Doc Medich

Brewers Bang on Fenway Walls

September 28

Brewers 9, Red Sox 3
Brewers now 93-63 (1st by 3.0 games)
Box Score | Season Schedule

BOSTON — As Rob Peterson noted yesterday in his series preview, this week may be the most important of any for the Milwaukee Brewers franchise. Coming off of two straight losses to the pesky Baltimore Orioles, the division lead has been cut to two games with seven left to play.

Of course, holding on for those seven games will be no picnic. Unless the Orioles are the ants looking to carry away our basket of playoff goodies. The first three will come versus the third place Red Sox and final four against those same Orioles. All on the road.

So it’s clear we’re getting into must-win mode here. At the very least, it’s hold-on-tight-and-close-your-eyes mode. Though Boton’s dead, the Brewers’ bats still needed to come alive to reverse recent misfortunes and build upon their dwindling AL East lead. A 9-3 win tonight at Fenway Park helped some of us open our eyes and watch more comfortably.

No one thought it would be easy. Sending mid-season addition and least accomplished starting pitcher Doc Medich to the mound at Fenway Park didn’t inspire confidence. The top priority coming into this game was to score and score often. Harvey’s boys needed to acquaint themselves regularly with the Fenway walls.

Thankfully, that is exactly what happened. Paul Molitor singled to lead off the game and stepped on the plate moments later after Robin Yount hit a 1-1 pitch from Chuck Rainey onto the light standard overlooking the big screen above the Green Monster.

“Hell, he’s been doing this all year,” Gorman Thomas said of Yount’s performance, “why would he stop now?

“He’s having a great hear. More power to him. I hope he stays as hot as he is the rest of the year. It’s just another feather in his war bonnet. He only has about 150,000 as it is.”

Indeed, Yount is having an MVP-type season. But with two down and two on, Roy Howell — a name rarely mentioned when speaking of this record-breaking offense — came through with a clutch RBI single to give Medich a 3-0 lead before he stepped on the mound.

Given the lead, all Brewers fans asked of Medich was to keep the offense in the game. Pitch six innings and hand the ball over with a chance to earn a victory. It wasn’t pretty (three earned runs on five hits and five walks in six innings), but Doc did what was asked of him.

“I didn’t have good stuff,” Medich told the Boston Globe. “I had to struggle for six innings, but when you get those runs…”

Of course, when fans complain about the inconsistent and often unreliable Brewers pitching, in most cases they are referring to the gaping hole left by the ailing Rollie Fingers. Once considered a seven inning game if the Brewers handed the ball and lead to Fingers, relievers have provided little, well, relief since his absence. A bullpen consisting of Moose Haas, Jim Slaton, Dwight Bernard, Jamie Easterly, Jerry Augustine and Pete Ladd has failed far more often than is acceptable.

The painful realization is that with Fingers, first place in the AL East would be long sewn up by now. Thankfully for the Brewers and their loyal fans, the offense handed Moose Haas a 9-3 lead in the seventh inning.

The Brewers bats were too much for Boston’s pitching on this night. It was an offensive onslaught focused on three innings: Three runs in the first, two in the fourth and four in the sixth. But it was the way they scored that was most impressive.

Sure, they hit their home runs, scoring two on Yount’s first inning homer and three when Simmons hit one out in the sixth. But they also scored two in the fourth when they popped four singles, forcing manager Ralph Houk to remove Rainey and go to his bullpen far earlier than he preferred.

In all, the Brewers offense smacked 17 hits, and the pitching was plenty good enough to win. Haas pitched three scoreless innings in relief, allowing only two hits to the suddenly punchless Red Sox and Fingers was not missed on this night. It was his first save of the season and the second of his career.

Just as important for Brewers fans was the news out of Detroit. A paltry crowd of 7,755 watched their fourth place Tigers come from behind to score the final four runs and beat the Orioles 9-6.

Now the worst case scenario is going into the final four games in Baltimore with a one game lead. Should we still be worried?

“We can’t look at going into Baltimore with a one game lead,” Yount responded, “or things like that. We really have to play them one at a time. They’re all big games. We have to win tomorrow as much as we did tonight.

“But I’ll take a win when Baltimore loses every day of the week.”

With six games to go, the Brewers’ lead in the division is now three games. We can breathe a little more easily. But would it be asking too much to have a five game lead before the Crew gets to Baltimore?

Maybe. Probably.

Player of the Game: Time and time again this season, whenever the Brewers need a win, Robin Yount has stepped forward. Tonight, “The Kid” hit a first inning, two-run home run that set the tone for a team losing confidence. Yount had three hits in all, driving in three and scoring two.

Now with 27 home runs, a .331 batting average, 111 RBI and a league leading 202 hits, 45 doubles and .573 slugging percentage, the question must be asked: does Robin Yount have any reasonable competition for the league’s MVP award?

Don’t worry, we’ll answer the question, too. No. Robin should, and will, be M-V-P.

Boston’s Dead

September 28

BOSTON — They needed to be perfect. If you’ve followed the American League this season, you knew that wasn’t possible in the second half for the ’82 Red Sox.

Boston, which once held a five-game lead in the division on June 23, entered their game against the New York Yankees seven games behind the Milwaukee Brewers with seven games to play. The Red Sox had to win out and the Crew and O’s had to vanish from the face of the Earth, and not just from yesterday’s schedule as the Crew and O’s had the day off.

1982 Donruss Doc Medich — Doc Medich takes the mound for the opener of a series that means much more to the Brewers than the Red Sox.

Thanks to an epic beat down from their long-time nemesis, the Red Sox’s quest for an AL East title came to a screeching hawlt with a 10-3 loss at Fenway.

After a promising start in which they took a one-game lead into the All-Star break, the Red Sox have gone 39-35 and this week are playing for nothing but pride. This isn’t too surprising. For a franchise that hasn’t won a World Series since 1918, that’s often all Boston plays for. It may be another generation or two before the Red Sox win a World Series. I’m guessing somewhere around 2018.

Let’s not pile on the freshly dead, though, as the Crew still needs to take care of the Sox in Boston for these next three games. Brewers fans hope the Tigers take care of the O’s in Detroit as the Orioles, who had yesterday off as well, sit two games behind in the AL East.

Tonight’s game starts at 6:30 p.m. CT with Doc Medich taking the hill for the Crew against Chuck Rainey, whom the Brewers have owned this season. (See also: Game preview.)

Best Week Ever?

September 27

BOSTON — Welcome to the most important week in Milwaukee Brewers history.

You could argue the final week of the 1981 season and the postseason series against the Yankees represented the most important week ever, but once you opened your mouth, I’d shake my head, look at you with pity, raise my hand and then put a finger to my lips… a clear sign you should shut the hell up.

1982 Donruss Robin Yount — Can Robin continue his magical season by carrying the Crew through the final seven games?

It would be understandable for you to argue about last season and remember it fondly — a second-half AL East title, which gave the Crew its first-ever postseason appearance, and an MVP and Cy Young for Rollie Fingers — but last season was an aberration. With Bowie Kuhn exercising what he thought was Solomon’s wisdom by splitting the season in half, he turned a Major League season into one with a minor-league feel.

This season, though, if the Crew hangs on and wins the AL East in a full 162-game season, no one can point to it as a fluke. Winning a division — not to mention having an MVP candidate in Robin Yount and Cy Young candidate in Pete Vuckovich — after a complete slate, no critic can question that accomplishment, especially in that division with the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and, the Crew’s nemesis for the week’s final season, the Baltimore Orioles.

A total of 140,679 fans saw the O’s take two of three games this past weekend from the Brewers at County Stadium. With a chance to put the Birds away, the Crew was outscored 12-4 in the final two games of the series and lead the Orioles by a mere two games with seven games — including four in Baltimore — to play.

Fortunately for the Brewers, who start a three-game series in Boston tomorrow, the Orioles are still on the road as they head to Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Granted, anything can happen in that bandbox and the Tigers are 13-and-a-half games out, but Brewers fans have to hope the Tigers’ pride comes into play.

It won’t matter, however, if the Crew doesn’t take care of business in Boston, which is seven games back. The Brewers have gone 7-3 and battered the Beantown nine for 66 runs in 10 games in ’82. Runs shouldn’t be a problem for Harvey’s Wallbangers at Fenway. The question is, as always, the pitching.

Doc Medich (11-14, 4.89), who’s scheduled to open the series tomorrow, has been wildly inconsistent. All you need to do is look at the numbers. The Crew may need to summon all their offensive firepower to offset Medich’s mediocre mix of pitches.

As bad as Medich has been, Boston starter Chuck Rainey hasn’t been much better. Rainey is 7-4 with a 4.80 ERA, but the Crew has tagged him for 16 hits and 10 runs in 10 2/3 innings in two appearances. Rainey hasn’t made it out of the sixth inning in either appearance.

Regardless, the Brewers need to get to Rainey early to give Medich some breathing room in the game, and themselves, in the AL East.

Game time is 6:30 p.m. CT.

So what do you think? Is this the Brewers’ most important week ever? Leave us a comment below.

Brewers are Money as Race Heats Up

September 14

Brewers 6, Tigers 3
Brewers now 85-60 (1st by 1.5 games)
Box Score | Season Schedule

DETROIT — The Brewers finally broke a painful three-game losing streak, yet their lead in the AL East still shrunk. That’s the way things are going right now.

Don Money carried the Brewers’ offense, hitting a solo home run in the sixth and a two-run triple in the seventh. Doc Medich and Jim Slaton kept the team in the game by limiting the Tigers to three runs on 10 hits and four walks.

“We needed the win tonight,” a relieved Harvey Kuenn told the Milwaukee Sentinel. “The way we dropped the last couple games this proves to be a big win.”

It could be. It’s nice to see some life after possibly the most agonizing three-game stretch of the season. But even more importantly, the Baltimore Orioles are gaining.

Yes, even when the Brewers win, the Orioles move up. Baltimore swept the Yankees in a double header today, coming from behind late in both games to pull to within 1 1/2 games of the Brewers for the division lead. It is the Crew’s smallest lead since August 6.

Had the Brewers lost today, the lead would have been down to a half game. So was it big? Enormous. But there are 19 games remaining. Can they hold off the Orioles that long, possibly without Rollie Fingers?

The season could very well come down to a four-game show-down in Baltimore, the final regular season series. Stay tuned.

Brewers Blown Out in The Bronx

September 11

Yankees 14, Brewers 2
Brewers now 84-58 (1st by 3.0 games)
Box Score | Season Schedule

Jerry Augustine and the rest of the Brewers pitchers were awful today.

BRONX, NY — This is one of those games you don’t want to spend too much time on, so I won’t. Or I’ll at least focus on the negatives. Well, there are no positives.

The Brewers played like garbage from start to finish. Doc Medich, who has surprised many by pitching like an acceptable big leaguer, showed his true colors tonight. He couldn’t get an out in the second, allowing seven runs on five hits and two walks.

Sad.

Jerry Augustine, who was DFA’d and brought back but hasn’t pitched for the Brewers since August 17, reminded us why he was let go in the first place. He allowed three runs on four hits in three innings.

Sad.

Jamie Easterly, making his first appearance since July 7, highlighted what we didn’t miss: two runs on five hits in two innings.

Sad.

Dave Righetti pitched a complete game for the Yankees, allowing only five hits. His lone slip-up was a two-run homer by Mark Brouhard in the sixth after the regulars were pulled from the game.

It was a sad, sad display.

“This is a tough loss to swallow,” manager Harvey Kuenn said after the game, “but it happens to everybody. You have to swallow it and move on.”

Maybe, but while this is merely a blip on the radar for the offense, this Rollie Fingers-less bullpen is what is of grave concern to Brewers fans. Fingers was seen lobbing the ball in the bullpen before the game, but he still hasn’t thrown since September 2.

The longer Fingers is out, the more likely a repeat of this pitching disaster is to repeat itself.

And oh, by the way, the Baltimore Orioles won today to pull to within three games of the Brewers in the AL East. Move on? Maybe. But Brewers fans are approaching panic mode.

Tigers, Umpires Spoil Strong Start

September 6

Tigers 6, Brewers 5 (10)
Brewers now 81-56 (1st by 3.0 games)
Box Score | Game Schedule

MILWAUKEE — For six innings, Brewers starting pitcher Doc Medich no-hit the Detroit Tigers. Staked to a 3-0 lead in the seventh, it all came apart at the seams.

Glenn Wilson led off the seventh with a single to left to break up the no-no. Then Larry Herndon hit a grounder to Ed Romero at second for what appeared to be a sure double play. Romero flipped to Robin Yount at second who gunned to Cecil Cooper at first, but first base umpire Al Clark ruled Herndon safe.

Jim Turner would then hit a double to score two, including Herndon, to make it 3-2. The Tigers then took the lead in the eighth when they scored three more runs on three hits to make it 5-3.

This was only the start of an aggravating few innings for manager Harvey Kuenn and the Brewers. Ben Oglivie would tie the game at 5 in the bottom of the eighth with his 27th home run of the season, but the Brewers nearly won the game in the bottom of the ninth when two more controversial calls stood in their way.

After Marshall Edwards led off the inning with a walk, Ed Romero laid down a bunt. Feeling lucky, pitcher Milt Wilcox picked it up and fired to Alan Trammell at second. Jim McKean ruled Edwards out, and manager Harvey Kuenn stormed out of the Brewers dugout to express his displeasure.

But instead of two on and no outs, there was one on and one out. Paul Molitor bunted and Wilcox threw the ball away to put runners on first and third. Robin Yount then grounded to short and, instead of trying for the double play, Alan Trammell fired home.

It appeared Ed Romero got in. Of course, nothing was the way it appeared today, and home plate umpire Jim Evans ruled Romero out. Kuenn again charged out of the dugout to find his rightful place on the field, and third base coach Harry Warner joined him in voicing his disgust.

“I got my leg in between his legs,” Romero explained after the game. “I was going on any ground ball. I thought I had a good jump but maybe I didn’t have a big enough lead. It was a very close play. When I started my slide the ball was just getting there. I don’t think he blocked the plate.”

Doc Medich was left in to pitch the 10th, presumably because Rollie Fingers was unavailable, and Tom Brookens promptly hit a solo home run to give the Tigers the lead.

Would you believe there was yet another controversial call in the Tigers’ favor? Of course you would. With Ben Oglivie on first and one out in the bottom of the 10th, Charlie Moore hit a grounder into the hole at short. Trammell fired to Lou Whitaker at second and Oglivie was ruled… Well, you know what he was ruled.

Kuenn stormed out, Warner was angry, you’ve heard this story before.

“I told [McKean] it was the second call he’d missed,” Kuenn said. “He didn’t say anything back so maybe he realizes he missed it too.”

It was one of those games. The Brewers should have won. Doc Medich was terrific through six innings and while he wasn’t great thereafter, he certainly didn’t get help from the umpires.

“We played our butts off,” Kuenn said, “but it’s a little tough when you battle 13 players. Maybe I shouldn’t say 13 players. Let’s say nine players and you can take your guess at the other four.”

Don Sutton is on the mound for his second Brewers start tomorrow.

Game Notes: The Brewers are now just three games ahead of the Baltimore Orioles, their smallest lead since August 18. … Rollie Fingers will be examined on August 8 to see if he can travel with the team on the upcoming road trip. … Gorman Thomas missed the game after getting a shot in his right arm yesterday for inflammation. He is expected to play tomorrow. … Outfielder Bob Skube was added to the roster due to the injury to Thomas. … Jim Gantner sat out the game after being hit by a pitch on the wrist yesterday. He is day to day with swelling.