Padres and Brewers Split Series

Though arriving sooner than anticipated, the series between Andy's San Diego Padres and my Milwaukee Brewers went down Thursday night in dramatic, unpredictable fashion. The dice shone on both teams equally, in unprecedented ways.

Game 1:

Padres 6, Brewers 2

W: Miles Mikolas

L: Erick Fedde

Sometimes, something that looks like a duck, walks like a duck and says quack turns out to be a vulture after all. I don't think that's a proper cliche, I made it up. But if for some reason you like it, it can be yours.

Andy even admitted, putting Miles Mikolas out there, that he was doing it for the innings, and that whatever went on in this game wouldn't be pretty. Ultimately, it was not the unfortunate Mikolas card I cut pre-draft that fared the worst, but the much better Erick Fedde card I drafted. In the first two innings, Fedde gave up 6 runs, including three home runs, to Randal Grichuk, Manny Machado [a 3-run shot] and Matt Vierling, who would soon become my enemy this series. Not only did I narrowly miss the rolls to even up, but my usually-strong defense gave me three errors. One of them came from Heliot Ramos because I rolled the 17, the one error spot I could roll. Mikolas cruised, only allowing 2 earned runs, both from solo homers courtesy of Carlos Santana. In my team's defense, no runs were scored after inning 2 thanks to Fedde locking in. Frustrating, but not a complete disaster for me.

Game 2:

Padres 7, Brewers 3

W: Chris Martin

L: Jameson Taillon.

THIS GAME, however, was pretty disastrous for me. The Padres' homering continued in this game, as James McCann, Manny Machado again and, TWICE MORE, Matt Vierling went yard. Most of the Brewers' efforts were smaller, including a pair of solo shots from my 1 and 2 batters, Jackson Chourio and Isaac Paredes, and some pretty handy hitting from Nick Fortes, batting a run home himself. But here is where the luck really wasn't going in my direction. My starting shortstop, J.P. Crawford, missed the first game of the series with an injury. His first at-bat, I roll a 'K-plus injury', and now he has to miss the next 8 games. My only viable option at SS is Luis Guillorme, who had yet to actually get a hit this season with me. Nobody else was more than a 4eSeveral defensively. So, you get to start, big guy. He did have his first hit in this game, and I think I can get through the next series and a half without completely cooking his at-bats, but MAN did that frustrate me. Andy has nothing to be too upset about with this game, as he got 4 runs off Taillon and 3 off Finnegan, and I didn't get the rolls to really keep up with him. 

Game 3:

Brewers 2, Padres 0

W: Ben Lively

L: Max Fried

SV: Michael Kopech

The score doesn't show it but I was a little frustrated with how things went for my Brewers in this one. Against Fried, I packed the lineup full of lefty-killers, and while Heliot Ramos knocked a 2-run homer off of him the first chance he got, those were the only runs I scored. Michael Conforto, Carlos Santana and Kevin Pillar, who rake against lefties, had no luck other than a Pillar double. The rolls just didn't happen for me otherwise. The MVP of this game, with apologies to Ramos, was Ben Lively, who went 7 strong innings without allowing a run, only managing 2 hits in fact. And let it be known that Michael Kopech, after a truly rotten start to the season, seems to finally be turning things around, closing out the ninth with no real obstacles. A very close and precarious victory for the Brewers. Also, two last important notes: 1. Matt Vierling was hit by a pitch, and will miss several games, after hitting 3 home runs against me. Lively swears it's unrelated. And 2, in the seventh inning, Nasim Nunez tried to score from second and Jackson Chourio's throwing arm rendered that useless. This will become important later.

Game 4:

Brewers 11, Padres 5

W: Bailey Falter

L: Luis Severino

It's important to note that before Game 3, I went and got a sharpie and scrawled on my water bottle 'Michael's Special Stuff'. This is a reference to the Academy Award winning classic 'Space Jam', where, as the Tune Squad is down at the half, Bugs Bunny gives Michael Jordan a placebo-ized bottle of water to farm a 'the magic was in you all along' moral or some shit. 

Somehow....this worked.

Game 4 was a monumental display of power hitting from my lineup, which had kept forgetting to show up in prior games this series. While, yes, the Padres were the first to get on the board, with some well-done contact hitting from Paul Goldschmidt and great baserunning from Nico Hoerner, in addition to one of two J.D. Martinez home runs tonight [and he even notched a TRIPLE], the Brewers ultimately did the bulk of the damage. Against Luis Severino, the Brew Crew scored 6 runs, including three home runs. Two of those home runs came from the same guy, Josh Rojas, who'd yet to show up for me in a backup role and proves he can be responsible for some crucial hits. The third came from Xander Bogaerts, snapping a truly torrid cold streak. The wild thing about Severino's run is that, through two and a third, the guys who weren't getting on base were getting sent back to the dugout on Ks. SEVEN STRAIGHT STRIKEOUTS for Severino's first seven outs. Yes, they were surrounded by lots of hits and runs, but it was impressive as hell. 

While the Padres bit back in the 6th, thanks to two straight homers to round out Bailey Falter's otherwise alright day [one was by Manny Machado, who hit 3 off of me and somehow made it out of Milwaukee unscathed], the bottom of the sixth was where the game was broken open. Joe Ross singled his first two batters on and walked the third, then Jeimer Candelario, with the bases loaded, sent them all home with one blast. Three batters later Josh Rojas struck again with an RBI single. The rolls were finally coming my way, and pouring down. In the seventh, Jackson Chourio's 2nd homer of the series made it an 8 run lead. Andy, to his credit, tried to rally, and J.D. Martinez's 8th inning triple made it one run closer, but on two occasions in this game he once again tried running on my outfielders. Each time, the throw from either Chourio or Blake Perkins made it home before the runners did. Three times overall. It's amazing to see how well my defense works when I'm not rolling into errors every other play. 

The cherry on top? Luis Guillorme, shortstop due to lack of options, went 2 for 3 with a triple, an RBI, a run, a stolen base and a walk. We might just make it after all. Though, in the offside chance that we don't, I'll be hearing offers for guys with shortstop innings. 

This split was one that both teams fought mercilessly for, and it was an outcome that proved the strengths of both squads and both managers. It wasn't the series I was thinking I'd be getting when I woke up this morning, but I can't exactly complain about the outcome, including Game 4.

Luis Guillorme steps up when needed for the Brewers after JP Crawford goes down.