Joaquin Andujar

’82 World Series: Game 7 Preview

October 20

ST. LOUIS — For those who haven’t followed the Brewers all season, they might look dead. For those who have followed the Brewers, the Crew has the Cardinals right where they want them.

After a 13-1 rain-delayed debacle in Game 6 that was as ugly and as soggy as it sounds, the Brewers have to pick themselves off the stained carpet of Busch Stadium, wring themselves out and get back to fighting.

Again, the Brewers face an ultimate game whose results will have ultimate consequences. Win and they’re world champions. Lose, and they have a long, cold winter thinking of what could have been.

Now, here’s where it gets tricky. Harvey Kuenn is going to hand the pea to Pete Vuckovich, the Brewers’ Cy Young candidate. Normally, such a move wouldn’t be questioned. But, in this case, it should be.

Vuke got cuffed around in Game 3. He hasn’t been on his game this postseason. We have mentioned that he hasn’t been the same since throwing 160-plus pitches in an 11-inning game in Septemeber. While he’s been man enough to not refuse the ball, and he won’t refuse the ball here, he’s not the man for the Crew on the hill. Harvey should put Mike Caldwell on the mound.

Caldwell is a horse and he’s completely befuddled the Cards throughout this series. He’d be going on three-days rest, but the Cardinals have yet to figure him out. There is no margin for error in a Game 7.

The Brewers, meanwhile, have yet to figure out Joaquin Andujar, the man who will pitch for the Cards, the man who is 2-0 this postseason.

First pitch of the rest of their baseball lives is at 7:20 p.m. ET.

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

’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