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| Courtyard Milwaukee Downtown |
Two time-honored baseball cliches came to life Monday
night, killing the Milwaukee Brewers in the process.
A crowd of 15,522 at County Stadium learned why the
sport is frequently called a game of inches and why pitching coaches often tell
anyone who will listen that you live and die with your bullpen.
Hoping to do a little spring cleaning and sweep their
four-game series against the Chicago White Sox, the Brewers instead saw both
adages haunt them during an 8-5 American League loss.
With the score tied at 5, two runners on base and an
0-2 count, Milwaukee closer Doug Jones tried to sneak a fastball by Mike
Cameron. Instead, Cameron sliced it just fair into the right-field corner for a
crushing two-run triple.
"On 0-2, I was trying to throw a fastball out of the
zone,'' Jones said. "But it caught too much of the plate, and you saw what
happened. It was a mistake, and he made me pay. Sometimes you make 10 mistakes
and they let you off the hook.''
Frank Thomas started the winning rally with one out,
stroking another 0-2 pitch for a base hit. Jones retired Albert Belle -- who
had his White Sox franchise record-tying 27-game hitting streak come to an end
-- then gave up a single to Lyle Mouton before Cameron's decisive at-bat.
An RBI single by Ozzie Guillen capped a miserable
night for the Milwaukee bullpen, which gave up six runs in three innings and
blew a potential win for starter Scott Karl.
"A sweep would have been nice, but it's awful hard to
do in a four-game series,'' manager Phil Garner said after Milwaukee (26-26)
snapped its four-game winning streak. "Our bullpen just didn't get it done
tonight, plain and simple.''
With more plot twists than a James Bond movie, the
final two innings were anything but plain and simple. Nursing a 3-2 lead thanks
to David Nilsson's sixth-inning solo home run off White Sox starter Wilson
Alvarez, reliever Mike Fetters walked Mouton to start the eighth.
After a one-out single by Guillen, Garner hooked
Fetters for left-hander Ron Villone -- who began the night leading the major
leagues in stranding inherited runners (17-of-18).
Villone retired pinch-hitter Harold Baines on a
grounder for the second out, but Dave Martinez followed by roping a low 1-0
fastball off the right-field foul pole for a stunning three-run homer that put
Chicago on top, 5-3.
"You can call it a game of inches, but give them
credit for coming up with the big hits when it really mattered,'' said Nilsson,
who had seven hits in 15 at-bats during the series. "We came up with some
ourselves to battle back, but they finished the job.''
Milwaukee did pull even in the bottom of the eighth
against reliever Chuck McElroy. Nilsson drew a leadoff walk, moved to second on
a forceout and came home when Todd Dunn -- making his first start of the year
-- roped a double down the left-field line.
Mark Loretta smacked McElroy's next pitch up the
middle to score Dunn and tie the game. Whatever momentum that rally generated,
however, did not last long.
Pitching for a third straight day, Jones came up one strike
short of preserving that deadlock. On the other side, Cameron was thrilled to
make amends after striking out in his previous time up on a botched bunt
attempt.
"I was hoping and praying it would stay fair,''
Cameron said of his winning triple. "With two strikes, you're just trying to
put it in play. That was a real tough situation, but I wanted a shot at it. It
picked us up big-time, and we really needed the lift.''
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