Tough day all around
Crew does little to help itself in loss
NEW YORK – The Milwaukee Brewers were frustrated at times Monday with the strike zone of home plate umpire CB Bucknor and understandably so. Some balls were called strikes and some strikes were called balls.
“It was a tough strike zone,” Brewers catcher Manny Piña said. “It’s hard when it’s inconsistent like that.”
It’s never fun when you have to guess what’s a ball and what’s a strike, but that’s not why the Brewers lost, 4-2, to the New York Mets. They didn’t help themselves enough at the plate or on the mound in a close game where little things mattered.
Mets right-hander Robert Gsellman proved to be a twoway threat, limiting the Brewers to three hits and one earned run over seven innings and finishing with two runs batted in – the difference in the outcome.
“Gsellman threw a hell of a game,” said Brewers starter Matt Garza, who had the best of the pitching duel until a three-run rally in the fifth.
“Sometimes you’re on the losing side of games like this, so you just regroup and get ready for the next one.”
The best chance the Brewers had for early damage against Gsellman came in the third inning when they had two on and one down with Jesus Aguilar at the plate. Manager
Craig Counsell noted before the game that Aguilar had been striking the ball hard consistently and he did so again but the result this time was a 4-6-3 double play.
“That was a very hard-hit ball,” Counsell said. “That was a rocket right at (second baseman Wilmer) Flores.
“But the other innings were really quiet. We had three hits going into the ninth inning, so there wasn’t much happening.”
Gsellman is not known for his offensive prowess (he was batting .071 entering the game) but got enough wood on the ball to deliver a sacrifice fly against Garza in the three-run fifth. The next inning, he drew a bases-loaded walk off reliever Rob Scahill to force in what proved to be an insurance run.
With a 2-2 count on Gsellman, Scahill threw two borderline pitches that Bucknor called balls.
“The last one was a little low but the one he called ball three, I thought was a strike,” Piña said.
Asked about those close pitches, Counsell said, “You can say that but it’s a matchup we want. We’ll take it every time with any one of our guys. You’ve got to get that guy out. The walk is the last thing that can happen there.”
In other words, don’t put yourself in position for the umpire to squeeze the strike zone. With the pitcher batting, throw the ball right down the middle with the bases loaded and take your chances.
Piña learned not to take anything for granted when he was rung up by Bucknor after a home run by Domingo Santana with two down in the sixth. Pitch-tracking systems showed the fifth and sixth pitches from Gsellman to be in the same spot off the plate. The fifth was called a ball and the sixth was called strike three.
That was still in the back of Piña’s mind in the ninth inning when he struck out against Mets closer Addison Reed on a slider off the plate with two on and no outs. The last time Piña faced Reed, he delivered a dramatic three-run homer that gave the Brewers an incredible 11-9 victory over the Mets on Mother’s Day at Miller Park, overcoming what had been a six-run deficit.
That day, the Brewers did more than enough to guarantee a victory. This time, not so much.
And now for the good news. Despite losing six of their last eight games, the Brewers are in first place in the National League Central, thanks to recent slides by the Cubs and Cardinals.
And Memorial Day has come and gone.