In a battle of two teams mired in mediocrity for the better part of the last decade and a half, it was the newer-comer to the party whose run ended early. When the Philadelphia Phillies won the first game of their NLDS matchup with the Milwaukee Brewers, it was their first playoff victory since the 1993 run to the World Series.
After the Phils beat the Brewers 6-2 at Miller Park Sunday afternoon, it was their first playoff series victory since that same year. Sure, 15 years is a long time, but how about 26?
Brewers fans could sulk, and pout, talking about how close they were to winning this series, despite what the 1-3 final record might indicate. Management could overreact and feel the need to go out and spend millions on “playoff tested” veterans. What? Like Jeff Suppan, Mike Cameron, and Eric Gagne?
This Philadelphia Phillies team will likely go to the World Series and could really give the AL representative (like the Red Sox?) a great series. The Phils have a complete team, and this looks like it could be their year. With contracts coming up, it could be a very different team next year and in the coming seasons.
The same cannot be said for Milwaukee. The core of this Brewers team is locked up for the foreseeable future. If Doug Melvin and Mark Attanasio believe this set of young players can win in the playoffs, which it appears they do, then all they need is patience. After all, patience got them this far.
The Brewers minor-league system produced just about every key contributor to this 2008 Brewers team, including the handful of All-Stars who battled back after giving away the Wild Card lead in early September.
Even with Ben Sheets and CC Sabathia likely headed out the door this offseason, the Brewer’s future remains bright, with one of the most-stocked farm systems in ball. This team just has to find a way to play consistently.
Firing Ned Yost didn’t change anything but the lineup. It was the same players taking poor approaches at the plate, not making pitches, and not playing solid defense. If you pay tens of millions of dollars to a playoff pitcher, he can’t give up three home runs at home in an elimination game.
If you pay a former Cy Young closer $10 million, he can’t blow seven of his 17 save opportunities, post a 5.44 ERA, and not close games for you after May.
But it wasn’t Jeff Suppan or Eric Gagne that cost the Brewers the Central this season, or who lost this playoff series. In fact, Gagne was stellar against the Phils.
The problem was the struggling young hitters on this team. Two 24-year-old sluggers make the Brewer offense run. Prince didn’t show up in the playoffs until the seventh inning in Game Four, when he hit an absolute monster blast off Joe Blanton to pull the Brewers within three. Inexplicably, that was Fielder’s first hit of the series.
Ryan Braun went 4-15 with just one RBI in his first trip to the postseason. Corey Hart, an All-Star this year and the Brewers' most reliable hitter with runners in scoring position was a mess with a 2-11 series, no extra base hits, and three K’s.
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