The new season is officially under way for the Milwaukee Brewers, and while they didn't come out of the day with a "W," they played some pretty good baseball in places.
The best performance of the day from someone in a Brewer uniform belonged to new center fielder Carlos Gomez.
He had four hits in five at-bats with a double, solo home run, stolen base, and two runs scored. Gomez also played well in center field to cap off a memorable Milwaukee debut.
The same cannot be said for Jim Edmonds on this day. Striking out swinging in both the first and third innings, with runners on base both times, along with getting doubled off second base...well, let's just say it's an Opening Day that the veteran outfielder won't be too fond of telling stories about.
Overall, the Brewers played well enough to give themselves a chance at victory. Had they done better than 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position and therefore not left 11 runners on base, the score could have looked much different.
That being said, I think they had a bit of bad luck today, including in the bottom of the ninth inning. With two men on, one run in, and only one out, Prince Fielder and Edmonds hit hard line drives back-to-back, only to have the baseballs settle into infielders' gloves.
It happens.
The bottom line for me in this one was that the key players on offense performed fairly, Chris Narveson (2.0 IP, 3 H, 1 BB, 1 ER) pitched okay in relief of Yovani Gallardo (who pitched seven innings and struck out five in his own right), and everyone made it through the Opening Day jitters and nerves without any major meltdowns.
It'll be a long year to be sure, but one that should be filled with great performances and like results.
The Brewers failed to win this one, falling 5-3 to Ubaldo Jimenez and the Colorado Rockies, but based on what I witnessed on the field in person today, I have plenty of confidence in the team to win more often than not.
I'll be at the game tomorrow, as well as Wednesday, so I'll have firsthand accounts of those games as well. Even though the Brewers went 0-6 against the Rockies in 2009, I fully anticipate a victory right around 9:45 pm or so.
Come on out to the ballpark and support the team as we fans try to eclipse three million fans for the third year in a row.
Go Brewers!
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