Brewers and Miller Park Provide Perfect Setting for Get-Right Game

When I was in high school, we had open gym a couple nights a week. Two courts would be running for a couple hours, one for the winners and one for the losers. If you fell short on the winner’s court, you’d head over and try to clean the clocks of the poor schmucks toiling away in relative obscurity on the other side of the gym. The Cubs are kinda doing the same thing this weekend.

They came into Milwaukee fresh off a series in St. Louis that left them confident that they could hang with the division’s elite, but battered nonetheless. Friday night’s opener against the Brewers provided the perfect opportunity for a get-right game and proved that the Algonquins were right when they called it “the good place.”

I can’t lie to you, friends, I’ve had a few beers tonight. That, combined with general fatigue from the week means that this flippant little recap is going to be a bit shorter than most. When it comes to rambling, though, I’m pretty well versed. So far this week, I’ve talked about varied approaches of both Kris Bryant and Starlin Castro and I’ve even (gasp!) agreed with Gordon Wittenmyer on the issues with the Cubs’ rotation.

But then, wonder of wonders, Jason Hammel goes on to pitch 7 innings that sparkled almost as brightly as Kris Bryant’s eyes and Starlin Castro smoked a home run into deep left center. If it’s alright with you (and I’m sure it is, since neither of you who will read this will probably mind much), I’m going to go ahead and take credit for the success.

So, Ryan Braun just hit a home run and the Brewers are now within a run and I’m really worried that the premise of post is going to go over about as well as a fart in church. But if the guys at the Chicago Sun-Times can maintain a shoddy narrative in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary, then dammit, so can I. I don’t care that it ended up being a one-run game and that the Broors had the winning run on and that Hector Rondon was throwing BP in the 9th.

This game was the baseball equivalent of Gone Girl; it was great for the most part, but then got really weird and was satisfying only inasmuch as it had finally just ended. But the Cubs launched four balls into the seats on Friday and I feel pretty darn good about that. So I’m going to forget about that attempt to throw the game away and I’ll just revel in Rondon’s final K and the sites of those home runs.

If you’d like a real recap, check out Nate’s piece. Otherwise, stick around and try not to swoon as you take in the sights of Ant’ny Rizzo and George Soler going yard.