In the ninth inning things changed a little bit after a two run shot by Either in the eighth inning gave the Dodgers the lead by one and the Brewers hoping to get it together in the bottom half of the ninth inning.  Leave it up to George Kottaras to come in as a pinch hitter, again, and send the  ball to the gap in right field.  The liner got to the wall fast, but still gave Mat Gamel enough time to get home (barely) from first base.  Mat Gamel’s slide was perfect and he really made sure his body was to the bag behind the tag.  I wish I could say the same thing about Morgan’s attempt on Wednesday night.

The game played out very much the same.  Scoring was back and forth, both pitchers had a handle on what was going on and the game is tied at 2 through 9 innings of play.  Ramirez was able to finally get a home run as a Brewer and with two double plays and a couple stolen bases, the Brewers seem to have a good handle on their side of the game.  Grienke went 7 innings and threw over 100 pitches, but was still able to strikeout 7 and only walk 2 batters.

Fast forward to the end of the ninth with the game still tied.  The Dodgers come into the 10th facing Kameron Loe, which was a little tense for me to watch.  Loe hammered through the inning with a little double play help.  Now we get to the Brewers 10th and the fun started right away.  Lucroy forces a walk(replaced by Morgan), Cesar Izturis flubs a bunt that is caught by the third basemen, Weeks gets walked and finally Kottaras walked, bringing Ryan Braun to the plate.

I personally would have loved to see another bunt attempt after Morgan made it to third on a wild throw while stealing second base.  There was only one out, it might not have been the best call, but it would have been really exciting.  Much more exciting then the replay I am about to show you.  So, Braun eventually sends a fly ball out to center, giving Matt Kemp a chance to throw out Morgan at home.  Naturally, Morgan was told to stay on third, since the popup was in shallow center, but he took off anyways and this is how it ended:

Here is the link to the video at Brewers.com

As you can see, the play ended when Morgan crossed home plate. Remember we are in real time during the game and the Ump made the call he thought was right at that point. He is likely questioning his skills today. See the screenshot below from the slow motion portion of the above video.

You saw the tag in the reply, I really wish I wouldn’t have.

I have been listening to as many spring training games that I could catch and I really like what I am hearing.  Granted, the MLB spring training season is not really anything to write home about, but at least you get to see that some of the guys that were lucky enough to return are in good health for the most part (I’m looking your way Corey Hart!).  The offseason produced enough excitement for a Brewer fan even without a game being played.  Ryan Braun won MVP, then got some test results that didn’t look very favorable of an MVP winning outfielder.  Of course, Braun has been cleared of all the allegations, but not after waiting for 2 months to hear the final verdict on his appeal.

Other than that, news of Prince Fielder getting shopped around was somewhat entertaining and it was sort of nice to see him end up on a team that is less likely to play the Brewers.  I will be one person to keep a close eye on how Fielder does on the Tigers AND how well Ryan Braun does without the big guy hitting right behind him.

Spring training has produced some nice news stories including one last week when Mat Gamel (Prince’s proposed replacement) put a hurtin’ on the ball with a Grand Slammer and solo shot all in the same game.  Gamel was the first one to mention that he knew that if he wasn’t going to play well, he wasn’t going to be a Brewer.  Well his spring training stats are pretty impressive, hitting with a .246 average so far and that includes 14 RBI’s, on 14 hits and 3 stolen bases.

Today is opening day and let’s hope the Brewers can extend on their outstanding 2011 season!

To mark the start of the tickets sales, the Arctic Tailgate Party will be back for its sixth straight year. The racing sausages, Bernie Brewer and some old time Brewers will be on hand for the festivities. The first 2,000 fans will get an Arctic Tailgate T-shirt, plus a hot dog and soda. During the event, fans can buy tickets, but the April 6th opening day tickets will be limited.

You can go to Brewers.com to register for the chance to pick up opening day tickets on the 25th, but that ends on next Tuesday the 14th.

The news has been flying around the Web for at least two months now and Brewers fans are hoping like hell that Braun is clean and pulls of a rare win with his appeals process. The odds are likely stacked against him as nobody has ever won an appeal, according to some sources that reported over the last 8 weeks. Radio host, Dan Patrick had some good news for Brewer fans when he put his head on the block and said that after seeing the evidence, he was say Braun was innocent and he should win the appeal. The only issue with that is Dan Patrick does NOT make the call.

News that popped up today shows that the appeal process should be coming to a close and we should be able to hear about Braun in the next 48 hours or so. With this being the off season, MLB has no real urgency to get back to the MVP with their decision, so the fans just might be waiting longer than they want to.

Major League Baseball’s drug policy states that the panel chair, Shyam Das, “shall make all reasonable efforts” to get a decision in 25 days or less. Let’s hope that he can keep to that and we will hear about Ryan Braun some time on Monday.

What do you think about the whole process? If the Brewers lose Braun for 50 games, what record do you see the team with over those 50 games?

The “middle relief” has a combined 14 loses up to this point in 2011.  That is just too many times and I understand that you might have a game where you are only in front by one run, but the “hold” is even more important then.  Right now, Kameron Loe is the one name that creates a special silence over the crowd when he is called in.  He has a 2-6 record and of the 32 innings pitched,  he has given up 19 ER, 4 HR’s, walked 10 and hit 2 batters.  He does have 27 strikeouts which is nice, but that one stat doesn’t really silence the groans.

I am not going to go off and compare Loe to Suppan, but that ERA of 5.23 has got to start coming down.  At least for right now, I am not sure why Loe is the go to 6th/7th inning guy?  Hawkins has pitched well, why not give him a couple more innings per week?  Mitre and Estrade have also held their own when the team needed them, when compared to Loe anyways.

What do you think about the Brewers activity after the starting pitching takes a seat?

In 2010, how many times did Casey McGehee get beaned at the plate?

For those of you that are following, the answer to this week’s trivia question is TWO.  Casey McGehee was smacked at the plate 2 times in all of 2010.  Guess that’s because Prince to most of them :)

If you are good at searching stats on the web or have your own little program you use like I do, this one is easy.  But since it’s really just a guessing game, if you watched games throughout the year, you might get close with your answer.  If you have one, go ahead and comment on this post with it.

Narveson finished 2010 with a 12-9 record, a 4.99 ERA, giving up 21 home runs and accumulating 93 earned runs.  Those stats are ok, but when compared to only a couple other pitchers in any starting rotation, turn out to be not so good.  Now, flash forward to 2011.  I know it has only been about 10 games and Narveson has only pitched on two occasions, but am I the only one that sees a totally different Narveson on the mound?

So far in the two starts for the 2011 season, Narveson is 2-0, giving up ZERO runs and only 9 hits in 13 innings of work.  Striking out 14 (on pace for 140+ in 20 starts) at the plate and with an ERA of 0.00 is pretty good for a BREWERS pitcher.  Granted he is going to get knocked around, but what can be said about confidence when your season starts like this?  A LOT.  Maybe that was part of the issue last season, we don’t know that, but nonetheless, he is certainly more calm than I remember seeing him on the mound.

Do you have as much confidence in Chris Narveson as it appears that I do?  After all, he is no Randy Suppan Wolf, right?

Name ONE of the THREE players from the 1982 Brewers that was featured on a Kellogg’s 3D baseball card.

Ok, no replies again this week, I am starting to think I am the only one the reads this blog.  The answer to the trivia question posted above is:  Yount, Fingers or Cooper.  All of these players were featured in 1982 on Kellogg’s 3D cards.

If you know the answer, or searched Google to find it, just leave your answer in the comments section.  Check out other Tuesday Trivia’s to see if you knew any of those answer when you got some time.