Ballpark is an occasional series of posts following the Brewers season. In this post, I’ll talk about the Brewers’ opening series of the 2008 season.
St. Louis may be a serious rival, but no Brewers fan doubts that the greater rivalry is with the Cubs. Like the Brewers, the Cubs have been a regular-season-and-out team. Perhaps that common condition makes the Cubs the more disliked adversary.
They’re also closer by, with fans who often seem to envelop Miller Park when two teams play there. The Brewers have fairly good attendance, and Cubs fans happily contribute to those positive statistics. When the teams play at Wrigley, I have never seen the same show of support from Brewers fans as I have when Cubs fans come to Milwaukee.
The Brewers won the series, 2-1, taking the first two games, and dropping only the third. I write dropping only the third because, for almost all teams, it’s hard to sweep a series. Brewers won the first game 4-3 in 10 innings (Gagne pitching), and the second game 8-2 (Suppan pitching). (They lost the third game 3-6.)
Hopeful signs: winning the series, pushing on to win the first game in 10 innings while in Chicago (rather than let it slip away), and playing relatively well against a division rival.
That’s the key to this season — win the division, or sit home in October. Most commentators expect the Brewers to come in second this year in the NL Central, but I’m not so sure. Ninety games can win the division, and the Brewers were not far from that mark last year. (Right now, St. Louis sits atop in the NL Central, with the Cubs and Brewers close behind.)
Sheets will have to stay healthy, and Yost will have to think carefully about more than the next two weeks’ games.
Still, it’s possible.