Two Weeks to Go and Still in It

Milwaukee JS Photo/by Rick Wood

I took in the Brewers 5-2 victory over the Reds on Sunday afternoon. The crowd was a little more raucous than usual - the fans are starting get the idea that the Brewers really are in a pennant race. After sellouts on Friday and Saturday, the crowd was also quite a bit smaller around 30,000- probably due to competition from the Packers (One clown sitting a few rows in front of us thought it was highly entertaining for him to stand up and give Packer updates without regard to the action on the field!).

Joe Dillon, who has a pretty good story after having retired from baseball in 2003 due to back problems, knocked two huge doubles that plated four runs for the Brewers. Craig Counsell, starting for Ryan Braun, made a nice play in the field and scored twice. Dillon and and Counsell made Ned Yost look good. And so did Carlos Villanueva who turned in 7 innings and was really sharp after the first inning. Villanueva has been solid since moving into the rotation about 2 weeks ago.

Fourteen games to go. The Brewers are one game behind the Cubs, but they have two games in hand - both teams have 72 games so the Brewers once again control their own fate despite trailing in the standings. The Cubs have six games at home this week against Pittsburgh and Cincinnati and then hit the road to Florida and Cincinnati for the final six games. The Brewers head to Houston for three games and then Atlanta for four. The Brewers close out the schedule at home against the Cardinals and San Diego Padres. The Brewers have the tougher schedule no doubt about it. But there it is, that's who they play. You want to get in the playoffs, you ought to win some tough games down the stretch.

And is that the Brewers scheduled to be on Fox Sports' Game of the Week this Saturday?