[BirdWatcher]

Brewers record: 2-4 (week), 62-37, 1st place, MGL (season)

July 24-25, versus San Francisco: 4-7, 3-4.

July 26-28, at Oklahoma City: 7-5, 2-3, 8-7.

July 30, versus Brooklyn: 1-9.

The last full week of July is not a good one for the Brewers. Although most games on the week are close, with two of them taking 11 innings for resolution, things do not go their way very often this week.

In the second game of three against San Francisco, the Brewers fight back from a 3-0 deficit in the middle of the 8th to take the game to extra innings tied at 3-3, but then see things fall apart for reliever Ben Flynn (5-3, 3.42) in the top of the 11th. In his first game since returning from AAA Chester, Casey Bromwell (replacing Joe McPhillips, who was sent to the IL, on the roster) went 3 for 5 and hit the big home run that gave the Brewers the tie in the bottom of the 9th. Sadly, the team could not get the win after his heroics.
And in the rubber match the Brewers fall again in spite of another 9th inning rally that sees them climb back to within one run, but no closer. Brett Taranto's 12th homer of the season got them to two 9th inning runs. RodRod also homered in the game, his 5th. Steve Green (8-5, 5.06) took the loss, allowing 4 runs on 6 hits over 7 2/3rds innings.

The Brewers then headed to Oklahoma City to take on the Diamond Kings and got a win in a see-saw game 1 when they plated 4 runs in the last 3 innings and then managed to hold on when the home club rallied in the bottom of the frame. Cheol-han Lee (5-5, 6.98) actually pitched pretty well, giving up 3 runs on 6 hits over his 6 2/3rds innings pitched and was awarded the win. Ben Flynn got the save, his 7th in 7 tries. Joe Willemse went 3 for 4 in the win and Val Guzman hit his 9th homer, driving in 3 runs in the game.

In the middle game of the series, the Brewers scored a run in the top of the 9th to get to a tie and then took it to extra innings before falling to Oklahoma City in the bottom of the 11th. Reliever Cory Degano (0-2, 5.68), just recalled from AAA Chester, took the loss. It was another frustrating game for Sadahige Kawasaki, who pitched well enough to win- giving up just 2 runs on 6 hits over 7 2/3rds innings- but once again didn't get run support. Bobby Erbakan went 3 for 5 in the loss and hit a pair of doubles to get to 30 on the season.

The Brewers did manage to win the rubber match to get the road series win though when they gave starter Erik Sloan (6-3, 3.77) a 7-run lead before he had thrown a single pitch, and then narrowly hung on to win in spite of ineffective pitching and an error prone defense (including 2 errors by third baseman RodRod in the Diamond Kings 3-run 4th inning. On the other hand, RodRod did also go 2 for 4 with 2 RBI and hit his 12th double of the season. Brett Taranto was also 2 for 4 and hit his 20th double. Tim Shore got the final two outs to secure the victory and earn his 17th save (to go with a 1.59 ERA.)

After a travel day off the Brewers returned to Centennial Stadium to take on the Brooklyn Aces and their left-handed strikeout-machine of a starter Joel Travino. It did not end well. Although Travino, who is on pace to shatter the previous single season K mark in the WPK (he is on pace for 303 K's, the previous best- by Jaime Schardein in 1968- was 261), only struck out 5 Brewers batters, he also only gave up 1 run on 2 hits over 6 innings pitched. And although Sekien Hamasaki (11-3, 3.60) through 6 innings, he failed to get a single out in the 7th, while allowing 4 runs to end the game with 6 runs (4 earned) allowed on 8 hits. It only got worse once the Brewers bullpen joined the fray. Brett Taranto went 2 for 3 in the game and Bobby Erbakan hit double number 31 for the season, but that was about it for highlights for the home club.

With just one day left in the month, the Brewers end the week leading L.A. by just a half a game and are in very real danger of entering August in 2nd place in the MGL.