Robin Yount

The St. Louis Massacre

Cardinals 13, Brewers 1
World Series now tied 3-3
Box Score | Season Schedule

ST. LOUIS — There was rain. There was mud. The only thing missing from this one-sided battle was blood.

After two stoppages totaling two hours and 39 minutes in rain delays, the St. Louis Cardinals finally put the Brewers out of their Game 6 misery by winning 13-1. It was torture to watch.

Here’s hoping the Brewers pull out Game 7 to win the World Series. Then, and only then, will I be able to forget this debacle.

If the Brewers win Game 7, Tuesday’s game will be something we smile and laugh about. It’ll even be a game pushed entirely out of our memories. “Remember Game 6 when the Brewers embarrassed themselves and their fans with an all-around pathetic display in the midst of more than two hours of rain delays?” Nope. Don’t remember it. I just remember running naked around the neighborhood after the big Game 7 win.

It shouldn’t have been this way. The Brewers were coming off of two emotional victories that gave them a 3-2 series lead. They had a day off to rest their weary. They had Don Sutton on the mound, the man who so many times during the past month and change has saved their season.

For the first time since his acquisition, Don Sutton was awful. In a game that the Brewers desperately needed a complete or nearly complete effort, Sutton went only 4 1/3 innings before turning it over to the bullpen. By the time he handed the ball to Harvey, his team had a seven-run deficit.

“I have no excuse,” said Sutton. “I was sitting in the clubhouse icing my arm trying to think of one but there are none.”

We don’t care about excuses, Don. We just want wins.

Meanwhile, rookie John Stuper pitched a complete game, allowing only four hits. The only run scored on a wild pitch in the ninth inning. The performance was all the more impressive given that it covered nearly five hours, including the rain delays.

Jim Slaton and Dwight Bernard were solid in relief for the Brewers, as they and the rest of the bullpen have been all postseason. But Doc Medich, who is more accustomed to the work of an ineffective starter, gave up the remaining six runs in two innings of work.

In Game 5, Mike Caldwell and the Brewers held the Cardinals to four runs even though they mashed out 15 hits. St. Louis was much more efficient in Game 6, scoring 13 on 12 hits. Of course, four Brewers errors tended to help. Robin Yount and Jim Gantner each committed two, and Gantner tied a World Series record (also held by Honus Wagner) with at least one error in four straight games.

Those four Brewers errors led to four unearned runs. The Brewers defense has committed at least one error in all but the first game of this World Series, flubbing 11 over the remaining five games. Going back to Game 4 of the ALCS, the Brewers have committed 17 errors in eight games.

You want to prevent the opposition from scoring 13 runs, and the pitching and defense were not up to that challenge. But when your offense is set down in order five times and reaches on only four hits, you’re not going to win many games. Actually, you shouldn’t win any games.

The cowardly retort would be to blame the rain. Don’t blame the rain. The Brewers were already down 7-0, the game well out of reach, when the tarp first touched the infield. No, this was a full team effort. A colossal failure in every respect.

Paul Molitor (1-for-4) and Robin Yount (0-for-4 and two errors) didn’t contribute much in this game. But it’s tough to blame two players who are batting .326 and .366 respectively in the playoffs. And Charlie Moore is hitting a surprising .389 while Jim Gantner hits a respectable .270 (though his defense certainly isn’t helping).

It’s everyone else in between. It’s amazing we’re still in the position to win a World Series title when Cecil Cooper is hitting .222, Ted Simmons is hitting .189, Ben Oglivie is hitting .184 and Gorman Thomas is “hitting” .108. Essentially, the Crew’s only chance of scoring starts at the bottom of the order. Not how they drew it up.

And Harvey. Please, Harvey. Don’t play Roy Howell in Game 7. The bearded wonder has yet to collect a postseason hit.

“Everybody always wants to see the World Series go 7 games,” claims manager Harvey Kuenn. “So now everybody should be happy.” I don’t know who these people are who want a Game 7, Harvey, but they aren’t Brewers fans.

We’ll have Vuke on the mound for that seventh game, and I don’t know if that’s a blessing or a curse. He’s the possible AL Cy Young winner for the regular season, but Pete Vuckovich hasn’t won a big game since Sept. 20 in Boston.

Maybe he’s due? Oh, is he ever.

I tend to overreact. What are your feelings about this loss and the prospects for another final game win?

’82 World Series: Game 6 Preview

October 19 Leave a Comment

[UPDATE as of 4:30 p.m. CT: It appears as if some heavy weather could move through the St. Louis area. Temps are dropping rapidly and they’ve issued a tornado watch. It could wreak havoc with Game 6. Follow our tweets at @tweetsfrom1982 for the latest news.]

ST. LOUIS — With the chance to grab history, what will the Milwaukee Brewers do in Game 6? Will Don Sutton and the Crew ride off into the dim sunset of late autumn as champions of the baseball world; or will they be drowning their sorrows in a St. Louis hotel bar wondering why they’re playing a Game 7?

Yount’s been on fire and could help capture the Crew’s first Series title.

If it’s the latter, you know why: they’re our Milwaukee Brewers, a group of men for whom nothing comes easy. Baltimore. California. They must be hanging by a thread before they spring into action. They don’t steam roll, they rock-and-roll.

But the Crew would be wise to step to the plate and act like Game 6 is Game 7. Not that they couldn’t win an ultimate contest (and probably do it in the ninth with Rollie Fingers miraculously appearing from the bullpen to shut down any Cardinal rally), but why give the Cards life? Why give them hope?

There’s no reason to and there’s no reason to believe Sutton will provide that hope. After the Game 2 debacle where he gave up four runs all with two outs, Sutton should be in lockdown mode for Game 6. As for the offense, an encouraging sign has been its relative awakening. Save for Gorman Thomas, who’s trying to get it done on one wheel, the rest of the Crew has been smacking the pellet around the park. None more so than the Crew’s MVP candidate Robin Yount, who with four hits in four trips to the plate in Game 5 became the first man to have two four-hit games in the same World Series.

“It’s nice to set a record, whatever it is,” Yount said to reporters in a postgame press conference. “But again, I’m not out to set records. I’d be happy to come out with a world championship with no record being set. I’m only interested in winning the World Series. That’s the only goal I ever set and the only one I’m striving for.”

Yount earned the “M-V-P” chants that rang throughout the Stadium in Game 5 even if he was uncomfortable with them. He couldn’t have been as uncomfortable as Cards pitchers, however, as the Crew continued to deliver timely hitting in Game 4 and 5.

The Crew will again look to knock around John Stuper early in Game 6 as they did in Game 5. After two weekend mid-afternoon games, the Series goes back to a 7:20 p.m. CT start.

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

Brewers Win, Lead 3-2

October 17 1 Comment

Brewers 6, Cardinals 4
Brewers now lead World Series 3-2
Box Score | Season Schedule

Mike Caldwell was good enough to win Game 5.

MILWAUKEE — After winning Game 5 of a best of seven World Series to take a 3-2 lead, Brewers fans are getting confident. They may even be getting a bit cocky.

Following Robin Yount‘s solo home run to give the Brewers a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the seventh, fans responded by chanting MVP! MVP! MVP!

When Ozzie Smith stepped to the plate in a fruitless at bat with two outs in the top of the eighth, fans screamed Ozzie who? Ozzie who?

When All-Star closer Bruce Sutter stepped on the field moments later in an effort to keep the Cardinals close, fans repeated their chant for Sutter’s benefit: Sutter who? Sutter who?

The Brewers then took a 6-2 lead on a RBI singles by Charlie Moore and Jim Gantner. Even as the Cardinals mounted a rally in the top of the ninth, Brewers faithful started loading the bottom of the stands in preparation for a victorious eruption.

As soon as Gene Tenace‘s fly ball landed in Ben Oglivie‘s glove for the final out of the game to complete the final Brewers home game of the World Series, fans rushed the field to celebrate. Knowing that they wouldn’t have a chance to swarm the field in St. Louis when the Brewers eventually win the World Series, they stormed the County Stadium turf. They took chunks of grass as souvenirs along the way.

Moments after the victory, fans then stormed the streets of downtown Milwaukee, breaking beer bottles and branches along Wisconsin Avenue. As many as a dozen fistfights broke out, most related to intoxication.

“I’m sick of this stuff,” said an unnamed officer. “Do you know how much it costs tax payers to clean up this mess night after night?”

No, we don’t, sir. But I don’t think we care.

Lost in the mayhem, Robin Yount collected four hits for the second time of this World Series, setting yet another record in his likely MVP season. He’s on pace to wrap up the year with even more hardware: A World Series MVP.

“I wasn’t aware of it,” Yount said about the record. “I guess I feel the same about it as getting the four hits. It’s not a big deal. I don’t care about World Series records. Winning the World Series is what’s on my mind right now.”

Damn right, Brewers fans. Damn right.

After a day off tomorrow, the series will pick back up on October 19. The Brewers will then try to make the celebration in Milwaukee official.

Brewers Lose, Down 2-1

October 15 1 Comment

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?

Missing Fingers

October 14 Leave a Comment

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

Brewers Blow Lead, Game 2

October 13 2 Comments

Cardinals 5, Brewers 4
World Series now tied 1-1
Box Score | Season Schedule

Don Sutton allowed four runs with two outs.

ST. LOUIS — Up one game to none on the Cardinals, the Brewers had a chance to stomp on their opponents’ throats with a win before going back to Milwaukee for two, maybe three games. Instead, they blew such an opportunity by blowing a three-run lead and falling to the Cardinals 5-4 tonight.

With the series tied at 1-1, now it will be three games in Milwaukee.

Early on, it appeared the Brewers would continue the dominance that led to a 10-0 opening win on Tuesday by whooping on starter John Stuper. Charlie Moore hit an RBI double in the second inning, and two more runs were scored in the third on a Robin Yount groundout and Ted Simmons‘ second homer of the series.

All was going the Brewers’ way. After two and a half innings, Milwaukee had scored three runs, and the Cardinals had yet to touch home plate in the series. Don Sutton had yet to allow a baserunner. But then, with two down in the third, Tommy Herr smacked an RBI double and Ken Oberkfell laced a single to right just out of reach of a diving Jim Gantner to make it a 3-2 game.

There are moments in a series that immediately strike you as pivotal. This was one of those such moments. If Sutton gets that third out, the Brewers hold a 3-0 lead and maintain their stranglehold of the series. Instead, the Cardinals score their first runs and gain confidence.

The Brewers would score one more run on a Cecil Cooper single in the fifth to make it a 4-2 Brewers lead. But the Cardinals kept battling.

Again with two down, former Brewer Darrell Porter hit a two-run double down the left field line that tied the game in the sixth. Why was the third out so difficult to secure? It cost the Brewers this game.

By all accounts, Pete Ladd was the Brewers’ MVP of the ALCS, and they needed him in a key spot of a tie game in the eighth. With one down, Bob McClure had put two Cardinals runners on. To this point, Ladd had retired all 10 batters he had faced in the playoffs.

The World Series may be a different story. Ladd delivered a letters-high fastball on a 3-2 count to NL MVP candidate Lonnie Smith, the first batter he faced, that was called a ball to load the bases.

“Did you see the big smile on my face heading down to first?” a knowing Smith asked after the game.

Ladd then walked the second batter, journeyman Steve Braun, on four pitches to bring in the go-ahead and eventual winning run.

“It rattled me,” Ladd admitted. “It shouldn’t have. This is not the time to get rattled. But it did rattle me. I was upset, not at myself but at the umpire.”

Inexplicable. But understandable, considering Ladd is an untested young pitcher. Rollie Fingers would have been perfect in this position.

Oh, yeah. So wasn’t Rollie available?

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

It’s starting to sound like a bluff, Harvey. This is when the Brewers needed their best pitcher on the mound. And Rollie’s comments didn’t help verify Harvey’s claim.

“I couldn’t have pitched today,” said Fingers. “I’m a little stiff from not pitching for a month, not from the injury. It’s like the fifth or sixth day of Spring Training.”

I came into this hoping the Brewers would win one of two in St. Louis. After yesterday’s win, I wanted two but didn’t need it. I was fine with a loss here.

But not like this. The Brewers had this game. The Cardinals scored four with two outs and the final was a gift. The Cardinals didn’t win Game 2, the Brewers lost it. And that’s not how you win a World Series.

“Of course we would have liked to have won two,” said Kuenn, “but I’m not worried.”

Apparently not. Or you would have used Fingers.

On the bright side, Cecil Cooper had three hits to break out of his playoff funk. Gorman Thomas, however, went hitless to drop his playoff batting average below .100.

At some point, we may need to accept that Gorman simply isn’t himself on one leg. If Thomas isn’t going to hit, you don’t lose anything by putting Marshall Edwards out there. Or you can roll the dice by putting Moore or Oglivie in center and Mark Brouhard in one of the corners. I love Gorman, but he’s half of a player right now.

What do you think? Should the Brewers bench Gorman Thomas? And how big was this loss?