BREWERS WIN 1-0...IN 17 F#!@ING INNINGS!
I can't believe what I just saw. The Milwaukee Brewers just beat the Anaheim Angels in 17 innings. The game was scoreless after 16. I watched pretty much every pitch (except when I turned away for a little to catch some of the NBA Finals) so I have a ton of thoughts on this game.

First off, how about BEN SHEETS. What an outing. He was perfect through 6 2/3 IP. The one hit he gave up was on a curveball that VLADIMIR GUERRERO golfed literally an inch off of the ground into the 5 1/2 hole between short and third. That was the only hit Sheets gave up. He walked a batter in the ninth. Those were the only runners Sheets gave up. This was the first outing Sheets had since he had a bad ear infection that caused him to miss his last start. Of course, Sheets got a no-decision despite throwing another tremendous game.

The bullpen continued to throw well for the Crew. LUIS VIZCAINO, MIKE ADAMS, JEFF BENNETT and winning pitcher MATT KINNEY (3-3) all held the potent Angels offense to zero and then DAN KOLB came in and picked up his 16th save. It was good to see that Kolb had his velocity back. I noticed in his save against SD in Milwaukee that his fastball was at about 92 and same with his blown save in LA. Tonight he was around 94-96, which is awfully tough to hit no matter what the count or the location.

The Brewers offense was just awful tonight. It has been pretty awful for the good part of the last two weeks now. There is a difference between having a guy throw a good game against you, sometimes that happens and you can't do anything about it. KELVIM ESCOBAR had good stuff tonight, but not as good as the Brewers made it look like. GEOFF JENKINS went 0-7 with 6 punchouts, tying the MLB record for most strikeouts in an extra-inning game. BEN GRIEVE went 0-6 with 5 Ks. LYLE OVERBAY went 1-7 with 4 Ks and KEITH GINTER went 0-7 with 4 Ks.

SCOTT PODSEDNIK drove in the game winning run in the 17th. He still had a few awful atbats. I'm starting to come to the realization that he's probably not going to be more than a .345 OBP guy that hits about .260. His bat is slow and pitchers seem to have figured that out and have been pounding him inside so far this year. After he was getting jammed a lot started worrying too much about getting the bathead around and that has caused him to be out infront. It's correctable, but maybe we're seeing why he was in the minor leagues for 7 seasons.

I don't mean to make a big deal about the strikeouts, but it's a little ridiculous. Punching out 15 times a game is all right when you're drawing walks and hitting homeruns, but when you're managing just five or six hits (all pretty much singles) a game you have to be able to move runners by putting the ball in play. If you're only hitting singles it'll take three of them to score a run unless you steal a base or move a runner along.

DARON SUTTON mentioned a conversation he had with EDDIE PEREZ when Atlanta was in town. Perez said the best pitch to get Ginter out with two strikes was a fastball down the middle of the plate. I hadn't posted anything, but I had noticed that Ginter watches strike three an awful lot on fastballs down the middle. What that tells me is that he is either 1)hoping to get walked or 2)looking offspeed. My guess is the latter, because you don't get to the big leagues by being afraid to swing the bat.

This was a great game to win for the Crew. They stay above .500 and didn't send me to sleep angry because they lost a 5 hour game. Now lets hope the Brewers can win the series tomorrow.