American Woman – The Guess Who
Sally – Sade
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road – Elton John
He – The Righteous Brothers
A Matter Of Minutes – Shawn Colvin
I.G.Y. – Donald Fagen
The Way -- Fastball
Saturday, August 31, 2019
Friday, August 30, 2019
August 28, 2019 – Brewers 4, Cardinals 1 – Miller Park (Milwaukee)
Weather: 70 degrees, Partly Cloudy.
Wind: 21 mph, Out To LF.
Umpires: HP--Woodring, 1B--Torres, 2B--Hernandez, 3B--Marquez.
Time: 2:50
Attendance: 33,045
Section 217, Row 6, Seat 19 – second level, just to the first base side
of home plate
As I was in the bag-inspection line to enter the park, the woman behind
me was looking at the list of prohibited items, and asked me why anyone would
want to bring a broom to a baseball game. I explained to her the concept of “sweep”,
and how we hoped that it would not be an issue that afternoon. Fortunately for
those in the crowd not wearing bright red, the home team combined excellent
pitching and timely hitting to salvage the final game of the series and remain
on the fringes of the wild-card race.
Jordan Lyles continued his post-trade revival, fanning 5 of the first 7
Cards he faced, and 9 in all. After he gave up a leadoff homer to Kolten Wong
in the top of the 6th, then allowed 2 of the next 3 batters to reach
base, Junior Guerra induced the red-hot Yadi Molina to ground into a double
play, then struck out the side in the 7th. The slumping Josh Hader pitched
the final two innings for the save, allowing only a Wong double in the 8th.
Meanwhile, Milwaukee made the most of its six hits, pushing across
single runs in four of their eight times up. Second baseman Keston Hiura drove
in three of the runs, with a groundout in the 1st, a homer in the 4th,
and a double in the 8th.
Kids and seniors got 50% off on all tickets, and seniors got to stroll
on the warning track after the game. (No “special ticket” required: Nats please
take note.) I decided to avoid the interstates on both legs of the drive –
slower, but less stress.
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
August 27, 2019 – Cardinals 6, Brewers 3 – Miller Park (Milwaukee)
Weather: 77 degrees, Partly Cloudy.
Wind: 13 mph, R To L.
Umpires: HP--Marquez, 1B--Woodring, 2B--Torres, 3B--Hernandez.
Time: 3:27 (:09 delay)
Attendance: 36,690
Section 124, Row 18, Seat 1 – lower level, just beyond third base
This turned out to be a great game (for non-Brewers fans anyway), with
a pitchers’ duel at the beginning, 7 runs scored in the last 3 innings,
suspense to the very end, and what was probably one of the shortest rain delays
in MLB history.
The Brewers kicked off the scoring with a two-out RBI single by Orlando
Arcia in the second. St. Louis responded two innings later on a solo homer by
Yadier Molina. That’s the way it stayed until the seventh, with Adrian Houser lasting
5 innings for Milwaukee before leaving with hip discomfort and Miles Mikolas
going 6 for the Cards. St. Louis pulled ahead before the stretch with 3 off ex-Nat
Matt Albers, highlighted by another Molina dinger, this time with a man on
first. Milwaukee narrowed the lead with a 2-run Yasmani Grandal shot in the
bottom of the 8th off Andrew Miller, but the Cards answered right
back with 2 in the top of the 9th, starting off with a Molina
double. Hope seemed lost as St. Louis closer Carlos Martinez retired the first
2 Brewers in the bottom of the inning, but after an infield single and a
4-pitch walk, Hernan Perez came to the plate representing the potential tying
run. On a 1-2 count, he sent a 97-mph high fastball deep to right-center, but
Dexter Fowler made a leaping catch at the wall, directly in front of the Cards’
bullpen, to nail down the win.
Just about all of us were astonished when, with 2 outs in the top of
the 7th, the skies opened up, sending many fans scurrying for cover
(I was far enough back to stay dry) and the players off the field. Fortunately,
the roof closed perfectly (to the strains of “Who’ll Stop The Rain”), and play
resumed less than 10 minutes later.
I was also bemused when Christian Yelich used the Police’s “Roxanne” as
his walk-up music during his first at-bat. Turns out there was a story behind
that.
The stadium is reasonably nice, although the all-weather design of
necessity makes it less airy and open than many. The same stands tended to
repeat throughout the lower level, with not as much variety as I would have
liked. I had a brat (OK) and custard (terrific). Getting in and out of the
parking lots was not as difficult as I had feared, although it’s definitely not
for the faint of heart. (Things were reasonably well-marked, although they could
stand to freshen up the lane striping on their roads.)
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