Swami’s Spring Training Brewer Report, Vol. 6, No. 6

“You have two hemispheres in your brain—a left side and a right side. The left side controls the ride side of your body, and the right side controls the left half. It’s a fact. Therefore, left handers are the only people in their right minds.” - Bill “Spaceman” Lee , former Red Sox lefthander

It had all the makings of a great day at the Brewers’ Maryvale Park today… ½ price seats in the outfield reserve section, ½ price spring training merchandise in the Fan Zone, beautiful 78 degree weather and the company of good friends, Joan and Jim Manning of Sioux City, Iowa. Too bad the Crew loused it all up by playing a real stinkeroo in bowing 9-7 to Ned Yost’s Kansas City Royals in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicates. Milwaukee did most of its scoring in the late innings with subs on the field after falling behind 9-1 with their Opening Day Lineup on the field. Well, maybe Zack Greinke will start the first game instead of Yovani Gallardo, and Corey Hart or somebody will be in right field instead of Caleb Gindl, but the rest of the starters slept-walked through the first seven innings in a sorry performance.

The upstart young Royals, traditionally a woeful outfit but picked by some to finish as high as third in the American League’s Central Division this year. outpitched, outhit, and outhustled the Brewers before a sparse gathering of 2,652, the smallest crowd we’ve seen in five outings at Maryvale this month.

BATS EXPLODE – The Royals blasted five home runs of Brewer pitching, two off Gallardo in five innings of work, two off Mike McClendon in two innings and one off of Jose Veras in a single frame of pitching. None were cheapies either although the most prodigious wallop of the day was Mat Gamel’s towering drive, his club-leading fourth of the spring, in the fifth for the Brewers. Yuni Bettancourt, back with KC and playing second base, hammered the first pitch (yes he swung at the first pitch) of the second inning to put the Royals on top 1-0 and the rout was on.

KC blew it open in the third off Gallardo when Lorenzo Cain slammed a solid one-out double off the right field wall to get things started. Brewer fans will remember Cain as the promising center fielder that Milwaukee traded to the Royals along with Alcides Escobar to get Greinke before the 2011 campaign. He’s hitting .431 with 22 hits in 51 AB’s to rank as the top hitter in all of spring training, including the Florida clubs!! (You’ll hear more of him as the season progresses.)

Meanwhile, back at the bombardment, young Eric Hosmer socked the first of his two homers on the day to put KC ahead 3-0. Billy Butler then laced another double to move into scoring position. Jeff Francouer followed with a smash to shortstop Alex Gonzales, who briefly looked Francouer back to second and fired over to Gamel for the out. But Gamel then attempted to get Francouer at third, and instead unleashed a horrible throw that sailed past Aramis Ramirez as Francouer sped home to make it 4-0. Mike Moustakas added yet another double before Bettancourt flied out to temporally end the onslaught. The Royals went back to the bombing in the next three innings against Veras and McClendon to give KC an 8-run advantage before the rookies and free agents made it close in the final couple of frames,

YUNI SPARKLES – No way am I suggesting that Milwaukee should have kept Bettancourt, but you had to marvel at his play on Gallardo’s smash up the middle with Gindl on first in the fifth inning. Yuni made a brilliant behind-the-back flip to Escobar for the force on the hard-charging Gindl, and Escobar’s swift relay beat Gallardo at first for the double play. In addition to his homer, Yuni had another hit for KC and drew a four-pitch walk (yes, he actually laid off four straight pitches). You could almost see Yost smirking in the Royals’ dugout. Most fans remember when he was dumped as the Brewers manager with just nine games left in the 2008 season, only to see the Crew qualify for the playoffs with Dale Sveum as interim manager.

WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?….Jonathon Lucroy had two more hits to move his average up to a team-leading .486. However he was involved in a bizarre episode in the second inning, something I don’t think I’ve ever seen, at least in the big leagues. Upon stroking a solid single to right, he lit off for first base, whereupon Francour picked up the ball in the outfield and fired to first base trying to beat the admittedly slow-footed Lucroy!! The throw wasn’t even close to nailing Lucroy. In fact it sailed way over the first baseman’s head! Fortunately for KC, the catcher was backing up the play and Lucroy had to hold. Shortly thereafter, the Brewers strangely had Lucroy try to steal second, but he was called out, though most fans disagreed with the umpire.

TID-BITS – Alex Gonzalez, back from a bruised heel, laced a home run off the left field foul (fair?) pole in the seventh…Ryan Braun is hitting just .143. He appears to be just a click off on many pitches, as he fouled several back to the screen. But in the third, with Gindl and Rickie Weeks aboard and two down, he struck out feebly against Bruce Chen, and Chen is a lefthander!

….When one of my favorite vendors tried peddling scorecards in the early innings, a fan asked if they were ½ price like the merchandise is the Fan Zone. “Whadda yah mean?,” the hawker retorted. “You want just half a program?”

REFRESHING – Scoring six runs on six hits in the final three frames, the Brewers’ non-regulars added some spark to a otherwise lackluster Milwaukee performance. You’ll be hearing more about guys like Logan Schafer, Brooks Conrad, Travis Ishikawa, Cesar Izturis, Scooter Gennett, Caleb Gindl and Taylor Green. A couple may make the Opening Day roster. Others may get called up if a regular gets injured. And others, like Cain unfortunately, will depart in trades that the Brewer Brass deems necessary in the weeks and months ahead.

Till Sunday, when we watch our final game here,

Your humble scribe,

Ed “Swami” Schlumpf