Highlights-Lowlights- Brewers-Cardinals

This is SnoTap's version of recap of the two, three or four game series Milwaukee Brewers will play this season. We focus on the positives and negatives with topics about the game and topics that were nowhere near close to part of the game. 

Highlights
A SERIES WIN AGAINST ST. LOUIS!!! - Cannot stress enough how big this was for the Brewers to take a road series from St. Louis. If the Cardinals were to sweep the Crew or win one game from them, the narrative in the coming months was 'Well Brewers are a good team, but they cannot beat St. Louis.' Now, they are sort of reborn. Brewers have been better at Busch Stadium than you think being the best NL Central team there. This will be a fun rivalry for the rest of the season, and it is more even than we thought before this week started.

Tyler Thornburg - Once again, Thorny played a big role in Milwaukee winning two of the three games this week. He pitched a third of an inning on Monday night where he walked one batter and struck out another then came up massive on Tuesday night.  Thornburg pitched a perfect ninth and 10th inning with four strikeouts bridging the gap and earning the victory as the Brewers scored a run in the eleventh. What more can be said about Thornburg? He looks like an All-Star set-up man right now, and a part of me believes he could be a old school closer in the future.

Khris Davis (Only in Extra Innings) - Let's be honest here, Davis did not have the greatest series. He struck out four times on Monday night only to get the go-ahead triple in the 12th inning. Davis scuffled his feet again on Tuesday night, but then in extras, he doubled to lead off the 11th which he scored on the Lyle Overbay single. This is the third time in April where Davis had a big hit in extras. It almost seems like he focuses more in the extra innings because he knows the importance of his at-bat. If somehow the Brewers staff can figure a way to have Davis play like that all the time, they will be great.

Zach Duke - Where the hell did this come from? We see this in the big leagues from time to time where a journeyman comes out of nowhere and becomes a dominant reliever. People thought Duke would be the second coming Michael Gonzalez, but he has been nothing but. Duke saved Milwaukee on Monday night with two strong innings bridging the gap paving the way for his second victory of the season. He added a couple more strikeouts in their defeat on Wednesday afternoon. Who knows when this dream ends, but I enjoyed it right now.

Carlos Gomez - When all of the other heavy artillery weapons were down, Gomez still had a big series with two more home runs pushing his average up to .293. The homer on Tuesday put the Brewers ahead in the seventh inning coming up big for the team. That's the scary thing about Gomez. He seems to live for the moment, and when he gets an opportunity to be the star of the team, he lives for it.

Yovani handled Busch - He may not have got the decision, but Yovani handled Busch Stadium pretty well for the first time since the crazy rain delay game in 2012. He did give up a couple home runs, and it's okay to be worried about his lack of strikeouts yet at the same time, he weathered the storm. The last couple years would have seen Yovani blow up at something like that instead he persevered.

Lowlights
Wei-Chung Wang - He was sent in as the sacrifical lamb on Wednesday as the Brewers took Garza out of the game as a precaution. Wang struggled allowing four runs with his ERA at 15.00 which is shockingly down from 18.00, the last time he appeared against Pittsburgh.  But he gave up four runs on six hits which isn't good. We will have a discussion later today about the decision for Milwaukee to keep Wang.

Matt Garza's thumb - He sounded frustrated after he left the game with a bruised right thumb in four innings of work. Garza said it will be a one time thing, and he will be pitching Monday. I am not ready to push the panic button on Garza yet, but we are getting a little closer. He is the only key cogs to get off to a slow start. I think it is nothing to worry about, but we can have another discussion in May if it continues with Garza.

Elian Herrera's throw from right - This was one of the biggest DERP plays of the season for the Brewers. This would be common practice for 2013.



Aramis Ramirez's elbow - He is apparently in the lineup tonight which is good, but hopefully, Ramirez isn't affected by it too much. I couldn't understand FSN Wisconsin's Bill Schroder saying 'Hey, whatever it takes to score the run' when Ramirez is in obvious pain.

Charlie.