BREWERS 10, REDS 9 IN IMPROBABLE COMEBACK
The Reds, who completely melted down in the ninth inning last night in the 9-8 Brewers win had a hell of an encore tonight at Miller Park by blowing their largest lead since 1930. The Reds jumped out to a 9-0 lead, largely in part to the mashing of starter MATT KINNEY. Did the Brewers fold? Hell no. These are the 2004 Brewers, and at least so far this season, they fight until the end. The Brewers scored one in the 4th, three in the 6th, two in the 7th, and three in the eight to tie it up and eventually plated the winning run in the bottom of the tenth to complete the two-game sweep of Cincinnati.

MATT KINNEY, in his 2 1/3 IP, gave up 7 H, 6 R (all earned) walked two and struck out one. Kinney threw well in his last start but has struggled so far this year (8.61 ERA) and has pitched poorly in at least two of his starts so far. With JORGE DE LA ROSA and BEN HENDRICKSON throwing well in the minor leagues, it wouldn't be surprising to see Kinney be moved out of the rotation. My bet would be that Kinney would become the long man (since he is out of options) and either BEN FORD or VICTOR SANTOS would be sent down. One of those two will be sent down when CHRIS CAPUANO returns from the DL (which is estimated to be May 6th). ADRIAN HERNANDEZ won't be going on the DL anytime soon as he pitched tonight for the first time since taking a line-drive off of the leg the other day. Hernandez pitched 1 2/3 tonight but wasn't very effective, giving up three runs (two earned) on three hits with one walk and two strikeouts. Hernandez' ERA is at 10.08 right now, so he could be in the "next pitcher to Indianapolis" sweepstakes right now too. He also threw a wild-pitch tonight. BROOKS KIESCHNICK threw 3 shutout innings and has his ERA at 1.80 right now. Obviously Kiesch isn't a 1.80 ERA type pitcher, but it's nice to see him off to such a good start. He only walked one and gave up no hits while striking out three in his outing. DAN KOLB threw one shutout inning in the ninth. It would still appear that KOLB is dealing with some soreness because of how seldomly he has been used. DAVE BURBA has his ERA at 0.64 (!!!) and picked up his second win of the year in tonight's game.

PAUL WILSON didn't pitch too bad, allowing four runs in 6 innings of work. I was pleased to see homophobic reliever TODD JONES give up 3 runs in 1/3 of an inning. I was frustrated to see that his ERA is at 4.72. I really hope to see his ERA get back to where Jones is more comfortable, up in that 7+ range.

Now to the offense. CHAD MOELLER, fresh off the heals of his 4-5 with a cycle last night got the day off since he usually doesn't catch for Kinney. I'm guessing that if Moeller could pick the guy he didn't have to catch, at this point it probably would be Kinney. As a team the Brewers had 16 hits and 5 walks, and struck out six times. LYLE OVERBAY went 3-5 with a double and 3 RBI. BEN GRIEVE snapped out of his season long slump at least for one night with a 1-3 with a HR, 2 RBI and 2 walks. GEOFF JENKINS went 2-3 with a double, RBI and two walks. WES HELMS continues to slump as he went 0-5 with a strikeout. SCOTT PODSEDNIK went 4-5 and has his average at a slick .309. The real hero, for the second night in a row was utility infielder BILL HALL. Last night Hall hit a walk-off homer to left-center that was an absolute BIZZLE. Tonight he got the start at short in place of the struggling CRAIG COUNSELL and went 3-6 with 4 RBI, including a bases-clearing double in the 8th to tie the game at 9, and of course the winning RBI on a suicide squeeze bunt in the bottom of the tenth to win the game for the Brewers. Maybe Billy Hall will have to be added soon into the "this guy needs more ABs" group along with Keith Ginter.

The Brewers are now 12-10 and 1.5 out of first in a tie with Houston. Cincinnati is 12-9 and 1 game behind the Cubs who won tonight in Arizona. The entire NL Central is only separated by three games.

The Brewers have tomorrow off before hosting the Pittsburgh Pirates in a weekend series. The Pirates seem to always play the Brewers tough, and don't be surprised if Jack Wilson goes ahead and hits 5 homeruns this weekend or something.