Reed Johnson managed to acquire the "scrappy" label by contributing several years of hustling service up in Canada, toiling for the Toronto Blue Jays, and while I'm generally the first person to call a scrappy player a crappy player, Reed's scrappy exploits plagued the Brewers all weekend.
First on Saturday, Reed Johnson pinch hitting in the ninth slapped a gritty single on a pretty good pitch by Carlos Villanueva. Johnson did what gritty players do, slapping a low outside pitch the other way with no power at all. A Soriano solo shot would still have been bad, but putting a guy on in front of him is always a bad idea, and that crappy little single cost the Brewers the game.
Then on Sunday Milton Bradley shockingly gets hurt while performing the strenuous activity of running from second to third. Reed Johnson, once again, is summoned to action, and promptly robs Prince Fielder of a game-tying grand slam with an unbelievable catch that Milton Bradley simply would not have made.
Of course, we can't talk about Sunday without mentioning Jeff Suppan, who, once again wasted a fine offensive showing by his supporting cast by walking 6 Cubs in 3.2 innings. The only thing Suppan should be walking is a plank. He's an innings-eater who can't get out of the third. An innings-snacker, if you will.
The Brewers now face the Reds, and are scheduled to see Bronson Arroyo, Edinson Volquez, and Micah Owings. The first part of the season for the crew has been brutal with regard to "starting pitchers faced" (Lincecum, Johnson, Cain, Harden, Zambrano, Dempster), and if my math is correct, they are likely to see Johan Santana on Friday as well.
Given the difficulty of their early schedule, it would have been nice to see them pick up a win in one of these two Suppan starts in which the offense has beaten around some pretty good pitchers. He needs to go away.
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