The Brewers head down to Oklahoma City to play 4 against the Diamond Kings. The Brewers have inexplicably struggled this year against the 6th place Diamond Kings, having lost 7 of their 11 match-ups.
Perhaps taking out some of their frustration with that record, and their recent uneven play, the Brewers open the series by beating up on the Diamond Kings, winning 10-2. Hector Hard, in his second start in Brewer purple, was very good, lasting 8 innings, giving up 2 runs on 6 hits, striking out 6 and walking none. He improves to 2-0 with a 1.93 ERA as a Brewer and to 13-7 with a 3.54 ERA overall. The resurgent Chad Brown (.303/.323/.419) was one of the hitting stars for the visitors, going 3 for 6, scoring 2 times and driving in a run.
Game 2 was a much tighter affair but the Brewers, behind lefty Erik Sloan, held on to win 4-2. Sloan worked 6 1/3rd, giving up just 1 run on 6 hits and with the win improves to 10-6 with a 3.57 ERA. Jaden Francis got the last out of the game, coming in with the potential tying run at the plate, to earn his 15th save (1.18 ERA.) Mike Foster (.332/.376/.475), after a great first half has been slumping a bit at the plate, and while he only had one hit in this game it was a big one- a two-out, two-run double that put the Brewers up 4-0. It was Foster's 24th double of the season.
More of the same in the third game of the series, as the Brewers prevailed 3-2. Fine start by Steve Green, who gave up the 2 runs on 7 hits in 7 1/3rd innings pitched. The bullpen was solid and preserved the narrow lead for him and Green improves to 12-6 with a 4.24 ERA. Jaden Francis gets save #16 with 1 flawless inning and sees his ERA drop to 1.15. Bobby Erbakan (.326/.392/.505) went 4 for 4 in the game and hit his 24th double. Mike Foster hit his 25th double in the game.
Having won the series one might have thought that the Brewers would feel content that they had made a statement regarding their superiority to the Diamond Kings. But it appears they weren't quite done yet in that regard. In the final game of the series things got really crazy. In spite of losing starting pitcher Matt Helm to a sore elbow in the first inning, the Brewers pitching was very good, with Justin Peacock coming in to take over from the injured Helm and giving his team 4 1/3rd scoreless innings. Thing is, they really didn't need much pitching at all. The offense once again exploded, including plating 6 runs in the 9th inning to win 16-2. Joe McPhillips (.287/.374/.512), who tends to be a bit streaky and hasn't been hitting that well of late, went off in this one. He 3 for 4 with 4 runs scored, 6 RBI, hitting his 16th double and 2 home runs to get to 20 on the season. Those numbers could have been even crazier as he struck out with the bases loaded in the 7th inning and walked with 2 runners in scoring position in his final at-bat. Andrew Kennedy (.332/.366/.421) went 3 for 5 in the game and drove in 4 runs. Justin Peacock got the win to improve to 5-1 with a 4.65 ERA.
With the 4-game sweep the Brewers now find themselves leading the MGL by 8 games over the Brooklyn Aces, and 10 games over the L.A. Spinners and the Charlotte Sting, who have now lost 8 games in a row.