Keith Hernandez

Brewers Come Back, Win Game 4

Brewers 7, Cardinals 5
World Series now tied 2-2
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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.

Brewers Lose, Down 2-1

October 15 1 Comment

Cardinals 6, Brewers 2
Cardinals now lead World Series 2-1
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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?

Brewers Crush Cardinals

October 12 1 Comment

Brewers 10, Cardinals 0
Brewers lead World Series 1-0
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Mike Caldwell pitched a complete game shutout

ST. LOUIS — The Brewers came into Game 1 of the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals wanting to change some bad habits. In both the ALCS with the Angels and quasi-playoff series with the Orioles to end the season, the Brewers lost Game 1. On the road, they lost both games 8-3.

Oh, they changed. They changed in a big way. The Brewers squashed any doubts about how power might fare against speed in a truly dominating 10-0 win over the Cardinals in front of their home fans.

It was a huge win for the Brewers. It set a tone that they will be in control of this series from the beginning. And by winning the first game in St. Louis, the Cardinals already have their backs up against the wall. A second loss tomorrow, and you can pretty much chalk up a championship for the Brew Crew.

Gotta admit, I wasn’t particularly confident about this game. Not only due to the team’s recent history and that the game was in St. Louis, but that Mike Caldwell was on the mound.

Sure, Caldwell won 17 games this season, and was this team’s iron man throwing 258 innings. But he also looked gassed as a result, losing the second game against the Orioles and that first game against the Angels. Over his previous two starts, Caldwell went a combined 10 innings pitched, allowing 12 earned runs on 13 hits. He was a human pinata on the mound.

But Harvey Kuenn has pushed all of the right buttons this season, and he saw that his veteran hurler wasn’t right. Caldwell was skipped in the rotation in favor of Moose Haas for Game 4 of the ALCS, and maybe all he needed was some rest. He certainly looked well rested tonight.

Caldwell pitched a complete game shutout, allowing only three hits and one walk to the baffled Cardinals batters. Two of those hits were in the eighth inning, so his dominance over those other eighth innings was truly remarkable.

“Right at the start,” said catcher Ted Simmons, “he was throwing it right on the outside corner and he was painting the black.”

The Cardinals never had a chance.

But the Brewers brought an all-around attack to Game 1. They committed four errors as a defense in Game 5 of the ALCS and eight total in the series. But their glovemen sparkled in the field on this day without a defensive misstep.

Paul Molitor set a World Series record with five hits.

And of course, you can’t talk about the Milwaukee Brewers without mentioning their offense, though they’ve admittedly been absent over the course of much of the past couple of weeks. They came after the Cardinals with 10 runs on 17 hits, never letting up until the final bell. The Brewers scored four in the ninth just for good measure.

One of the issues with the Brewers of late has been early scoring. The opposition has been taking the early lead, often leading to a Brewers loss (the team scoring the first run has won eight of the last 10 games). The Brewers put two on the board in the first inning today, thanks largely to a Keith Hernandez error with two outs, and never looked back.

Paul Molitor was the team’s star on offense, setting a World Series record with five hits, all singles. Three of the hits never made it out of the infield and another was a broken bat job.

“It’s the first time I have had three infield hits in a game,” said Molitor. “It wasn’t pretty.”

No, but they’ll look like line drives in the history books.

Robin Yount nearly matched him, collecting four hits, including a double. Before Molitor had broken the World Series record for hits in a game in the ninth, Yount and Molitor had each tied the old record with four.

“I had no idea,” said Yount. I’m still not swinging the bat that well. The ball just happened to go where the fielders weren’t.”

The top two batters have led the Brewers’ offense all season long. On this day, they went a combined 9-for-12 with two runs scored and four RBI. An incredible performance.

While others certainly contributed on offense (Ted Simmons, Charlie Moore and Jim Gantner all had two hits), there is reason for concern once you peel away the numbers. Offensive stars Cecil Cooper, Ben Oglivie and Gorman Thomas went a combined 1-for-12, and all hit close to .100 during the postseason. These three must get going for the Brewers to be successful in this series.

Despite all of their flaws, the Milwaukee Brewers are in prime position to win this World Series. Win Game 2, and all they need to do is win two of three at home. It’s that easy.

Know Thy Enemy

October 12 1 Comment

FingersSI — Can Rollie return? It could make the difference in the Series.

ST. LOUIS — We know the Tigers. We know the Sox, both Red and White. We know the Yankees, the Orioles and the Angels. We know those teams are not as good as the Milwaukee Brewers, American League Champions for 1982.

But what about the St. Louis Cardinals? What do we know about the Crew’s newest enemies and champions of the National League?

We know they went 92-70 to win the NL East and swept the Braves in the NLCS. (Seriously, how cool would it have been to kick the snot out of the Braves, the team that broke Milwaukee’s heart after the 1965 season?)

The Cards won’t bludgeon you to death as they were last in the NL in home runs (67). But they were second in batting average (.264) and first in on base percentage (.334). They have excellent team speed (200 stolen bases led the league by 35), excellent defense and above average pitching.

Thanks to the powerful KMOX, upon which Jack Buck’s voice rolls like thunder across the plains, the Cards have fans across the deep South and as far west as Colorado. The 50,000-watt mega-station has fascinated generations of Cards fans. While the Cardinals faithful have been rewarded with eight World Series titles, they’ve been waiting longer than Brewers fans as the Cards haven’t won a championship since 1967. Not as bad as the Cubs (1908) or those cheaters on the South Side (1917), but long enough.

So, the scene is set. Game 1 is tonight in the Gateway City at the cookie-cutter craphole with plastic grass known as Busch Stadium.

Lineups will be forthcoming, but let’s look at the potential positional matchups for the series.

FIRST BASE
Cecil Cooper vs. Keith Hernandez

Hernandez is one of the finer first basemen in either league. He hit .299, walked 100 times and drove in 94 runs. He’s won four straight Gold Gloves. He’ll probably win a fifth this season. Crew fans know Coop, a hero for driving in the two runs to win Game 5 of the ALCS. Cooper is more of a run producer than Hernandez, driving in more than 100 (121) for the third time in four seasons and has won two consecutive Silver Slugger awards. His .313 average and 32 dingers aren’t half bad either. He’s not the defensive wizard Hernandez is, however.

Advantage: Push.

SECOND BASE
Jim Gantner vs. Tommy Herr

Herr, the Cardinals’ leadoff hitter, hit .266 and struck out (56) almost as often as he walked (57). He isn’t much of a table setter, but Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog has stuck with him at the top of the order most of the season. Gantner is all guts and guile. It is interesting, though, Gantner, who bats ninth in the Brewers’ order, hit .295 and had one more hits (132) than Herr this season. Gumby doesn’t walk much, but then again, what Brewer does? Both can hold their own on defense.

Advantage: Gantner

SHORTSTOP
Robin Yount vs. Ozzie Smith

Smith is the best defensive shortstop of his generation and gathers Gold Gloves like he does routine grounders. In his first season as a Card, he vacuumed the Busch Stadium carpet like a Hoover, committing only 13 errors. Yet, he can’t hit a lick (.248) and has power to no fields. And then there’s Yount. He isn’t the fielder Smith is, but then Smith couldn’t lift Robin’s bat. We’re talking about the American League MVP here, people. His season was historic. The Kid is The Man.

Advantage: Yount

THIRD BASE
Paul Molitor vs Ken Oberkfell

Oberkfell hit .289 from the eighth spot in the lineup. He doesn’t walk much, he doesn’t steal much, he doesn’t hit for power. Molly is “The Ignitor,” led the American League with 136 runs and is one of the best base runners in all of baseball. Oberkfell made only 11 errors at the hot corner, while Molly made 29, but his bat more than makes up for his deficiency in the field.

Advantage: Molitor

LEFT FIELD
Ben Oglivie vs Lonnie Smith

Smith led the National League in runs, stole 68 bases and hit .307. He is the engine for St. Louis’ small ball attack. Former Brewers and now Mets manager George Bamberger (Bambi!) has this to say about Smith: “You must keep him off base. A walk, a single or an error is as good as a double for him, because he is a prime base-stealer.” Duly noted. Oglivie can mash (34 homers in ’82) and drive ’em home (102), but doesn’t hit for average (.244), didn’t hit well against the Angels and has bruised ribs.

Advantage: Smith

CENTER FIELD
Gorman Thomas vs. Willie McGee

This position (and left field as well) show the yin and the yang of this World Series matchup: Harvey’s Wallbangers vs. Whitey’s Speed Demons. We all love Stormin’ Gorman, his disheveled look and his complete lack of regard for his body, which he throws around the outfield with abandon. Which is why he’s hobbled by a bum knee heading into the series. He hits homers (his 39 tied for the AL lead this season), he drives in runs (112) and strikes out a lot (143). McGee, a switch-hitting rookie, walks faster than Thomas runs and when McGee runs, watch out. He’s lightning on the paths and stole 24 bases in 36 attempts. What’s scary is he’s still learning the game.

Advantage: McGee

RIGHT FIELD
Charlie Moore vs. George Hendrick

Both men have powerful arms. You can ask Reggie Jackson’s about Moore’s. Hendrick can hit. Moore barely can.

Advantage: Hendrick

CATCHER
Ted Simmons vs. Darrell Porter

Simmons broke in with the Cards, who traded him — along with Pete Vuckovich and Rollie Fingers — to the Brewers before the ’81 season. You can imagine how much he wants to win this series. He can hit with power from either side of the plate, but may be the slowest human being ever. Porter is a former Brewer who handles pitchers well and can get hot, but normally he won’t set the World (Series) on fire.

Advantage: Simmons

PITCHING

Neither team has a dominant strikeout artist like a Nolan Ryan or a mesmerizer such as Steve Carlton, but they both have adequate rotations. Joaquin Andujar and Bob Forsch each won 15, the most on the Cards. Andujar was the better of the two with a 2.47 ERA and a 1.08 WHIP. Vuckovich led the Crew with 18 wins and Caldwell won 17. Caldwell was a horse with 12 complete games. Don Sutton was a great late addition to the rotation and should help the Crew. The bullpens are adequate, but the Cards have the advantage with Bruce Sutter over Pete Ladd, despite Ladd’s ALCS heroics. There are rumors that Rollie Fingers may — may — be available for the World Series.

Advantage: If Fingers can pitch, Crew; if not, push

OFFENSE

Speed vs. power. Running from station to station or jogging around the bases after a three-run homer. These are as different as two offenses get. The Cards hit 67 home runs all season. Robin Yount and Cecil Cooper combined to hit 61. The thing about the Crew is they have power (216 homers) and speed at the top of the lineup (Molly had 41 steals). They can pretty much beat you every which way.

Advantage: Brewers

DEFENSE

The Brewers aren’t exactly ham-handed in the field, but they’re not the Cardinals. Few teams are. Granted, it’s easier to pick clean a grounder off of turf, but then again, balls get through more quickly on the plastic grass. The Cardinals’ range is far better than the Brewers. Ozzie Smith and Keith Hernandez anchor a stellar defensive infield and the outfielders have great speed.

Advantage: Cardinals

MANAGERS
Harvey Kuenn vs. Whitey Herzog

Again, depends on which style you prefer. Herzog pushes buttons. Kuenn let’s ’em play. As much as I like, nay, love Harvey, in the World Series, you probably need someone who can make a shrewd move or 10.

Advantage: Herzog

BEER
Miller and Pabst vs. Budweiser

Like we’d pick anything else. Plus, Miller Lite commercials are the best.

Advantage: Milwaukee

CONCLUSION

We’re Brewers fans, of course, and we want the Crew to capture its first series win. But will they? We say yes. With comparable pitching and a quick-to-score, and downright frightening offense, Harvey’s Wallbangers will bring Milwaukee its first world championship since 1957 in six games.