[BirdWatcher]

The Brewers long road trip ends in Oklahoma City with 4 against the 7th place Diamond Kings (although technically the Brewers are the home team in the first game of the series as this is a make-up game of a home game rained out earlier in the season.)

The Brewers take 3 of 4 from the Diamond Kings to get ever so closer to a second consecutive MGL pennant and WPK World Series appearance.

In game 1 of a Monday doubleheader (the make-up game), the teams are tied 1-1 going into the bottom of the 9th. Since the Brewers are technically the home team in this one, this gave them an advantage. Which they took. Bobby Erbakan (.256/.326/.353) hit a 1-out triple (his 2nd of the season) and then with 2 outs Chad Brown (.250/.281/.333) legged out an infield hit while the speedy Erbakan came in to score the winning run. Cheol-han Lee pitched a strong 7 innings, allowing just 1 run on 6 hits, striking out 4 and walking none, though he didn't get the decision. Eric Singer pitched the last 2 innings for the win, improving to 10-6 with a 1.80 ERA.

Will Smart started the night-cap for the Brewers and was solid for 6 1/3rds innings- allowing just 1 run on 6 hits, striking out 4 and walking 1. It was another tight game as the Brewers took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the 9th only to see the Diamond Kings tie in it the bottom of the 9th on a lead-off HR by Bob Pena (17). Both teams failed to score in the 10th, but then the Brewers broke through with 1 in the top of the 11th when Pat Rondeau (.296/.337/.401) hit a 1-out single to score Ruben Souffront from second base (Souffront had come in as a pinch-runner and had stolen 2nd). It would prove to be enough as David Brown, who had pitched the 10th also, closed things out for his 5th win (to 2 losses, with an 0.54 ERA.)

Game 3 featured Harry Lyerly and lots of Brewers runs. Lyerly picked up win number 17 on the season (to go with 9 losses with a 2.53 ERA), going the distance, giving up 1 run on only 3 hits, striking out 7 and walking 2. Were it not for one bad pitch which OKC shortstop Josh Nix hit out of the park, it would have been another shutout for the sensational young fire-baller. And this time Lyerly got plenty of offensive support as the team scored 11 runs on 16 hits. Lyerly himself was 2 for 4 with 1 RBI and hit his first double of the season. Firstbaseman Bobby Erbakan (.257/.327/.366) had two of the biggest hits of the game, a pair of 2-run HR's- his 9th and 10th of the season.

The Brewers fell a bit short of getting the sweep even though they had a few wasted opportunities late in game 4. In spite of another decent start by veteran lefty Daniel Torres, the Brewers fall 4-2. Torres worked 6 innings, giving up 4 runs on 6 hits, striking out 1 and walking 3. Torres falls to 14-5 and his ERA rises just a bit to 2.14, though at this stage of things he will certainly finish with the best ERA in the MGL.