Padres Out, Cardinals In

Talk about a great week for our starting pitchers to get it together. Chris Capuano, Dave Bush, Zach Jackson, and Doug Davis all notched quality starts this week, and pitched a combined total of 28 innings. This means that our bullpen had to pick up only eight innings all week, and that is great news for the Crew with the Cardinals coming to town today for a weekend series.

Chris Capuano started things off on Monday night with a win. He didn't have his best stuff, but he managed to keep the team in the game, and tossed six innings. He even contributed offensively with an RBI single. Chris took his record to 6-4, and the Crew snapped that ugly eight game losing streak, once again cementing Cappy's title of "streak stopper."

Dave Bush took over Tuesday night, and pitched a complete-game gem. Bush finished the game with only 105 pitches, 74 of them for strikes. Dave did it all on Tuesday. He was almost lights out on the mound, made some great defensive plays, and almost socked one out of the park. He had to settle for an RBI double, but still a great night for Bush. That Overbay trade just keeps looking better and better.

Zach Jackson made his first major league start on Wednesday and was fairly impressive. He gave up ten hits, but managed to induce three double-play grounders to end three different innings. Even though the team lost, Jackson didn't. The loss was credited to Matt Wise, who gave up back to back homers. The important things to take away from this, though, are that this kid came into his first major league start, pitched aggressively, showed no nerves at all, and pitched into the seventh inning. Not only that, but he almost hit one out of the park during his first major league at bat, and was on track to get a win from his first start. Did I mention that Overbay trade?

Finally, Doug Davis finished off the Padres on Thursday, throwing seven innings, holding San Diego to only thre runs, but was denied the win once again. Davis just can't catch a break when it comes to getting a decision. Besides going seven innings, the big shining bright spot of this outing for Double D was that he issued no walks. That is huge for Doug, who has been called stubborn by our on-air commentators. They say Doug would rather just walk some batters than give them something to hit. At any rate, Davis kept the guys in the game, and Brady Clark and Bill Hall delivered a win to take this series 3-1, and win the season series four games to three.

There were other heroics this week, for sure, but those of you who read this probably watch the games and read the sports sections, so you don't need me to rehash all the things you've already seen and read. I just mainly wanted to focus today on the stellar job done by our pitching staff this week. I just think it's going to be huge for us this weekend to know our bullpen is well rested and ready to take on the Cards, should the need arise.

Jorge De La Rosa takes on Mark Mulder tonight to start the series. In his last two starts, Jorge has started out strong, but faltered after a few innings. I think this might have something to do with the fact that he's still being stretched out as a starter. He went three innings in his first outing, then five in his second. If he can stay in and toss four or five strong innings tonight, keep the runs low, then our bullpen can come in and finish it off.

Mark Mulder, who carved up our Brewer hitters in the opener in St. Louis, has lost his last three starts. He's given up at least three earned runs in those last three outings, and got touched for eight against San Diego on May 28th. He's also allowed five homeruns in his last two starts, and gave up 12 hits to the Cubs on June 3rd.

Chris Capuano will challenge Jason Marquis on Saturday night. Cappy is currently 6-4, with an ERA of 3.31. He has recorded 76 K's to only 22 walks in 87 innings of work. Marquis has a record of 8-4, with an ERA of 5.03. He has notched only 32 strikeouts versus 31 walks in 77 innings. Marquis has a WHIP of 1.34 as opposed to Cappy's 1.18.

Sunday afternoon has Dave Bush facing off against Jeff Suppan. Bush's record is only 4-5, with an ERA of 4.45. His WHIP has remained low, though, at 1.14. Suppan, on the other hand, sports a 1.49 WHIP, 5.01 ERA and a record of 5-4. K's to walks for Suppan is 36 to 25, whereas Bush is 69 to 20.

Cardinals' pitchers have better records, but higher ERA's, than most of our pitchers. In my humble opinion, though, I think that has a lot to do with their power hitter Albert Pujols. I would imagine they typically get a lot of run support from him, as well as the rest of their lineup, so they can afford to give up a few runs here and there. But the Cards have lost three of the four games they've played since Pujols went on the DL. They were just swept by the Reds, and finished 3-6 in their last homestand.

I would say this is a great chance for the Crew to kick the Cards while they're down, but our guys seem to struggle against teams who have been struggling, and come on strong against the hot teams. This weekend would be a good time to reverse that trend. Until next time, go Brewers!