Posted by Steve
Quite the game yesterday. It wasn’t particularly well-played offensively, but the pitching and defense was very good, and the Crew continued their knack of winning close games. Things are looking great right now for the Brewers. They just swept the Pirates and have won four in a row, they are 3.5 games up on a playoff spot and BP has them at an 85.5% chance at the playoffs. Simply split the short series in St. Louis, and the Brewers will give themselves a sizeable lead over the Cards with no games left against them as they enter the final month.
I’ll let this replace Bill’s Scouting Report this week, because it was by far my favorite thing he said all week. In the bottom of the 12th inning yesterday, Bill was giving a quick rundown of the Jason Davis, the pitcher entering the game. “He’s thrown the ball pretty well as a Pirate,” said Bill as the stats were shown on the screen.
Here are the stats that were shown: 23 2/3 innings, 25 hits, 12 walks, 10 strikeouts and a 1.56 WHIP. For those scoring at home, that makes for a sweet .833 strikeout/walk ratio and 3.8 strikeouts/nine innings.
Basically, Jason Davis has been quite bad as a Pirate this year, so what the crap could have caused Bill to say he’s throwing well? Well, Davis had somehow managed to only allow 10 earned runs for a 3.8 ERA. Of course ERA is a poor indicator of relief pitching performance, and over 23 innings it’s meaningless. No matter to Bill, whose thought process I guarantee went like so: ‘Jason Davis. Pirate. Pitcher. 3.8 ERA. Hey, that’s pretty good. Jason Davis has thrown the ball well as a Pirate.’
Bill also probably thinks Carlos Villanueva had a great outing yesterday. Sure he loaded the bases with nobody out in the 12th inning and was pulled, but he didn’t allow any runs!
