Ready to Take a Few from the Brew Crew

The Cardinals - Brewers series will decide which ultimate fan will get to take home a double dose of Jeff Bridges action.

Since the last post the Cardinals have been on a bit of a hot streak.  It goes a little something like this

2 out of 3 vs the Astros

2 out of 3 vs the Braves
2 out of 4 vs the Marlins

It is this middle series of the 2 out of 3 wins vs the Braves that had the most positive impact on the team me though.  I had substantial bets going with my 2 friends that are Braves fans.  Along with the series the Cardinals took home a 6 pack of beer and free pizza lunch (which they gave to me of course).  In an ironic show of bullpen melt downs, it was the Cardinals' pen that stood strong.  The Braves young gunz of Kimbrel and Co. proceeded to give up game winning hits to the likes of Laird and Descalso.  

In all seriousness I think the biggest series was splitting with the Marlins.  That team is looking extremely good and the Cardinals showed a lot of character to come out with 2 games, especially the final game in facing Marlin's ace Josh Johnson.  Eduardo Sanchez had a nice bounce back save after being tagged with the loss the day before.

Now it is time to look towards the future.  Today the Cardinals open a 3 game set at home vs the Milwaukee Brewers.  The Brewers have been in a bit of a rut offensively and ace Yovani Gallardo has yet to put it all together this year (much to my chagrin as I own him in my fantasy league).  Still I never count the Brewers out even if they are down.  It really only takes 1 series for a team to turn it around, as we saw the Cardinals start to do in the SF Giants series.  

Tonight's match up is Jaime Garcia vs Randy One-Man Wolf (Pack).  The Cardinals offense currently being led by Lance Berkman and Matt Holliday who should give the Brewers plenty of trouble though.  The Crew has powerful line up their own featuring Weaks, Braun, Fielder and McGehee.  Absent from both line ups is Cardinal favorite and in recent years NL Central mainstead Jim Edmonds.  Hopefully he gets on with the Pirates or Astros as he continues to make the circuit around the division.

As far as teams I dislike go, the Brewers have moved down in recent years to make room for the Reds.  That dislike reached its peak 3 years ago when the Cardinals kept trying to get some momentum going to make the playoffs.  This was the year of the Izzy meltdowns.  Every time the Cardinals would get going, they would face the Brewers who would promptly sweep them, untuck their jerseys and leave the Cardinals shaking their heads. 

By the way, I am issuing a public apology to Lance Berkman, I was very wrong about the Cardinals acquisition of him.  At the time I thought it was a terrible move.  I saw it as the Cardinals adding another old white guy to the team for TLR to reminisce about the good ole' days.  His early season tear has left me trying to take my foot out of my mouth. 

Probably the biggest thing to keep in mind with this series is the high stakes bet that has been made between myself and my friend, and fellow blog rant enthusiast, Frank Grimes.  A copy of Tron Legacy is riding on this series.  As you all know Tron Legacy is one of the best movies to come out in recent memory other than the movies Gamer and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.  How can you not enjoy a good flick with Jeff Bridges?  And in this movie he plays not 1, but 2 characters!  That is double your entertainment value.

However, if the Cardinals lose the series I will have to buy the Blue Ray version of it.  Ray Patterson doesn't own a blue ray player as you might have figured, but rather uses his (friends) original halo edition xbox to watch dvds.  Let the fat cat brewers fans spend their lavish earnings on fancy blue ray dvds, I'll stick with good ole fashioned vhs dvds.