I was in attendance yesterday, sitting in section 207, row 17, seat 4 from about 10:30 AM to 3:30 PM.  It was, simply put, amazing.  The atmosphere, the noise, the anticipation, you could tell everything was at an all-time high.  I waited before filling my Thunder Stix, as I just wanted to sit and take in the moment.  The sell-out crowd, the fact only seven teams were still playing, the win-or-go-home magnitude of the game about to be played.  You could feel the positive energy in the place yesterday, from the team introductions through the final out.  No one wanted to leave, they didn’t want the ride to be over, but they appreciated the team for giving them a chance to take the ride.

For me, this being my first postseason experience in baseball, I loved it.  For the first time all season, there was no player bashing when someone entered the game.  The booing was a little less harsh when someone struck out to end an inning.  Maybe that showed that the fans were just happy to be there?  Maybe it meant that they understood that the players needed as much support as possible to help succeed, not jeering when they failed.

As for the game itself, while the final score shows just 6-2, the Phillies were in control almost the entire game.  The back-to-back home runs in the 3rd took so much life out of the crowd that, even though they came back and got rowdy again in the 7th-8th-9th innings, they weren’t the same.  Being down 5-0 after just three innings with an offense that had produced an average of 2.3 runs per game through the first three games made everyone realize that while a comeback was not out of the question, it was highly unlikely it was going to happen.  But that didn’t stop Brewer fans from doing everything they could to help make it happen.

I slightly questioned the decision to start Jeff Suppan yesterday.  I thought Yovani Gallardo should have taken the hill.  In a short postseason series, down 2-1, you can’t throw your #4 starter out there in a win-or-go-home game.  Some people say that Suppan’s track record was good enough to allow him to get the ball, but he had a great track record in August and September, and he was the Brewers worst starter in September.  To throw salt in the wounds, Gallardo relieved Suppan after the 3rd, and pitched three shutout, 1-hit, innings.  That gave me validation that the move to start Suppan was the wrong one.

As for the series as a whole, a bit disappointing how the starting pitching threw the ball, allowing 14 of the Phillies 15 runs for the series (11 earned).  The four starters threw for just 16 innings, while the bullpen ate up 18 innings of 1-run baseball, and that run game in the 8th-inning of yesterday’s game.

It would have been a minor miracle for the Crew to have advanced out of this series with those kinds of stats.  It became ever so apparent how much the Brewers starting rotation was in shambles at the end of the year.

Only two offensive players decided to show up also, being Ryan Braun (.313) and JJ Hardy (.429).  Bill Hall finished with the third highest batting average in the series, at .250.  Corey Hart was the only other regular to hit over .200, batting .231.  You won’t win many games when you combine that lack of offensive firepower with the short starts of the rotation.

Despite all of this, the Brewers were in Games 1 and 2, and won Game 3.  They may not have produced, but they did play hard, and gave fans something they will never forget.  Possibly the greatest site of the day was the standing ovation the team got when the game had ended and the Phillies were celebrating on the infield.  No one in the stands paid them any attention, they were all focused on showing their undying support for the Brewers, and thanking them for one of the most wild rides in the club’s history.