Lucky #13

How about Zach Jackson tonight? True, it wasn't a quality start, but he kept his team in the game, and his team gave him his first major league win as the Brewers defeated the Reds 6-5 in Cincinnati. Congratulations Zach on a job well done.

Zach, in only his second big league start, pitched seven strong innings. It wasn't necessarily a pretty outing for Zach, allowing four home runs, nine hits and five earned runs. But he struck out six, and walked none. That is huge. This kid came up from AA, and has been outstanding. He spent only one year in the minors, but is pitching like he's been the majors for years. He's confident and aggressive, and doesn't get rattled easily. He's doing what Dana Eveland, Justin Lehr and all the others couldn't do; go after batters, keep the team in the game, and eat up a lot of innings.

Jackson's seven-inning stint preserved the bullpen, who had to eat up five innings yesterday when Bush couldn't go the distance, and five innings on Friday, when De La Rosa left the game with his finger ailment. If you haven't figured it out, I'm trying to avoid talking too much about the weekend series, as there wasn't much good to write about except, of course, Chris Capuano, who recorded his 13th quality start of the season. (Incidentally, I was at Alpine Valley Saturday night at the Jimmy Buffett concert, with my sports radio in hand, following the game between songs!)

But I digress. The point is that our bullpen is once again rested and should be ready to go tomorrow, if need be. Hopefully it shouldn't come to that, as Doug Davis gets the start tomorrow, and has been throwing the ball much better lately.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention Bill Hall and his outstanding catch tonight. I thought for sure that ball would hit, but Bill made an amazing belly-flop catch to record the out. What an athlete that guy is. Once again, Doug Melvin, I'm begging you. Multi-year contract!!

As I have mentioned repeatedly, the team wins when everyone contributes offensively. Once again, everyone in the lineup, except Jackson, got a hit, a walk, or hit by a pitch. Rickie Weeks was on fire at the plate tonight, notching three hits, an RBI and a run scored. His good buddy Prince Fielder chipped in with two hits, two RBI's and a run scored.

All told, tonight was just a great effort by everyone on the team. There were outstanding defensive plays, smart at bats that resulted in walks and runs scored, and confident aggressive pitching. The holy trinity will win it every time.

As I mentioned, Doug Davis takes the mound tomorrow night against Bronson Arroyo in game 2 of the series. Arroyo has been pitching very well since joining the Reds, carrying an ERA of 2.31 and a record of 8-2. On the other hand, Doug is starting to become more consistent in his outings, and pitched seven innings in his last start, allowing only three earned runs. The Brewers need to jump on Arroyo early and make the Reds go to their bullpen, which has been struggling lately.

TO TRADE OR NOT TO TRADE?

I would also be remiss if I didn't address the Geoff Jenkins trade issue. One of my readers brought to my attention that I have been silent on the subject of Jenkins. (Thanks, Steven!) There has been a lot of talk lately about possible trades involving either Jenkins or Carlos Lee. Even Journal Sentinel columnist Michael Hunt put his two cents in today. I'm no GM, so I don't really understand all the finer workings of trades and salaries and such. Jenkins has been consistently productive, on average. The problem is that he goes through low lows and high highs. All those streaks and slumps average out to pretty good numbers over the course of his career. But it seems that he streaks when it really doesn't matter, i.e. we're already out of the hunt.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I apologized to Jenks for badmouthing him last season when he went through his slump before the All Star break. I felt bad because he had been on such a tear since then. Well I'm back to badmouthing, and this time, I won't apologize! I hate to see one of our "power hitters" go through such a slump, but I have to trust that the GM and Mr. Attanasio will do what's best for the team when decision time rolls around. I do know that Mark and Doug have money to work with, although the exact amount wasn't revealed. (Doug let that little tidbit slip at the Pen and Mike Luncheon last month.) So like everyone else, I will continue to jump and down and curse the television when Jenkins records 2-4 punchouts per game, and jump and down and scream when he starts hitting again. And like everyone else, I will wait and see what happens come July 31st.

Until next time, go Brewers!