Charlie Moore

Caldwell Shuts Out Blue Jays

April 22

Brewers 7, Blue Jays 0
Brewers now 5-6 (4th)
Box Score | Season Schedule

MILWAUKEE — Can the Brewers just play the Blue Jays every game? Please?

Following today’s game, the Brewers are 4-1 against the Blue Jays this season and 1-5 against everyone else. We need to find a way to schedule more of these games.

Following a dreadful five-game slide, the Brewers welcomed the Blue Jays to Milwaukee with open arms. Things started coming together yesterday with a 3-1 win. And now today, Mike Caldwell and the Brewers shut out Toronto 7-0.

Could there not be a better omen for a team that has found no dependable pitching and whose offense hasn’t been able to score than this? We all knew the offense would come around eventually, but a spotless performance like this one from Caldwell couldn’t have come at a better time.

Early Overreaction

April 19

The performance of Rollie Fingers is one of many things not going as expected early in 1982.

The 3-6 Brewers have a day off today, and depending on how you look at it that’s either a good thing or a bad thing. They’re in the midst of a five-game losing streak, and everything possible is going wrong. Starting pitching is struggling. Relief pitching, including Rollie Fingers, has been awful. The offense, until the final game of the Rangers’ series, has done nothing of late.

On one hand, it’s good to get a day off to shift focus. It also helps guys like Robin Yount, Larry Hisle, Charlie Moore and Jim Slaton get healthy.

On the other, it just gives you another day to think about how badly things are going. Many players will tell you that when in the middle of a losing streak, they want to get back out there as soon as they can to end it. Too much downtime can just make it worse.

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Brewers Swept by Rangers

April 18

Rangers 9, Brewers 6
Brewers now 3-6 (6th)
Box Score | Season Schedule

Cecil Cooper collected four hits, but his teammates did little to help the cause.

MILWAUKEE — You know the saying What can go wrong, will? Yeah, that’s happening here.

The Brewers finally came home for this. Swept by the Rangers, five losses in a row, and currently dropped from first to sixth place in a blink of an eye.

What isn’t going right? Well, what is? Like every other game lately, this one was a disaster from the start.

Pete Vuckovich, who has yet to have a solid outing in three attempts, allowed three runs in the first. Now, it wasn’t all his fault. Two errors certainly didn’t help. But bad defense doesn’t give a pitcher license to give up four first inning hits either.

Brewers Lose Home Opener

April 16

Rangers 4, Brewers 1 (10)
Brewers now 3-4 (4th)
Box Score | Season Schedule

Is Dave Schmidt a Future Star? He looked like one today.

It took 10 extra days, but the city of Milwaukee was finally able to welcome home their Brewers. Winter weather postponed the opening series in Milwaukee, so the Brewers instead hit the road.

After the tailgating, after the Marquette marching band performance, after the pre-game introductions and after six-year-old Jim Dean threw out the first pitch, the Brewers had a game to play.

Vuke Stumbles, Brewers Lose

April 14

Indians 6, Brewers 2
Brewers now 3-2 (1st)
Box Score | Season Schedule

Pitching was again the issue for the Brewers today, as Pete Vuckovich walked six in 3 1/3 innings.

So what happens when your offense can’t maintain it’s 10.0 runs per game average while your pitching continues to scuffle?

You lose.

High powered offenses can’t consistently pump out gaudy run totals day after day. They just don’t. Good pitching beats good hitting. And even the best hitters can’t always find the holes.

Whether it was John Denny‘s greatness, a matter of bad luck or a combination, the Brewers never had a shot today. Denny was given a 3-0 fourth inning lead, and the Brewers bats struggled to squeeze out two runs on a total of seven hits. Not a single Brewer batter collected more than a hit.

Brewers Outlast Indians, 9-8 in 10

April 13

Brewers 9, Indians 8 (10)
Brewers now 3-1 (1st)
Box Score | Season Schedule

Today’s game was an old fashioned shootout. And more often than not, when the Milwaukee Brewers are involved in a shootout, it’s their opponent who ends up bloodied.

Such was the case today. There was no pitching early. The Brewers scored at least a run in each of the first four innings. After building an 8-4 lead, Randy Lerch and the Brewers’ bullpen couldn’t hold it. The Indians scored in five of the first seven innings, including two in the seventh that would put this one into extra innings.