White Sox

Brewers Complete 5-Game Sweep of White Sox

July 18

Brewers 9, White Sox 3
Brewers now 53-35 (1st)
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Jim Gantner managed 11 hits in the five-game series.

MILWAUKEE — Today was Helmet Day at Milwaukee County Stadium, and the White Sox could have used those spare helmets to protect their heads from flying baseballs.

The White Sox took an early 2-0 lead in the second inning, but it could have been worse. Through those two innings, they had left three runners on base. Two runs is not enough to hold back the high-scoring Brewers.

“Sure it runs across your mind that today may not be your day,” Ben Oglivie told the Milwaukee Sentinel, “but we were only down two runs. The score doesn’t matter to this team. It doesn’t mean anything.”

In the bottom of the second, the Crew pounced on rookie Rich Barnes, who was making his major league debut. Just not fair, really. The first five batters he faced that inning reached base, and with two down in the inning the Brewers held a 6-2 lead. Barnes’ day was already over, and the White Sox had a big hole to climb out of.

While the Brewers hit .336 with 12 homers, 26 doubles and two triples on the home stand, the story of this five-game sweep was the bottom of the order. Don Money, Charlie Moore and Jim Gantner combined to go 8-for-12 with four RBI and three runs scored today, and of the Brewers’ 56 hits in the series 26 came from the bottom of the order.

Jim Gantner is a big part of that. The White Sox killer went 11-for-15 in the series and has gone 21-for-38 against Chicago this season.

“I betcha Jim Gantner couldn’t tell ya how to get Gantner out,” White Sox starting pitcher Britt Burns moaned.

A three-game sweep isn’t an easy thing to do. A four-game sweep is almost unheard of. And a five-game sweep? Thanks to a make-up game of a contest previously rained out in Chicago, the Brewers pulled off that unthinkable task.

“It’s just one of those streaks,” Gantner said of the eight straight games and overall success against the White Sox. “Chicago’s unfortunate enough to play us right now. They had the lead in four of the five games but we just kept coming back.”

The biggest surprise is that the Brewers kept scoring runs without the home run ball. Coming into the series at a pace to challenge the 1961 New York Yankees for the team record of most home runs in a season, the Brewers’ only homer was by Don Money on July 16.

“We finessed them,” manager Harvey Kuenn laughed. “Seriously, we not only hit for power, we can hit for average too.”

They can. And they can pitch. The bullpen now has a 2.15 ERA under Kuenn. The team is 30-11 under his leadership and now has the second best record in all of baseball, one win behind the Atlanta Braves who are 54-35.

The Boston Red Sox, by the way, lost to the Royals 9-0 today and fell 1 1/2 games behind the Brewers for the AL East lead.

Game Notes: Brewers starter Randy Lerch lasted 6 2/3 innings before handing the ball to Dwight Bernard for his fourth save. The White Sox managed only an Aurelio Rodriguez solo home run off of Lerch after the second inning.

Brewers Win Seventh Straight

July 17

Brewers 5, White Sox 2
Brewers now 52-35 (1st)
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Gorman Thomas — Gorman's two-run double gave the Brewers the lead for good.

MILWAUKEE — It was only a matter of time.

Through six innings, White Sox starter Britt Burns had the vaunted Brewers offense figured out. No runs on three hits, including three 1-2-3 innings. After six and one half innings of play, the White Sox led the Brewers 2-0.

Of course, you can’t keep this team down forever. When you have the chance, you’d better create a larger cushion than a measly two runs. That ain’t gonna hold up. It didn’t tonight.

With two down and Don Money standing on second, Jim Gantner and Paul Molitor struck with back-to-back singles (aided by an error on Ron LeFlore) to quickly tie the game at two and knock Burns from the game. Salome Barojas temporarily calmed the flames by getting Robin Yount to ground out to end the seventh, but the fire grew to a roar in the eighth.

Salome faced three batters that frame and couldn’t retire one. Cecil Cooper singled to center, Ted Simmons singled on a shot off of Salome and Gorman Thomas doubled to left to bring home both of them after a Salome balk moved both runners up a base. Kevin Hickey then took his turn on the mound, but the Brewers would add one more with a Charlie Moore sacrifice fly.

This is the problem if you’re the Chicago White Sox, Boston Red Sox or anyone else in the American League. Even when you slow down this record-setting offense, a sub-par game may be good enough to beat you. And the pitching always seems to step up when they need it most.

Today, Bob McClure did just enough, allowing two runs on five hits and two walks through 6 1/3 innings. Newcomer Pete Ladd made his Brewers debut by pitching 1 2/3 innings of scoreless, hitless baseball, and Rollie Fingers finished it off in typical Rollie Fingers-fashion — with a perfect ninth.

No, the Brewers didn’t hit four home runs today. They didn’t hit any. They “only” scored five runs. But they aren’t a one-dimensional team. They will always, it seems, find a way to win.

This was their seventh straight win and the fourth in a row against the White Sox. The Brewers go for the rare five-game sweep tomorrow. The Red Sox kept pace by beating the Royals 8-4 and remain a half game out.

Simmons Leads Brewers to Win

July 16

Brewers 5, White Sox 3
Brewers now 51-35 (1st)
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MILWAUKEE — Down 3-2 in the eighth inning with one out and the bases loaded, Ted Simmons strolled to the plate. Until recently, this was a sight Brewers fans dreaded. Simmons was the human rally killer, known most for grounding into poorly timed double plays.

Today, Simmons lined a double that was just fair down the left field line, scoring two to give the Brewers a 4-3 lead. This is the Ted Simmons that should be feared by the opposition.

It wasn’t long ago that Ted Simmons was an over-the-hill catcher on his way off of the Brewers’ team. He was one of three catchers on the roster, didn’t see eye-to-eye with former manager Buck Rodgers, and grossly underperformed when compared to his reputation as an offensive-minded catcher.

Truth is, since coming to the Brewers prior to the 1981 season, Simmons had only been “offensive” in the least flattering way. He hit a meager .216 last season and was hitting .218 on June 12 when he decided to stop talking to the press.

“He talks to me every day,” Harvey Kuenn joked. “I don’t think it makes any difference whatsoever. Maybe he’s just superstitious.”

Since making his silence pact, Simmons’ bat has done the talking for him. Since May 19, he’s hit .305 with 12 homers and 34 RBI. During his past 17 games, Simmons is hitting .380 with six homers and 20 RBI.

Whether it is the source of his success or not, keeping silent isn’t the only change he’s made. He also has taken a new approach at the plate, taking a pronounced crouch that Cecil Cooper can appreciate.

“It looks to me that since he’s started crouching he gets a better look at the strike zone,” Cooper told the Milwaukee Sentinel. “Before he would chase the high fastball or chase the bad breaking ball down low. Now, he’s not doing that.”

Whatever Simmons is doing, keep doing it. Keep crouching. Keep silent. Keep knocking in runs.

Today’s win marked six straight for the Brewers, who maintained a half game lead over the Red Sox in the AL East. Boston beat the Royals 7-3.

Game Notes: Pete Ladd arrived from the minors to replace the injured Jamie Easterly. The 26-year-old reliever is known most for his freakish size. Nicknamed “Big Foot,” the imposing Ladd is 6’3″ and 238 pounds, wears a 7 7/8 sized hat and a size 15 shoe. Ladd was 10-2 with a 2.89 ERA and eight saves in the minors, allowing 43 hits and striking out 63 in 56 innings of relief.

Brewers Take Two from White Sox

July 15

Brewers 8, White Sox 4 (Game 1)
Box Score
Brewers 5, White Sox 4 (Game 2)
Box Score
Brewers now 50-35 (1st)
Season Schedule

Pete Vuckovich injured his hand and will miss at least one start.

MILWAUKEE — I have good news and bad news. What would you like first? Good news? Really? Okay. I typically recommend bad news first. But we’ll start with the good.

The Brewers played a double header to kick off the second half the season today, choosing to play the July 6th rainout that was in Chicago in Milwaukee since the two teams won’t see each other there again. We saw the same Brewers who were streaking into the break. No momentum lost.

The Crew took the first game 8-4 on the back of a three-run fourth and a four-run eighth. Everyone but Ben Oglivie got a hit, and Jim Slaton was masterful in 7 1/3 innings of relief.

The Brewers overcame a 3-0 second inning deficit to beat the White Sox 5-4 in the second game. Cecil Cooper won the game with a two-out RBI single in the eighth that plated Paul Molitor.

More good news? Sure. Jim Gantner returned from injury to go 3-for-4 in the opener.

“I was able to take batting practice throughout the injury and was able to keep my swing in check,” Gantner told the Milwaukee Sentinel. “I was just trying to make good contact. I knew I’d be anxious and didn’t want to get into a bad groove by trying to jerk the ball. So I just hit it through the box.”

All good stuff. But wait. Why did Jim Slaton pitch 7 1/3 innings of relief in a game in which the Brewers allowed only four runs? That, my friends, is the bad news.

With one down in Chicago’s half of the second, Mike Squires hit a comebacker to Brewers’ starter Pete Vuckovich. Reacting on instincts, Vuckovich attempted to barehand the ball. It ricocheted off of his throwing hand to Molitor at third, who made a dazzling play to throw Squires out at first.

But all was not well. Vuke sustained a gash between the ring and pinky finger of his throwing hand that required four stitches. He is expected to miss at least one start.

“I just go for every ball any way I can get them,” Vuke explained afterwards. “I don’t know how long I’ll be out. That depends on what the doctors say.”

The Red Sox beat the Royals 5-3, so the Brewers were able to inch a half game ahead in the standings for the AL East lead.

Brewers – White Sox Rained Out

July 6

CHICAGO — The finale of a two-game series with the White Sox has been called in the fourth inning due to rain. Oh, they certainly tried to get this game in.

The first delay was in the first with Cecil Cooper at the plate, and it lasted 68 minutes. There was one delay in each of the four innings. The “game” lasted four hours and 20 minutes, though three hours and one minute of that was due to delays.

The Three Stooges were the main attraction at Comiskey Park.

The White Sox did all they could to keep their fans entertained. But after the second delay, they had run out of highlight and blooper films. For the third delay, they showed clips of their minor league teams. For the fourth, they resorted to showing Three Stooges reruns.

They really had no business even trying to play this game. The outfield was completely underwater, and Brewers bullpen coach Larry Haney said that the water was over his shoe tops when walking in from the bullpen.

The problem, though, was that the Brewers won’t be playing the White Sox again this season in Chicago. A date has not been rescheduled, but it’s possible that if the game has playoff implications it will be played after the regular season ends.

The Brewers may not have appreciated the long night, but they were trailing 2-1 when it was called. Better yet, the Royals beat the Red Sox tonight, so the Brewers “pulled into” a tie for the AL East lead.

As such, there was no grumbling in the Brewers clubhouse after the game. Even manager Harvey Kuenn, who has an 8:27 AM tee time at the Greater Milwaukee Open Pro-Am, took it in stride. “I’ll just sleep before… and after.”

The Brewers take on the Twins tomorrow in Milwaukee.

Brewers Benefit from Seven Chicago Errors

July 5

Brewers 10, White Sox 4
Brewers now 45-33 (2nd)
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It was Jim Slaton, not LaMarr Hoyt, who looked like the early Cy Young candidate.

CHICAGO — You know those games when everything possible seems to go wrong? Have no fear, Brewers fans, this wasn’t one of those games for your team on a nationally televised scale. But it was for the White Sox.

Chicago had early Cy Young candidate LaMarr Hoyt on the mound. Coming in with a 10-6 record and 2.34 ERA, there was certainly an expectation that the Brewers would have a challenge scoring runs.

But these are Harvey’s Wallbangers. What Hoyt faced today was a level of competition he hadn’t seen all season. Formerly a reliever, he made his first start of the season against the Brewers on April 27 and allowed one earned run over eight innings for an 11-2 White Sox win. From that point forward, he had lasted eight innings or more in 10 of 13 starts. Only once had he not lasted at least 6 2/3 innings.

Today? Well, today was different. Hoyt would face 11 batters and retire only four of them, though one would be via the sacrifice. By the time he left in the second, he was shellshocked. The Brewers were already up 5-0.

Though the White Sox would come back and make it a 6-4 game, their defense would put this game out of reach. Or I should say, their lack of defense.

Seven errors. Seven. Have you ever seen a big league game where players committed seven errors? I haven’t. I’ve seen Little League games. Maybe some school games. Don’t think I’ve ever seen it on the college level, and certainly not in the big leagues.

Seven errors led to four unearned runs. Shortstop Bill Almon would get the hat trick, flubbing three plays. It got so bad that in the ninth inning Comiskey Park fans were chanting, “We want an error! We want an error!”

“It was an embarrassing loss in front of a national audience,” said White Sox manager Tony Larussa, “or even if there was no audience at all.”

It was embarrassing. For you.

White Sox fans will see this game as one that was lost due to a lack of defense. In reality, there was also some outstanding pitching coming from Milwaukee. While starter Randy Lerch nearly let a big lead get away by giving up four runs on six hits in 2 2/3 innings, Jim Slaton was his usual dominant self in relief. He threw 6 1/3 easy, shutout innings, allowing only three hits.

Slaton’s ERA overall is 3.12, but just as a reliever it’s 1.72 in 47 relief innings. Manager Harvey Kuenn is strongly considering keeping Slaton in the relief role only, even though he’s often used as a spot starter.

Want some bad news? No? Well, I’m going to give it to you anyway. Robin Yount was removed in the fourth after pulling his hamstring while, you guessed it, running out Bill Almon error.

“He said he felt a slight pull after rounding first base and that if we wrapped up he’d be Ok,” Harvey said. “I figured he’d be at 85% and there’s no way Robin goes 85%, it would have been 110% and I was afraid he would pull it more.”

Yount is not expected to play tomorrow.

Game Notes: Of the last 11 games, the Brewers have reached double digits in hits nine times. … Dwight Bernard‘s wife Barbara had a baby girl this morning. Kelly Dawn weighed in at 7 lbs. 14 oz., and both baby and mother are resting comfortably. … Division leading Boston did not play today, so the Brewers are now back to a half game back. … Jim Gantner took infield practice prior to the game without trouble, but Kuenn didn’t think he was ready to return from a shoulder injury.