Bud Norris Beats The Brewers For His Second Win

My heart sank when I saw the lineup - Erstad at first, Jason Worthless Michaels in center (guess Bourn's groin is still hurting) and all I could think was that Bud had better not let a ball get hit out of the IF. laughing So guess who drove in 5 of the 6 runs? Michaels hit 2 homers and Erstad hit an RBI double. It's what I absolutely LUUUUUV best about baseball - you really truly NEVAH know. In spite of endless mathematical formulas predicting this that and the other, each game is individual and unique and sometimes Roy Oswalt hits a home run. And sometimes, even Jason Michaels does two. And the second was off Mark DiFelice, who had given up exactly 2 homers to rightys over 29.2 IP - he had a .191 BAA and a 0.94 WHIP before getting took OWT!!! Bud Norris got attitude, he surely does. Like Clemens. He has confidence in his stuff and he is gonna throw what he thinks is the right pitch. And he'd rather walk a guy than give in. He's probably gonna get sent down or discarded like Albers/Hirsch for having attitude and dissing Pudge (shook him off a LOT) in favor for some other washed up Proven Veteran, which is really too bad. He threw 6 innings, waaaay too many balls, walked 5, gave up 2 singles and a homer to Jason "Power-Less" Kendall - his first homer of the year - toldja that indeed in this game, youneverknow, and struck out 7. Even JD was amazed that Norris threw his changeup in non-changeup counts (after shaking off Pudge, who wanted something else) and threw the slider in non-slider counts. Bud is the kind of guy who gets nicknamed "bulldog." And he's got a lethal pickoff move, too - he had Braun dead, but the ump missed the call. It's funny about guys throwing unexpected pitches - JD was raving about Fulchino throwing a splitter to a righty (Cameron) for big strike 3 with bases loaded. I guess it is a pitch he is only "supposed to" throw to leftys - probably why Cameron didn't expect it. Fulchino has most definitely been Fast Eddie's best move this year. Sampson again had trouble - he struck out the first 2 hitters, then left 2 FB up and gave up 2 singles, then Ryan Braun hit a pretty good slider for an RBI single. Chris is just NOT right. On June 26, he had a 2.06 ERA and had only allowed runs in 6 of 33 appearances. Since then, he's had 11 appearances and in only 2, has he given up no runs of his own or inherited runs, and he's almost doubled his ERA - it is now 3.93. I just hope that he doesn't ruin his shoulder/hip so badly that he can't right himself afterwards. And speaking of righting himself, Hunter Pence looks just awful. If Bourn is back tomorrow, Pence really SHOULD take a few days off to just, like regroup or something. As Berkman did bacak in early May. His BA isn't terrible because he usually manages to get an IF hit or a single through a hole once a game, so he isn't constantly going ofer, but he's just not hitting line drives and he swinging at pitches he should be taking. sigh Saturday, it's Hampton vs Manny Parra Hampton has faced the Brewers twice this year already and given up 4ER/6 IP and 2 ER/4 IP (the finger owie game.) Manny Parra, LHP, regressed significantly this yearm and was actually sent back down to AAA between June 13 and July 10 - where he pitched very well, and he has done a bit better since being called back up - he had a 7.52 ERA when he was sent down and he posted a 3.75 ERA over 4 games/24 IP in July and gave up 4 ER over 8 IP vs the Dodgers in August so far. Career vs Houston, he's 3-3 in 6 GS over 31.1 IP - 42 H, 6 HR, 17 BB, 23 K - 1.88 WHIP/4.88 ERA. Should be a slugfest.