Home MLB'Weekly' Hit Ground Ball Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Going on a run

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Going on a run

by Matt Smith

WhgbHlSqThe confounding nature of the MLB season has yet again been preoccupying my mind.

It’s the schedule that does it.  There’s something endlessly captivating about the way teams play virtually every day.  Previously I’ve focused on the optimistic effect that this can have: allowing teams to write off a bad loss with the knowledge that they can turn things around the following day.  However, the MLB season doesn’t only allow a team to change its fortunes on any given day.  It also allows teams to carry forward their momentum in a way that no other sport can match.

Whether that is a positive or a negative depends on which way your momentum is heading. 

The Milwaukee Brewers have been on a miserable run of form lately and the daily grind of getting to the ballpark and getting beat yet again has a demoralising effect.  This was readily apparent in an ‘early’ game last Tuesday against the Cincinnati Reds.  Despite being up 4-2 heading into the ninth inning, you could sense that everyone connected to the team, from the players on the field to nervous fans on Twitter, were waiting for something bad to happen.

That’s what a seven-game losing streak does to a team in MLB.  Losing seven on the spin will hurt the confidence of any sports team, but at least in others you have the opportunity to take a week out and try to draw a mental line between the losses.  In baseball, the next game is on top of you before you know it.  The bad swings, bad pitches, bad base-running, maybe even plain bad luck, are all still hanging in the air unresolved, waiting to trip you up once again.

The Brewers had been competing well against the Reds on Monday, emboldened by Yovani Gallardo’s six strong innings.  Individual players can buck a team’s downward trend and Gallardo has been doing that in Milwaukee, but you can’t win a game on your own and when things are going badly, promising individual performances can all too readily count for naught.  Todd Coffey took over with the game tied 1-1 in the seventh inning and promptly gave up five runs.  Even a two-run rally in the top of the ninth did little to raise the spirits.  Coffey felt bad, Gallardo felt that he was fighting a losing battle; maybe manager Ken Macha even rued scoring those two forlorn late runs, wanting to take them back and use them in the next game.

MLB: April 22th, 2010

Macha might not have felt much more comfortable leading 6-2 rather than 4-2 on Tuesday because any lead doesn’t seem long enough during a losing run.  However, given the way Trevor Hoffman has pitched this season, an extra two runs would have been more than welcome.  The all-time saves leader has had a rotten year so far and it only got worse on Tuesday.  A two-run, pinch-hit homer by Scott Rolen tied the game at 4-4.  A single by Joey Votto saw the Reds running on to the field to celebrate a walk-off win and the Brewers staring in disbelief at another bullpen meltdown. Eight losses and counting.

Irrational thoughts of never winning another game would not have been eased when they let a 4-3 seventh inning lead slip against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday to send them to their ninth loss in a row.  When Chris Narveson gave up three runs in the first inning on Thursday, the Brewers were in a hopeless situation with a tenth straight loss on the cards.

But then it all changed and maybe it was that final plummet to the utter depths of hopelessness that triggered the turnaround.  The idea that they might recover from an early 3-0 deficit and win a game seemed so crazy that there was no sense in worrying any more.  With their fate apparently sealed, the Brewers could finally play with freedom.  A 4-3 win over the Buccos doesn’t ordinarily prompt scenes of wild jubilation, but a team is allowed some leeway when that win snaps a nine-game losing sequence.  Ken Macha’s men returned to their clubhouse with visions of all those 50-50 umpire calls, bad hops in the infield and weak bloopers just eluding outstretched gloves now being destined to go their way at last.

Milwaukee turned up at Target Field on Friday to take on the Twins with a bounce in their step for the first time in over a week.  And they got absolutely pounded.  Dave Bush gave up seven runs in the first inning alone as Minnesota won 15-3 and the Brewers then lost again on Saturday to make it eleven losses from twelve games.  Back to the sense of hopelessness yesterday, they edged the Twins 4-3.

So there’s the challenge for Ken Macha.  Never mind building up the team into thinking they are world beaters, he’s got to cultivate an atmosphere of utter despair to get the best out of his men.

The other side of the coin

MLB: Brewers vs Pirates MAY 11

After experiencing the joy of a walk-off on Tuesday, the Reds were on the other side of it on Thursday in a loss that the Brewers would have been proud of.  Cincinnati scored eight runs off the Atlanta Braves’ starter Tommy Hanson and were 9-3 up heading into the ninth inning, only for the Braves to mount a stunning comeback that was finished by Brooks Conrad hitting a walk-off grand slam, ‘tipped over the bar’ by Lance Nix to add an extra ‘he’s caught it, oh no he hasn’t!’ dimension to an incredible ending.

The Braves went on their own nine-game losing sequence back in April and provide hope to the Brewers that a season can turn around quickly once you get out of a deep rut. Placed in context, the Thursday comeback wasn’t quite so incredible because the Braves had earned walk-off wins in each of their previous two games.  When you’re on a losing run, any lead doesn’t seem safe.  When you’re on a winning run, no deficit looks insurmountable.

That’s why I’ve come to revise my previous thoughts on the soothing nature of the MLB schedule.  Playing every day doesn’t necessarily make you see every game as being merely 1 of 162.  It makes every individual game count for even more because they are all linked so closely together.  On any given day, the result of that individual game can start an important winning or losing sequence.

And that’s what helps to make every day of the MLB season so fascinating.

—————————-

This week’s early MLB game schedule

There are nine early MLB games this working week. After a slow start, Wednesday brings us three games from the American League before the Senior circuit takes over on Thursday and Friday.

Monday 24 May

No early games

Tuesday 25 May

No early games

Wednesday 26 May

17.05. Chicago White Sox at Cleveland (Mark Buehrle – Jake Westbrook)
19.10. Texas at Kansas City (Scott Feldman – Luke Hochevar)
20.40. Detroit at Seattle (Jeremy Bonderman – Jason Vargas)

Thursday 27 May

18.10. Houston at Milwaukee (Brett Myers – Dave Bush)
19.20. LA Dodgers at Chicago Cubs (John Ely – Ted Lilly)
20.10. Arizona at Colorado (Dan Haren – Jason Hammel)
20.45. Washington at San Francisco (Craig Stammen – Barry Zito)
23.35. St. Louis at San Diego (TBD – Wade LeBlanc)

Friday 28 May

19.20. St. Louis at Chicago Cubs (Chris Carpenter – Randy Wells)

All the above games can be followed via various resources on MLB.com (Gameday, At Bat with Gameday Audio and MLB.tv), while ESPN America’s MLB schedule can be found here. A complete schedule of MLB games can be found on MLB.com.

You may also like

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.