversity all season, responds positively once again.

How disappointed are you in the Crew’s Game 2 flop? Let us know. You can also follow our tweets at @tweetsfrom1982