National Spotlight Unkind to Crew

The Brewers have been bad for a long, long time. We've all been through in. But, as you're well aware, the last few years have not only brought promise, but legitmate playoff talk. And with this success and sudden intrigue surrounding the team, the Brewers are more likely to be talked about on a national scale. Not just talked about, but shown on that scale. This year, the Brewers are already scheduled to be on ESPN, TBS, and FOX more times than I can ever remember. That's a good thing.

However, when you lose 19-5, its a not a good thing. This was the second Brewers / Cubs game this year shown on the ESPN family of networks, but I honestly think it has more to do with the fact that ESPN loves the Cubs for some reason. The Brewers won the Opening Day matchup, but on their second go-around, they got embarrassed. No other way to put it. Throughout a 162 game season, you're bound to have a few games like the one tonight, but not on national TV!

The game got ugly early, when Jeff Suppan collapsed right in front of our eyes. I like Soup as much as the next guy, but when he pitches, you better have your bats ready. On a normal Suppan outing, runs will be given up. Tonight was a little rougher than usual for him however, giving up six runs in the first inning. The Cubs continued to tack on runs from there, including 5 in the 4th, and 6 more unnecessary runs in the 8th (all off Turnbow, no less. Gulp.) McClung pitched decent enough in relief, although the innings he pitched were anything but clean.

The Brewers did manage five runs in this run, mostly thanks to Ryan Braun. The Hebrew Hammer went 2 for 3 with 3 RBI. Mike Rivera added the other 2 runs with a 2 run shot after relieving Prince at first base. Other than that, there was nothing remarkable to speak of, just that the Brewers got pummeled on national television. Again, games like this happen, but why tonight? And why against the Cubs! Rubber match tomorrow, Gallardo vs. Zambrano.

Speaking of Yo, a reader on the JSonline Blog brought this up the other day, which I found interesting. What if we had Yovani Gallardo as the starting pitcher on every road game we played? If this were the case, he'd bat in the 8th spot, and could possibly bat in the first inning. Either way, he'd be the starting pitcher for one half inning only, and then we'd trot out the real starter to pitch come the bottom half of the inning. It sounds crazy only because its untraditional, but hey, if batting Kendall 9th works, this experiment is at the very least worth some discussion.

And let's end with some good news. Miller Park was ranked the 2nd best overall baseball park in the major league by readers of SI.com!

Box Score.

TBC's Player of the Game: Mike Rivera may never get another chance to get one of these, but we're still going to go with Ryan Braun and his 3 RBI.

(AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)