Dave and I were at the baseball game last night.  Glad we stayed until the bittersweet end— you may have seen the highlights of Rickie Weeks doubling in a pair of runs to snatch a victory from the division-leading Cardinals.  Even though the pitching hung in there and Manny Parra settled in to a decent outing once the dust settled on his first two rocky innings, it was still a struggle to be able to watch these guys methodically eek out hits throughout the game.  We watched the same players just light people up last year, so that makes it a little frustrating.  I turned to Dave in the top of the 8th and said, “You know it’s gotten bad when we’re down just 1 run and you don’t feel like there’s a chance of pulling it out.”

Well, I spoke too soon.  Sheets takes to the hill in about 20 minutes, and we’ve got a chance to get back to .500 (uughh), and within 3 games of first place.  Who thought that this division was going to be such a dogfight?  Answer: nobody.  I forget where I was reading earlier this week that pitchers are approaching our young guns (Fielder, Braun, et al.) a little differently this season, now that they’ve had a whole year to adjust.  Once again, for the 3rd year in a row, the Brewers find themselves at a sort of crossroads: in ’06, it was “can we finish with a winning record after a 81-81 ’05?”, then in ’07, it was “now that everyone has ‘arrived,’ will we deliver on all the potential?”, and here in ’08, it’s “can we continue to persevere after our chance of sneaking up on people has ended?”

We’ll find out.  Go Crew!