Somebody loses a series in May and some young player talks about a particular defeat being a huge loss, and you think: Not really. You think: It's a long season, with a whole lot of tomorrows.
But now the shadows are lengthening, leaves are fluttering off maple trees, and the baseball season has reached the point when losses are actually devastating, when teams are being driven closer to the brink of elimination. That's why it seemed ominous, for the first nine innings on Thursday, how the Brewers kept blowing chances on the bases, even as they constructed a solid lead.
The Brewers were still less than a day since watching
Ben Sheets walk off the mound with an arm problem -- perhaps for the last time
as a member of the Milwaukee professional baseball club -- and they were in need of heroes. And for the first nine innings Thursday, they found some.
Dave Bush, bearing an ugly history against the Cubs, pitched well on three days' rest, allowing two runs in five innings.
Corey Hart, who has slumped for much of September, had a couple of hits and drove in a run, and by the top of the ninth inning, they extended their lead to 6-2.
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Buster Olney
