One Yoshida-ing Later

 

What else can one say but 'oof'?

Even great teams can have a bad time once in a while. The Phillies got no-hit twice last year on the way to being NL Champs. The 2009 Yankees began their championship season as a beat-up mess of a team. It is perfectly alright to show weakness even in a time of great strength, which is why I do not think the Milwaukee Brewers have much to be embarrassed about after giving up 2 home runs to the same guy in the same inning and finishing the game with a 12-5 loss to a last place team.

And look, a lot of this has less to do with 'oh no, the Brewers suck' or whatever and more with the reality of Masataka Yoshida just being extremely good at baseball. You saw what he was doing in the WBC. He may still be acclimating to US pitching, but he's still an excellent smack hitter and if the Sox were better right now he'd be succeeding a bit more, I think. And both home runs were off different pitchers, both of whom seeming like weak links in an otherwise strong bullpen. 

So yesterday's game doesn't mean the Brewers are bad. It just means that they may still need some work, and it's a good thing it's still April.

What's odd to me is that, even without Luis Urias, everyone in the Brewers' infield is performing well. Rowdy Tellez is hitting up a storm. Brice Turang's having a great rookie year. Brian Anderson's having the comeback of the century and already has 5 homers and a team-leading 18 RBIs. And Willy Adames is once again making the Rays regret dealing him with some multi-tool games, excellent defense and satisfying contact energy. Even on a team with Christian Yelich, Adames might be the most fulfilling athlete on the team, and is perfectly safe to build things around. 

While it is still a bit frightening that Wade Miley is having the best season of anyone in the rotation, even weaker Corbin Burnes can still strike you out looking, and even slightly-bigger-ERA Freddy Peralta still leads the team in Ks with 23. I just find it funny that with all these hard-throwing homegrown guys, the one who's doing the best is the craftier, older journeyman. Wade Miley deserves good things, he's succeeded so many times when people have counted him out and I love it. I hope he becomes the next Rich Hill. 

Even with the Sox debacle, the Brewers still have 15 wins and are circling the top of the NL Central. They are, even with the wild Pirates, the favorite in the NL Central and are looking at some more nice wins against Detroit and Colorado coming up. Not sure if anything as wild as the Yoshida inning will occur, but the Brewers still have enough to rise above it.

Coming Tomorrow- A pitcher for the Angels not named Ohtani.