Brewers record: 5-2 (week), 12-7, 4th place, 2 gb (season)
April 24-26, at San Francisco:
11-9,
1-10,
10-2.
April 27-29, versus Oklahoma City:
4-6,
10-1,
13-0.
April 30, at Brooklyn:
9-5.
Is offense up around the WPK this season? Sure it is, especially with far many more homers being hit than just a season ago, when they were a rarity.
Still, this is a bit ridiculous: with three weeks of the season completed and 19 games played, the Brewers have a team batting average of .349.
.349!
Now San Antonio is hitting .299 as a unit and Portland is hitting .294. But the league batting average in the SJL is a reasonable .267 and in the MGL a more robust .284.
Still, the Brewers, as a team, are hitting just a tic under .350.
That's insane. Small sample size sure, but not that small anymore.
And yet we are only 12-7, which is probably not a great sign given that our BABIP numbers are bound to crash back to mortal again soon.
So without going into great detail, this is what week 3 looked like.
The Brewers scored four 10th inning runs in game 1 against San Francisco to break a 7-7 tie and held on for the win.
Ben Flynn (2-1, 2.35) is off to a great start and pitched an effective 2 2/3rds for the win.
Tim Shore got his first save of the season.
The Brewers were blown out in game 2 as veteran
Cheol-han Lee (0-2, 12.51) continues his struggles. Lee was allowed to go the distance, giving up 10 runs (9 earned) on 14 hits over 8 innings. The hope was that if the future Hall of Famer was given a chance to just keep pitching he might eventually wake up and remember who he is. It didn't happen in this game and indications are that he will be spending some time in the bullpen to get his head straight.
With Lee's demotion to the 'pen, 24-year old
John Weaver (2-0, 1.50) gets a chance in the rotation. And in game 3 against the Velocity, he once again shines, lasting 6 1/3rd, giving up 2 runs on 5 hits and inducing 12 ground ball outs.
Bobby Erbakan's 5 for 6 game didn't hurt either.
The Brewers then returned home to Denver to host the red-hot Oklahoma City Diamond Kings. The Diamond Kings came into the series tied for 1st place with Baltimore at 11-4 and largely on the strength of a talented and deep starting rotation. And in game 1 that showed as ace Dan Knauff outdueled
Matt Helm.
Eric Marino (0-1, 4.15) took the loss for the Brewers, pitching the final 2 inning and giving up a pair of runs.
But after that it was all Denver. The Brewers offense gave
Sadahige Kawasaki (2-2, 2.51) plenty of run support in game 2 but he didn't really need it, going the distance while giving up just 1 run on 7 hits.
Josh Schaeffer went 3 for 4 with 2 doubles (4), 3 runs scored and 3 RBI.
And in game 3 it was
Steve Green (2-0, 3.48) who got far more support than he needed. Green got the complete game shutout, giving up just 4 hits while striking out 9 and walking 2. And the Brewers plated 13 runs.
Jake DiCesare got his first big league start and in his very first big league at-bat, he hit a 3-run HR. He ended the game with a 3 for 5, 3 run, 4 RBI line.
Andrew Kennedy went 4 for 5 and hit his 1st homer of the season.
The Brewers finished the week in Brooklyn against the Aces, generally considered the pre-season favorites to win the MGL. The Aces starter, Chris Justice, an 18-game winner in 1976, is off to a horrible start and that didn't change in this one. The Brewers roughed him up to the tune of 6 runs on 10 hits over 4 innings and he drops to 0-4 with a 5.61 ERA.
Sekien Hamasaki (3-0, 4.44) got the win, allowing 4 runs 2 earned on 5 hits over 5 innings pitched. (It was a soggy day in Brooklyn and the game was delayed for 63 minutes, shortening Hamasaki's day.)
Rich White was the star on offensive, going 4 for 5 with 2 runs scored, 3 RBI, and hitting his 6th double and 2nd HR of the year.