I got up at around 10:00 AM on Friday, ate breakfast and worked on the post for Thursday’s series finale in Cincinnati. After pounding out the dents in my license plate I found out I’ll need to get a few parts if I want to reattach it to my car; darn. I unpacked from the road trip and left for Milwaukee at 3:30. I was parked about 60 minutes later and then dropped off my twitter follower’s ticket at will call. I headed back to the general parking lot to hand out my business cards and tell people about Be The Match. I actually ran across a gentlemen who was a donor back in 1990. It was cool to hear from someone who has gone through the donor process. He said that he and the patient (somewhat secretly) communicated through the medical institutions that handled the transplant.

I went inside at 6:20 and received the two freebies that stadium staff was handing out. There’s not a sponsor on the rally towel which is somewhat rare. That’s a replica of Bernie’s mustache on the right if you didn’t put Brew and Crew together… Get it? Hahaha (it’s past my bedtime).

I made my way to section 128 for game photo number 157. I asked a man that was standing nearby if he could help me out. After I started explaining what I was looking for he (politely) suggested his wife take the picture. After taking the picture I told them all about what I was doing and why and they seemed genuinely happy for me. Thank you Mike and Karen!

I went up to the loge level and got a Polish sausage, which brings my sausage count to (some would say an unimpressive total) 97. I’ll likely finish right at the century mark, that’s a lot of encased meat!

Carla was in her seat waiting for me and right after the national anthem the Brewers awarded Ryan Braun with the We Energies High Energy Player of the Year Award. I’m not sure who else would’ve won it but fans do the voting so who knows what could’ve went down. Nice job Ryan, well deserved.

The game got started and I completely forgot about the first pitch picture until it was too late. The third pitch Yovani Gallardo threw will have to do:

An RBI single in the top of the 2nd gave the Astros an early 1-0 lead. For the second time in less than 32 hours Carlos Gomez led off the Brewers half of the 3rd inning with a solo home run. Towel waving ensued:

The game didn’t stay tied for long and in the 4th the Astros put a 2-spot on the board and duplicated the effort in the 5th. The latter coming on back-to-back home runs from Brett Wallace and Jason Castro. In the bottom of the 6th Braun doubled home Ishikawa and Weeks, and the deficit was now two at 5-3. I tried to capture all of the towel waving after Braun’s double but it’s kind of hard to see.

Braun stole third base for his 30th steal of the season. It’s back-to-back 30/30 seasons for Braun (30 HR / 30 steals) and only the 11th 40/30 season in MLB history. Very impressive, especially considering the scrutiny he has been greeted with this entire season. Not the best picture of Braun below, but nonetheless.

After the 7th inning I had a fan a few rows in front of us take a picture of Carla and me. Carla lives in Appleton and goes to about 10 games a year. She has a 10 game pack and her seats are near the aisle in 216, which is basically the mirror image of my seats in 221. She has similar opinions regarding interleague play, the designated hitter, and instant replay, so we had a good time talking baseball and taking in the game. She made a $40 donation to Be The Match for her ticket. Thanks Carla!

The two clubs traded runs in the 8th, the Brewers’ run coming on an Aramis Ramirez triple to right field… Say whaaaaaaaaa!?! It was his 3rd triple of the year, which is the same number that he hit in 2009, 2010, and 2011… combined. He’s not the quickest player on the field, thus the infrequency of triples. It’s also partially due to the fact that Wrigley Field isn’t the best triples park (where he played his home games from 2004 to 2011). I think he’s pondering “what happened out there that allowed me to get to third without even having to slide?”

The answer to his question is that the right fielder had made a sliding attempt to catch the ball and it got by him and to the wall. The Astros hit another solo home run in the top of the 9th (their 4th solo blast of the game) to take a 7-4 lead. In the bottom of the 9th Schafer singled to lead off the frame and then Segura doubled with one out to drive him in. Lucroy was up next and he hit one to 3rd that was booted so bad Segura was able to score from second.

Eric Farris pinch ran for Lucroy and I was discussing with Carla if he was going to try and steal 2nd base. Staying out of the double play and getting into scoring position would’ve been huge, but you CAN’T get thrown out while representing the tying run. Aoki was at the plate and was leading the majors in extra base hits in September, and a double would have likely tied it. Instead Aoki grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to end the game. Painful. Final score: Astros 7 – Brewers 6. It’s sad but every time I see a 7-6 score I’m going to have flashbacks to that dreadful series in Philadelphia where each game ended with the Brewers on the wrong end of that score. [Shivers].

It’s past 2:00 AM on Saturday and I’ll be leaving in about 12 hours for game two of the Astros series. I’m staying in Milwaukee Saturday night and then heading to Madison on Sunday after the game. I’ll go to Monday’s game with Victoria and then return to Madison on Monday night. On Tuesday we’ll drive to the game and then stay at her Aunt’s place in Sussex. On Wednesday we’ll do the same but then we’ll be catching a 6:00 AM flight to Vegas on Thursday for my sister’s wedding. Long story short I’m going to be quite busy over the next 7 days. There will be a ceremonial first pitch thrown in there (10/2) and a trip down Bernie’s slide as well (10/3).

Goodnight (well… good morning).

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