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US Presswire photo Prince Fielder and the Brewers hope to take a 3-2 series lead tonight. |
First up, though, is a pivotal Game 5 tonight at Busch Stadium. If the Cardinals bounce back to win, the pressure will be on the Brewers to win twice at home. If Milwaukee wins again tonight, all of a sudden it's St. Louis with its back against the wall, needing to pull off two more victories on the road against the team with baseball's best home record.
Should make for a compelling ballgame tonight. It's a rematch of Game 1, when neither Zack Greinke nor Jaime Garcia was particularly effective but the Brewers pounded out more runs to win...
NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES - GAME 5
MILWAUKEE BREWERS at ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
Where: Busch Stadium
Gametime: 8:05 p.m.
TV: TBS
Radio: WSPZ (570 AM), XM 89
Weather: Clear, 61 degrees, Wind 11 mph LF to RF
STARTING LINEUPS
BREWERS
RF Corey Hart
3B Jerry Hairston
LF Ryan Braun
1B Prince Fielder
2B Rickie Weeks
SS Yuniesky Betancourt
CF Carlos Gomez
C Jonathan Lucroy
P Zack Greinke
CARDINALS
SS Rafael Furcal
CF Jon Jay
1B Albert Pujols
RF Lance Berkman
LF Matt Holliday
3B David Freese
C Yadier Molina
2B Nick Punto
P Jaime Garcia
14 comments:
Ah, that's our Nyjer, grounding into a DP.
They sure hate him in St. Louis.
The Brewers were sure kicking the ball around last night. Kinda looked to me like they were already feeling the pressure.
wow, 4 errors - felt just a little bit for Hairston, he was/is having a nice run in the playoffs. wonder how he felt when Greinke slamed the ball down?
Just scrolled down to look at other news on our nationals. Tell me you don't get excited watching Bryce Harper hit a baseball! I realize its a commercial but he really does have a sweet swing.
I feel bad for Hairston the way Boswell did a whole article focusing on him in the post. It's not that he didn't say nice things, but at times it was less than flattering. And yes, NatsLady - they do hate Nyger in St. Louis. sjm308 -- has Bryce Harper actually started to hit the baseball in Arizona yet? Haven't heard anything much. We need Mark to write a nice, juicy, controversial post so that everyone will jump in and comment - I miss the Nats and lots of posts to read.
Greinke: 16 2/3 IP, 15 R, 12 ER this postseason with no strikeouts last night. He now has a 6.48 ERA with a 1.620 WHIP over 3 games.
While some of the post-season pitchers have logged over 230 innings at this point of the year, Greinke only threw 171.2 innings in the regular season.
The great players step up in big games. Greinke was 3-3 in the regular season in 2011 against playoff teams and 3-4 if you include Atlanta.
Baseballswami, Bryce Harper in a 2 strike count hit a 2 run triple. His BA is back over .100
Here's hoping that that Nyjer show has it's final act tomorrow night. I soured a little on JHJ because of the comments he made after he left us, but you have to respect a guy who can produce year after year in all kinds of roles. He filled in admirably for Zim and has played very well in the playoffs. Hats off to him.
I still think we should roll the dice on and go all in on Prince. He's young, plays a perfectly adequate 1B, and has so much power. A real star. LaRoche will be an adequate replacement for him in Milwaukee. Plus, we could definitely use a LH power bat in the middle of the order. Just imagine 2-3-4-5 of Werth, Zim, Prince, and Morse. Scary.
Sec222, I would plan ahead with Morse at 1st next year and save that cash for Matt Kemp who is a Free Agent next year.
If the Nats could snag Alex Gordon in a trade this year and sign Kemp next year, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 in 2013 w/ Bryce Harper and Rendon in the wings:
Gordon, Werth, Zim, Morse, Kemp, Espinosa, Desmond, Ramos
Gonat, that would be a great lineup too. But why not get both Fielder and Kemp? I'd rather our BILLIONAIRE owners spend their hard-earned money than trade away our young pitching for Gordon or a CF stopgap for next year.
I suppose some of Rizzo's calculation depends on how soon he thinks Harper will be ready to play fulltime in the majors. Is Werth our CF of the future to make room for him in RF? It's definitely easier to play this out with Morse at 1B after next year, and I'd be fine with that result because I think he's for real. But Fielder is a proven lefty slugger. I'd like to see him in a Nats uniform.
As far as National League lineup go, if Prince goes to the American League there isn't any National League lineup that is stacked.
Let's say Gordon is the Nats big pickup and LaRoche is circa 2009 with improvement in Werth, Desi, Espi, Ramos, then the Nats could be a very solid offense.
Gordon, Werth, RZim, Morse, LaRoche, Espi, Desi, Ramos
Thanks for the Harper info gonat - good to know that he is starting to warm up. When he gets up here we need to all remember that he starts slowly and not beat up on him too much. My goodness - he is still soooo young.
My pipedream for a lineup that is available if the Lerners are willing to spend the $$ (which they have because they are BILLIONAIRES) and could contend *next year.* Reyes, Werth, Zim, Fielder, Morse, Espi, Ramos, [Good defensive CF]. Sure it would be pricey, but just imagine how much they would make if they sold out Nats Park every night. Harper to platoon with Werth starting in 2013 and ultimately replace him.
Ok, back to the real world of hoping can compete for the WC in 2013 rather than the WS *next year.*
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