Pirates Surrender to Brew Crew

Well if the Brewers went into Boston thinking they weren't good enough to compete with the big boys, they responded by going into Pittsburgh knowing they were good enough to knock off the Pirates. The Brewers seemed to have somewhat of a different mentality tonight, taking care of the Pirates 7-2.

As I listened to a little of Uecker and Powell tonight, Powell was talking about how if the Brewers are going to meet their goals for the season (read: playoffs), then they are going to have to do it as a hitting team. The pitching, according to Powell, will likely struggle this season and our bats to need step up. They did just that tonight. Kendall, Hart, Braun, Cameron, and Hall all chipped in with RBI's, which included home runs by Cameron and Hart.

So the offense picked up where it left off on Sunday, but this time they can support from the pitching staff. Manny Parra pitched very well, going 5 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing just four hits and striking out six. He was then picked up by Seth McClung, who was also named Saturday's starter. McClung will pitch in place of Carlos Villanueva, who will be moved to the bullpen. Big Red will have about a 75 pitch limit on Saturday, but we're happy to see him get the chance, especially with the struggles of Carlos. Also, we've been expecting this move for weeks, which is why we're glad we picked him up in fantasy two weeks ago (It's an extremely deep league, so the pick up was justified).

Gagne came in the 9th inning to get some work in, but struggled and gave up a 2 run home run to Jason Bay. He left the game after an apparent injury, and former Pirate Solomon Torres got the last out to get the Crew their first win of this 9 game road trip.

I think the Crew need to go 4-2 in their series against Pittsburgh and Washington to avoid any sort of panic. Tonight was a good start.

Box Score.

TBC's Player of the Game: Manny Parra

(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)