We’re back! The all-singing, all-dancing half time spectacular that is the All Star Game is over and we embark on a whole new half-season.
For my Brewers that means celebrating our first ever All Star MVP – Prince Fielder, as well as appearances from Rickie Weeks and Ryan Braun, making the Brewers the most-represented team on the National League elected starting roster. Unfortunately Braun was still suffering from a left calf strain so didn’t make it on to the actual game starting line up.
And, of course, we all know that the National League pulled their second win in a row after a long line of American League victories stretching back to the infamous tie at Miller Park back in ‘02. Not only did Fielder’s three run homer win them the game, but it was the first ever home run by a Brewer in the All Star Game. Something I’m sure a team like the Yankees take for granted, but a cause for minor celebration in Milwaukee to finally reach that milestone as a club.
I’ve titled this as Dregs at the bottom of the glass for two reasons.
The first being that as we came to the end of the first half most of the players had a little much-needed down time to kick back and think about something other than baseball for a few days (though I’m sure it’s impossible to be completely free of that during the season.) It’s as if they’ve come to the end of their first beer of the evening and are taking a minute’s bathroom break before cracking open the second.
Second; for the Brew Crew, yesterday’s game (the first of the second half of the season) was a bit of a let down. Much like reaching the bottom of your beer and getting what I like to call the float-aroundy bits souring your enjoyment of the entire beer.
The box ended up looking something like this:
Purple & Blacks: 1 1 0 4 0 1 4 1 X
Blue and Golds:Â 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
As can be seen, once again the Brewers do alright in the first third or so of each away game, but after that it still seems to come apart at the seams. Still, a post-ASG trade picked them up Francisco Rodriguez from the Mets, which should give them just that extra push they need to get back on top of the NL Central.
As we go in to the half of the season which leads to the playoffs, the NL Central sits like this:
St. Louis .533
Milwaukee .527
Pittsburgh .522
Cincinnati .489
Chicago .398
Houston .326
So, throw away the dregs from the first half and grab us all another brewski, it’s baseball time!
