Highlights-Lowlights: Rockies-Brewers (6/26-6/29)

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 
Ryan Braun - Big weekend for Ryan Braun. I don't want to be like 'BRAUN BACK' and go all crazy because he owned Colorado's pitching which is as easy as finding a drunk underage Milwaukee suburbanite at Summerfest. Braun came through with his first walkoff hit in three years giving Milwaukee the win on Friday night. Braunie also added his eleventh home run in a loss on Sunday. In the last five games, Braun has two hits in four of them as well as driving in seven runs getting his average back to .290.

Kyle Lohse - Good start for Lohse on Friday night and probably deserving of the win, but things happen plus wins are silly. Lohse pitched well for seven innings working out of one jam that allowed a run, but nothing more. In the last two starts prior to this one, Lohse had allowed three runs and this one he only let one through seven innings with four strikeouts only yielding four hits. Good to see Lohse bounce back and hopefully the longish layoff will not affect him.

Lyle Overbay - I have said it before and I will say it again, I made a mistake with Lyle Overbay. He delivered a big sixth inning hit in Saturday's game driving in a vital insurance run which Milwaukee would need as Colorado slowly started to bang down the door. He added another hit in his only appearance for the weekend but came up in a big way. It has been really good to have Overbay on the roster plus I felt very comfortable with him playing defense for Matt Garza on the mound.

Carlos Gomez - He didn't really have a great weekend, but the three-run home run to lead off Saturday's game was ideal. Colorado obviously mad about losing to Milwaukee six straight times with the Brewers getting a walk-off the night before then BAM!  Carlos hits a homer. Also worth nothing since Gomez had his 0 for 6 night on Tuesday, he has one hit in each games putting him at four-game hitting streak meaning he has hits in 22 of his last 23 games.

Jonathan Lucroy - At this point, we are out of things to say about Lucroy, but once again, he came up big with some timely hitting driving in key runs in all three runs. Lucroy tied up the game Thursday night with a single after Wily Peralta gave up a grand slam. He put the Brewers ahead on Friday with the first run of the game in a tight pitcher's duel and added a RBI groundout on Saturday. Lucroy is a national treasure.

Lowlights
Injuries - Cramps, Face injuries, etc - Not a great weekend for the Brewers when it came to injuries. Jean Segura had to leave Saturday with cramping issues putting him out for Sunday's game, but it appears he will be back for Tuesday's game. Carlos Gomez had a collision with Braun leading to a face injury which could be described by the scene in Tommy Boy at the diner. Hopefully, Gomez will be back for the weekend. I don't really expect him for Toronto but with two days off this week, no reason to send him to the Disabled List.

Yovani Gallardo - Yeah not a great start for Yo, but I am not worried about it. There seems to be a vodoo hex over why Yo cannot beat the Rockies, the only National League team he hasn't beat for his career. It started off bad for him, and that's always how Yovani gets beat up is if he struggles early. I am a little worried about his seven-day layoff too.

Francisco Rodriguez - It was an up and down week for Frankie as he did get saves in both Thursday and Saturday's game. But he did blow one on Friday giving up a home run to Josh Rutledge. I am not worried at all about Frankie, but four runs in his last 10 appearances plus two home runs in the last week is never good.

Brewers schedule this week - Man, this sucks. We got two day games during the week which doesn't affect me too much but then we don't get a day game on the Fourth of July which is ludicrous. Further, they only play five games on which is a bummer, but Brewers do get some much-needed time off.

Highlights-Lowlights: Brewers vs. Rockies (6/20-6/22)

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
Jean Segura - This is more for his Friday than anything else he did over the weekend, but Segura came into Coors Field with a bang. He doubled his home run total with two dingers, his first multi-homer game of his career. They were important home runs too as Segura hit the first one after Colorado added two runs to pull the Rockies within one early on. Segura's second home run broke a tie and brought the Brewers back from trailing 6-4. He also added an RBI single in the next at-bat to complete the day. Segura can start building off this piece by piece he could get going again on offense.

Wily Peralta - Most people would look at a start where the pitcher gave up four runs and scoff he didn't really do his job, yet I disagree with how Coors Field been playing this season. Peralta went into the eighth inning with full control of the game. One of the things Brewers coaches have been trying to do more with Wily is him pitching to contact versus trying to get the strikeout every time out. He only had two strikeouts and really settled in after a tough first inning. Wily isn't yet an ace, but games like these where he needs to have a different approach shows ace-like abilities.

Aramis Ramirez - RED HOT. HOT HOT HOT. Rami usually does this in June and it is a sight to see really. He added a home run in the last two games, and his average has went from .261 10 games ago to .297. In his last eleven games, Ramirez is hitting .463 with nine extra-base hits. Further in the last four games, Ramirez has at least two hits. This is when the Brewers can really start cooking as Ramirez becomes damn near unpitchable and can win a game nearly by himself.

Scooter Gennett/Rickie Weeks - Good weekend to be a Brewers second basemen. Gennett got it going on Friday night with three hits including two doubles plus scoring on all three hits. The lead-off spot is paying off dividends as Scooter's average is up to .310 on the season. Weeks took over the spot over the weekend and added an RBI triple Saturday plus a two-hit game on Sunday. It will be interesting to see if Weeks gets a third straight start as Milwaukee faces another lefty or if Ron Roenicke will give Scooter a chance against a left-handed pitcher.

Carlos Gomez - The hitting and the on-base streak continue as Gomez pushes it out to 18 games with 35 straight on-base. He had multi-hit games on both Friday and Saturday along with driving in a run on Friday. Gomez continues to be one of the best Brewers on the team and continues to prove why he needs to start in the All-Star Game this coming July.

Lowlights
Colorado's Wild Pitch - Since MLB's videos do not want to work on Blogger, watch it here if you haven't already, but it is straight Micky Mouse silliness from the Rockies. I don't know how that happens. It feels like a computer glitch in MVP Baseball or something. It sums up the weekend though for Colorado's pitching staff whom gave up 28 runs over the weekend. These teams will meet again for four games this weekend in Milwaukee.

Marco Estrada - I am still not wild about anything Marco Estrada is doing right now for this team. He gave up seven earned runs on Friday and only three of them came from the home run. He shockingly got the win in the game against the Rockies, but there is really no reason for Estrada to be starting for this team. Estrada is the one problem for this team and Ron Roenicke will not believe it for reasons I cannot explain.

Francisco Rodriguez - Not the best Sunday for Frankie. Milwaukee held a two-run lead, and would have blown the save if it were not for a baserunning error by Corey Dickerson. Even though this was nerve-wracking, it is important for Rodriguez to have these kind of outings every now and again. I realize that sounds like flawed logic, but K-Rod cannot rest on his laurels knowing improvements are always needed.

Brandon Kintzler - Once again, not a great weekend for him. He battled through Sunday's outing with giving up three hits but finding a way out of the inning. Friday, he gave up a run which would make back-to-back outings. Hopefully, we are not going through another dip for Kintzler because it hurts how Milwaukee manages their bullpen.

Charlie.

Brewers-Rockies Preview (6/20-6/22)

Brewers previews to get you ready for the series where we have five things to watch, pitching matchups and prediction. We add a YouTube video in the mix, it could be really anything.   

Pitching Matchups 

Friday:     Marco Estrada (5-4 4.82) vs. Christian Bergman (0-1 3.75)  7:40 pm FSNWI 

Saturday: Wily Peralta (7-5 2.98) vs. Christian Fredrich (0-0 0.00)       3:10 pm FSNWI   

Sunday:    Kyle Lohse (8-2 3.09) vs. Tyler Matzek (1-1 3.75)              3:10 pm FSNWI 

Five Things To Watch 

1.) Exorcising Coors Field's Demons - In the last two years, Milwaukee has won one of six games at Coors Field. This is not a place that treats the Brewers well in the past couple years. Brewers have not won a series in Denver since 2005 (To be fair, Milwaukee got a split in 2011 during a four-game series at Coors Field). That was nine years ago! Victor Santos and Chris Capuano were the winning pitchers of the series. WES HELMS hit a home run in the first win of the series. Hopefully, things can change this weekend.

2.) Marco Estrada's Do or Die Start - Everyone expecting the worst with Marco Estrada tonight at Coors Field. I really do believe if Estrada struggles again tonight, Jimmy Nelson will face Colorado next weekend at Miller Park. Estrada has been downright awful in the last month or so. Estrada needs to avoid the walks without question because he will probably give up a home run or two tonight, that's the expectation. Everyone is expecting a dumpster fire so hopefully Estrada will use that as motivation and deliver a complete gem. 

3.) Trying to avoid Troy Tulowitzki - We always talk about Brewers killers, but maybe the most notable and the President of the whole thing is Troy Tulowitzki. Whenever he faces Milwaukee, he mashes against the Brewers. In the last three years, Tulo has 24 hits against Milwaukee with a little over half of them being for extra-base hits including five home runs. This equates to an average of about .358.  For the season, Tulowitzki has 18 home runs with batting .356 having an MVP-like season as well as three of his last seven games featured three hit games.  

4.) Dealing with a no-hit team - The last game Colorado played they did not fare well losing 8-0 with Clayton Kershaw no-hitting them striking out 15 batters. Colorado is come in pissed wanting to make a point. Now, they were swept by the Dodgers where Colorado only scored three runs. Is the regression monster looming given how outrageous their offensive numbers have been this season and Milwaukee catching them at the right time?  Or is this a case of Colorado being a wildly inconsistent baseball team?   

5.) Carlos Gomez hit and on-base streak deserves attention - I don't know why people haven't talked about Carlos Gomez's streaks right now. He reached on-base 32 straight games whether it be on a walk, error or base hit. Gomez also has a 15-game hitting streak going which is the best of his career. Honestly, I believe Gomez can have a field day at Coors Field. It seems like a place where he could completely rake and have a massive series. 

Appropriate YouTube Video


I have to go with the Dumb and Dumber line about John Denver. So good every time.

Prediction 
As much as I want to think the Brewers will reverse their luck here and take a couple games, I have them winning one. Let's go with Peralta's start on Saturday.  Usually when the opposing team has three pitchers with a combined four total MLB starts plus one making their Major League debut would give you encouragement, Milwaukee makes those guys look like Cy Young. Even one win gives the Brewers a .500 West Coast trip.   

Clayton Kershaw's Perfect No-Hitter

People say all the time no-hitters are overrated. The reason being is usually one or two happen a year plus there are some like Edwin Jackson where they walk eight batters, hit one, yet still get a no-hitter. People revel in the perfect game with 27 up and 27 down because it is much more rarefied air. Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw added a no-hitter to his resume last night in an 8-0 victory against Colorado, and it was not an overrated one by any means. Kershaw had quite possibly one of the best no-hitters in Major League Baseball. That is said without overreaction or hyperbole.

The only reason Kershaw didn't deliver the perfect game was Hanley Ramirez had an error at shortstop. Not a walk, but an error by the shortstop. Kershaw didn't walk anyone to lose his no-hitter.  In fact, he had only one count that reached three balls all night. This means out of the 28 batters Kershaw faced on Wednesday night, only one of them saw a three ball count. For reference, that would be .03 percent of the batters. What's possibly more impressive about Kershaw's no-hitter is it came against Colorado, one of the best hitting teams in baseball. Coming into the game, the Rockies led the lead in runs, only team with 700 hits, lead in doubles and home runs. Kershaw shut them down like Jon Taffer does to a kitchen serving under-cooked chicken.

Kershaw's no-hitter also featured him striking out 15 batters, a career-high for the Dodgers left-hander. He came within two strikeouts to tying Nolan Ryan for the most strikeouts when throwing a no-hitter. Kershaw struck out every batter whom started the game at least once. Josh Rutledge was the only player without a strikeout in the starting lineup, and Kershaw dusted him with a curveball in the eighth inning. For percentages, Kershaw struck out 53.5 percent of the batters he faced last night. Additionally, Colorado has only 528 strikeouts as a team this season, the only team with less strikeouts in the National League is the St. Louis Cardinals. No one should ever say this no-hitter is overrated.

Kershaw is moving into the category of one of the best to play the game.  With only being 26 years old, he is just beginning the prime of his career. Pedro Martinez went through a stretch from age 25 to 32 where he was virtually unhittable earning three Cy Young's in four years. I don't think it is out of the question to think Kershaw could do the same thing. There was some concern this year for him with the injury to begin the year, his blow-up start against Arizona, but the last month has been masterful for Kershaw as his ERA has gone down a full run. No-hitter probably aided it a little bit, yet he is rounding into form at the right time as the Dodgers push a struggling San Francisco for the top spot in the National League West.

In the last couple years, Kershaw has became a player where if he faces your team, you have to see him. That's how Randy Johnson was in his career, same for Martinez and Roger Clemens. Right now, if the Dodgers are playing Milwaukee at Miller Park and Kershaw is pitching one of the games, I am going without question. It doesn't even matter that the Brewers will likely lose the game, it's not about the win or loss. Rather it is about watching one of the best to ever play the game and telling those you have seen Kershaw pitch a game whether he dominated your team or not. He is that special of a baseball player.

Game Score is a stat by Bill James where it values the strength of a pitching performance. Kershaw scored a 102 which is the highest in Major League Baseball for any pitcher, and the second-highest in history next to Kerry Wood's 20 strikeout game. Kershaw's no-hitter was not your prototypical one where the pitcher survives a couple walks here and there, no it was a perfect game by a pitcher with one mistake by a position player.

Charlie.