[BirdWatcher]

Brewers record: 3-3 (week), 89-50, 1st Place, MGL (season).

September 5-6, at San Francisco: 1-3, 1-8.

Having narrowly lost the first game of three in San Francisco, the Brewers bats remained cold in the second game as Mike Stagner picked up his 10th win of 1976. Erik Sloan (12-7, 2.81) took the loss for Denver, giving up 3 runs on 6 hits over 7 innings. The Brewers committed 3 errors in the game while collecting just 6 hits, including Bobby Erbakan's 17th double and Josh Schaeffer's 12th two-bagger.

The bats remain cold in the final game of the series, the pitching falters, and the Brewers get swept by the Velocity. Sadahige Kawasaki (11-8, 2.51) gave up 8 runs (5 earned) on 11 hits in his 5 2/3rd innings. Josh Schaeffer went 2 for 3 in the loss, getting his 13th double.

September 8-10, at Oklahoma City: 3-17, 3-1, 3-1.

The Brewers hope that September 8th will prove to be the nadir of the 1976 season, the humbling moment that re-focuses the team and inspires them to work all that much harder towards a WPK championship. Because the other most likely option is that it will prove to be the moment they were revealed as pretenders, not contenders. It will be the moment they opened the door wide for the L.A. Spinners to walk on through, stepping over the prone body of the stumbled would-be champs, on their way to a second straight MGL pennant.

So, anyway, game 1. You already know the outlines. Sixth straight loss for the Brewers. Completely demolished by the 5th place Diamond Kings. Cheol-han Lee (14-4, 3.98) lasted just 3 1/3rd innings, giving up 8 runs on 11 hits. And then the bullpen poured gas on the fire. But hey, at least catcher Kirk Patnode went 2 for 3 with 2 RBI, hitting his 6th double and 1st triple of 1976.
Moving on.

Game 2. The bats remain mostly silent. But veteran right-hander Steve Green (11-8, 2.60) leads the Brewers to the streak-ending win, allowing 1 run on 5 hits over 7 1/3rd innings. Jason Gottula gets the final 2 outs of the 8th for his 12th hold and Tim Shore pitches a flawless 9th for his 19th save. Joe McPhillips goes 2 for 3 in the game and hits his 25th double.

Game 3. Bats stay cold. Sekien Hamasaki (14-5, 2.64), though, is on fire. He goes the distance, allowing 1 run on 3 hits. RodRod leads the way on offense, going 3 for 5 with a run scored and hitting his 23rd double. Brett Taranto goes 2 for 4 and hits his 13th triple!

It wasn't pretty, but the Brewers manage to get a series win in spite of being outscored 19 to 9.

September 11, versus Charlotte: 7-6.

The Brewers thankfully return home to Centennial Stadium for a 3-game series against the Charlotte Sting.
And in the first game it appears that the rough patch isn't totally over as they trail 6-3 going into the bottom of the 9th inning. Erik Sloan was not sharp, giving up 5 runs on 11 hits in his 6 2/3rds innings pitched. And the much heralded but thus far ineffective Ben Flynn gave up a run on 4 hits in his 2 1/3rd innings. But Charlotte's 29-year old closer and team captain Mark Wachholz hasn't had a good season, in spite of his 21 saves. (His ERA coming into the game was 4.93 and his WHIP is 1.65.) And the Brewers batters were able to rally in the 9th. Brad Tesh worked a 1-out walk to get things started. Joe Willemse hit a groundball single to move Tesh to second. RodRod's second double of the game and 25th of the season plated Tesh and moved Willemse to third. Ben Flynn was scheduled to hit next. Ben is one of the more talented hitting pitchers you are going to see, but even at the plate this season he has been struggling. The Brewers manager admitted after the game that he nearly brought the slugging young left-handed batter Mike Lovett in to hit for Flynn, hoping for the long-ball to win the game. But in the end he decided to stick with Flynn. And that was the right decision. He got the game winning long-ball all right, when Flynn took the 1-0 pitch and deposited it on a screaming liner into the leftfield seats. Walk-off win. Whew. Maybe the Brewers have life yet.

Notes from around the league:
It is starting to look more and more like the Columbus Whalers, the reigning WPK champs, will be defending their title in the 1976 Kinsella Classic Series. They now have an 87-52 record and lead the second place El Paso Dawgs (81-57) by 5 1/2 games. The Milwaukee Cadets (78-61) are barely holding onto hope in 3rd place, 9 games back.
The Brewers, having seen the L.A. Spinners (85-54) narrow the gap to 3 games mid-week, end the week 4 games ahead in first place. The third place Brooklyn Aces (80-59) are 9 games back.