A win! Hallelujah!

So the Browns finally put an actual number in the win column. I know that zero is technically a number, but you know what I mean. For the first time in eight games, including preseason, our team sucked less than the other team with whom they shared the field. Said other team, in this case the winless Cincinnati Bengals, were playing without their Pro Bowl quarterback, which clearly made a big difference in the Browns' 20-12 victory. But hey, a win's a win.

The Browns' defense played pretty well -- albeit, as previously mentioned, against a crippled Bengals O -- but our offense was pitiful until the fourth quarter. Derek Anderson, who was such a sensation last year, was 8-for-16 for just 72 yards going into the final frame, with a pick, which was pretty typical of his performance thus far this year. I'm sure I wasn't the only one thinking it was time to give Brady Quinn a shot. But as the Browns languished with a 6-3 deficit, D.A. finally turned it around. He went 7-for-8 in the last 15 minutes, for 66 yards and a touchdown, and led three scoring drives.

Jamal Lewis ran the ball 25 times, which worked pretty well until the last two plays of the first drive. Once the Bengals realized the Browns were just going to try to stuff it down their throats, they were able to hold the running game in check. Lewis only had 79 yards on those 25 carries, which is a 3.2 average per rush.

The star of the game? Ask me, it's DB Mike Adams, who got an interception and recovered a fumble.

CC wouldn't have gotten Tribe into the playoffs

Loyal Of Fair Hooker reader Jeff Brown weighs in with a theory that Mark Shapiro might have jumped the gun on trading CC Sabathia:

The Indians' cataclysmic season now shows them just 6 games out of first place. After being eliminated ages ago, they have been showing how good of a team they could have been (should have been?) all along.

Think for a moment, Steve -- they traded away C.C. Sabathia very early in the trading period, and if they had kept him, would he have been worth an additional 6 wins? 5? 4? Given the way he pitched in July and August, I surely think so. One has to second-guess GM Shapiro's decision to trade all of their players away, given that they could have made the playoffs in spite of their early-season struggles. Do you agree?

Well, let's take an objective look at that question. It's true that, had the Tribe held on to CC, and had he pitched as well for them as he has for the Brewers, they would likely have won at least a few more games. But it's hard for any player, no matter how well he plays, to make a six-game difference for his team.

Yes, CC has gone 10-2 (pending today's game) for the Beermakers, but before we go any further with those numbers, we must remember that he has done that in the National League, and these days, the senior circuit is clearly the junior varsity. The American League went 149-102 against the NL this year, a .594 winning percentage. That would work out to a 96-66 record over a 162-game season. Translate Carsten's 10-2 into AL numbers, and it's more like 8-4. (10-2 is a winning percentage of .833. If you multiply that by the baseline .500, divide by .594 and multiply again by 12, you come out with 8.4 wins.) CC would likely have taken most of the starts made by Zach Jackson and Anthony Reyes, who have combined for a 4-4 record. So that wouldn't have made a six-game difference. At most, that's a four-game difference, but 8-4 isn't really four games better than 4-4. If an 8-4 team were in the same division as a 4-4 team, they'd be considered two games ahead. And yes, pitcher wins and losses are overrated, but if you look at the underlying numbers, I think that's a reasonable approximation.

Naturally, it's worth mentioning that CC was not the only player the Indians traded. Paul Byrd has gone 5-2 for Boston since being traded for a few steak dinners, and Casey Blake is hitting .254 with 10 home runs since being traded to the Dodgers. It's hard to say whose starts Byrd would have taken, but we know whose at-bats Blake would have taken. Andy Marte has improved since the trade, hitting .250 in August and .297 in September, but with no power; and he's a .221 hitter for the season.

Byrd, I suppose, would have made some of the starts that were actually made by Scott Lewis (who won ALL FOUR of his starts) and Matt Ginter (1-3). So they combined for 5-3, compared to Byrd's 5-2. That's pretty much a wash. Blake probably would have made about one game's difference (keeping in mind his NL stats are NL stats), and CC would have made probably about two games' difference. Add all those numbers up, and we'd be looking at maybe an 84-77 team going into the last day of the season. We'd still be shut out of the playoffs.

Twins have it taking place

I'm blogging from Minneapolis, Minnesota, where there is a nursing convention going on (I'm editor of a nursing magazine), and where I watched the end of the last two nights' games between the Twins and White Sox in sports bars, surrounded by Twins fans. I'd have watched the games in my hotel room, except the TV in here doesn't get FSN North, which was carrying them. And what thrillers they were! Lexi Casilla got the game-winning hit last night, but Carlos Gomez was the hero of the series, making fantastic catches in the late innings in high-pressure situations both Wednesday and Thursday nights.

There's something slightly surreal about being in the presence of fans of a team foreign to you, who are celebrating a big victory by their team. I've been rooting for the Twins to win the AL Central ever since it became apparent that it was coming down to them and the White Sox, but not like I've been rooting for the Rays to make the playoffs. For a while, I was hoping the Twins AND White Sox would reach the playoffs at Boston's expense, but that's obviously not going to happen. Anyway, the White Sox just won it all three years ago, and Chicago is one of my least-favorite cities, even though I have dear friends there. I'm a country boy from Newbury, in Geauga County, and I just don't like being in the midst of that many millions of people crammed into that small a plat of land.

All that said, I have nothing much against the White Sox. And while I'm generally rooting for the Twins, I was watching last night's nailbiter as a more or less impartial observer, surrounded by people who were hanging on every pitch because they so desperately want their team to win the division. I know that feeling, of course; I'm just not used to not sharing it with the people around me. I'm not sure quite how I feel about it, but I'm on my way to another sports bar to watch the Twins battle the Royals tonight, surrounded by Twins fans. I look forward to it.

How about those Cleveland Indians!

In theory, I should have posted something about the Browns' debacle in Baltimore by now. But I don't feel like it. It sucked. What can I tell you that you don't already know about it?

I'd much rather post about the Indians, who have won seven straight and are now 79-77. Our Tribe's been out of contention for months now, but they've still got six games to play, and I'm still excited about seeing how they do in those games. And their 4-3 win tonight over the Red Sox increased the Rays' lead in the East, which makes me happy too. If nothing else, it might mean one fewer October game at Fenway, and those people piss me off, Jimmy Fallon notwithstanding.

Zach Jackson got his first win as an Indian, in his eighth start, and he did a yeoman's job, holding the mighty BoSox to two runs in six innings before turning it over to the bullpen. Los Dos Rafael made it interesting, letting Boston get within one run before Jensen Lewis took over in the ninth. Lewis didn't exactly mow them down, but with the tying run at third and the winning run at second, he blew a fastball past Jed Lowrie to end the game. That's the sort of thing you expect from a major-league closer -- and with 12 saves in 13 opportunities, Jensen Lewis is now a bona fide major-league closer.

This is a very likable Indians team. It's too bad they hit such a wall in May and June, because if they were to get into the postseason, they could do some damage. Regardless, there's hope for next year.

Gary Sheffield is an idiot

Everybody knows it hurts to get hit by a baseball. I've been hit on the elbow, the knee, the thigh, the ribs, the nose ... everywhere. It hurts, and what's more, it can injure you. But that's the risk you take stepping into a batter's box. In order to get batters out, pitchers have to throw the ball at high velocity to a spot very close to the batter's body. The batter has a split second to decide whether to swing at the ball, then actually swing, if he so chooses. John Kruk against Randy Johnson in the All-Star Game notwithstanding, the batter is generally not thinking about having to get out of the way of the ball until it's nearly on top of him. This means the pitch is occasionally going to hit the batter. Everyone understands this.

When Fausto Carmona hit Gary Sheffield on his back forearm with a pitch in the Indians' 6-5 win over the Tigers Friday night, Sheffield got the idea that Carmona had "absolutely" (Sheffield's word) hit him on purpose, despite the fact that it was a breaking ball, despite the fact that it wasn't that far inside, and despite the fact that it was an 0-1 count. He didn't charge the mound right away; he waited until after Carmona had thrown over to first to keep him close. Sheffield yelled something to Carmona, Carmona apparently gestured in reply, and Sheffield decided to start a bench-clearing brawl.

Naturally, Sheffield was ejected. I thought Carmona probably would be too, even though he didn't do anything but defend himself; and I was right. Victor Martinez, who was also trying to defend his pitcher, got thrown out as well, as did the Tigers' Placido Polanco. I didn't really see what Polanco did to get tossed, but I think it's a crock that the two Indians were ejected. I'm reminded of the time Robin Ventura charged the mound after an inside pitch by Nolan Ryan, and Ryan got in five punches to the face before they were pulled apart. Ryan wasn't ejected, wasn't suspended, wasn't disciplined in any way, because it was understood that if an opposing player comes out trying to perpetrate acts of violence against the pitcher, the pitcher has the right to defend himself. I don't see how this situation's any different. If the umpires thought Fausto threw at Sheffield, they should have tossed him after the pitch; so he was obviously ejected for his role in the brawl. I'm sorry, but I think that's dumb. Carmona got some punches in, but Sheffield started it.

Victor for victory!

One could tell right off the bat that the ball Victor Martinez hit off Joe Nathan in the bottom of the 11th last night would go a long way, but it was unclear at first whether it would leave the yard. Of course, the Indians only needed one run, and with a runner on second, all they needed was for it to fall in somewhere. And it did -- it fell on the platform beyond the fence in right-center, giving the Tribe a 12-9, come-from-behind-after-blowing-a-big-lead victory.

That home run was about as unlikely as you can imagine. Nathan came into the game with a 1.03 ERA, having given up just four homers all year. Martinez had hit just one dinger this year, having been hurt for much of the season. Victor was 1-for-10 in his career against Nathan. He had never, ever hit a walk-off homer, and Nathan had never, ever given one up. That's why I love baseball.

Worst commercial ever

There is an Arby's commercial that currently plays with great frequency during Indians broadcasts on STO. Of course, any particular commercial that appears during any Indians broadcast on STO is replayed a lot, which makes them all seem tedious after a while.*

But even on first viewing, some are clearly worse than others, and the Arby's commercial in question falls under the heading of "some." The product being advertised is the Southern Style Chicken Mini. The voice-over says such remarkably inane things. "Arby's Southern Style Chicken Mini for 99 cents answers the question, which came first, the chicken or the deal? Together, of course! Think southern-style flavor, think an incredible 99 cents! Think Arby's!" What utter nonsense. The chicken or the deal? Together, of course? What moron ad writer came up with this prattle?

And the announcer sounds like an idiot, and the sound quality is downright offensive, and it's accompanied by a guitar player who sounds like he charged about $5 for the job, and the graphics are terrible, and the sandwich doesn't even look that good in the ad. I've been a big fan of Arby's for a long time (I love a Beef 'n' Cheddar with Horsey Sauce), but I think I'm forced to boycott them until they stop running that stupid commercial. And I don't think I can ever have a Southern Style Chicken Mini, even if they cut the price to a penny.

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* Ohio Lottery! Odds are you'll have fun! Odds are you'll lose, and what exactly is fun about that?

Bad night for Buckeye boosters

Boy, there's nothing like seeing your team get destroyed in a "marquee matchup" on national TV, is there? I don't think any of us expected Ohio State to win tonight, but we hoped they'd hang with USC. But they didn't. Not at all.

You can say, what would have happened if Brian Robiskie's touchdown reception hadn't been called back? I say Ohio State would probably have lost 35-10, if not 42-10 because the Trojans would have been playing hard a little bit longer.

You can say, what would have happened if Beanie Wells could have played? I say that would have made some difference, but I don't think you can attribute more than two touchdowns' difference, at most, to a single player. So it might have been 35-17. That wouldn't have been as embarrassing, but it would still have been a fairly lopsided loss.

USC is simply better. My team isn't national championship material this year. I can accept that.

Sensational debut for Lewis

We'll never know for sure, but it seems to me the only thing that kept Scott Lewis from pitching a shutout in his major league debut tonight was Eric Wedge's hook. Regardless, Lewis gave the Indians eight innings of three-hit shutout ball in their 7-1 win over Baltimore. Masa Kobayashi gave up a run in the ninth, after Wedge decided not to send Lewis out despite his having only thrown 96 pitches. Had Lewis pitched a scoreless ninth, he'd have been the first Indian to toss a complete-game shutout in his major league debut since Luis Tiant, 44 years ago. That would have been pretty dad-gummed cool.

As I think is pretty obvious by my word choices above, I wanted to see Lewis try to put a bow on it himself. I hate to criticize a manager for practicing caution with a young pitcher who's already had to overcome some injuries, but Lewis isn't that young; he's about to turn 25, which means his arm is past that dangerous late-teens-early-20s period. But whatever. At the end of the day, the only thing that really matters is that he's 1-0 in his major league career, and he's still healthy.

I used to follow the Indians' minor league teams a lot more than I do now, and I have to admit I had no idea who Scott Lewis was before a few days ago, when I heard he'd be pitching tonight in place of the injured Anthony Reyes. But his numbers from Akron and Buffalo show he's ready for this. He was 6-2, 2.33 in 13 starts with the AA Aeros, and 2-2, 2.63 in four starts with the AAA Bisons. In the two levels combined, he's struck out 82 hitters in 97 1/3 innings, against just 13 walks. And the topper? He's a Buckeye through and through. He grew up in Washington Court House and pitched for Ohio State.

Speaking of Reyes, I don't know when he'll be back, but I'm sure hoping we'll see Lewis a few more times this year. Reyes has earned the right to keep pitching if he's healthy, so that would be a good problem to have. And if you look at the Indians' starters right now, there's a lot of reason for optimism going into 2009. We all know what a mockery Cliff Lee has made out of the American League this year. Fausto Carmona hasn't looked like he did last year, but if he stays healthy next year, starting in spring training with everyone else, I expect him to pitch like a near-ace again. Jeremy Sowers has been up and down, but he was excellent last night against these Orioles, and I believe he'll get it together and be a solid fourth or fifth starter. And Aaron Laffey looked pretty good in his first few starts after being called up this year.

That's six guys right there who could be in the big-league rotation next year. I don't know what Mark Shapiro will do in the offseason (and he probably doesn't either, though he could probably make a better guess than I could), but he's going to keep his eyes open for pitching bargains, because you can never have enough arms. I think this is going to be a strong rotation next year, CC or no CC.

It was nice while it lasted

The coolest sports record ever set in Cleveland is no more. The Red Sox sold out their 456th consecutive home game last night, eclipsing the record set in the early days of the ballpark then known as Jacobs Field. As if to cement the disappointment, the Indians lost a 14-3 rout to the Orioles at the same time.

We still have our retired number -- I'm sure the Indians won't take down the words "455 THE FANS" from the post they've been painted on, assuring that no Indian will ever wear the number 455. And we still have the memories of the way the Tribe dominated the AL Central Division between 1995 and 2001, and the two World Series appearances.

So now the record sits in Fenway Park. Say what you will about Boston fans, but they do support their teams. Even if they just show up to boo, they buy tickets.

By the way ...

Cliff Lee is now 21-2 after beating the Royals 3-1 today. There's really nothing I can say about Lee that I haven't said already, and that many others have also said. With every start, he cements his 2008 as the best season by an Indians pitcher since ... well, maybe ever. He's the first Indian who's ever been 21-2, I'll tell you that. The Indians have played 108 seasons of baseball, and Cliff Lee is the first guy to go 21-2 in those 108 years -- and all this was after spending part of the previous year IN THE MINOR LEAGUES!

Lee has a major-league-leading 2.28 ERA, in a year when the overall ERA in the majors is 4.30. (In an unusual degree of symmetry, the American League's ERA is 4.29, the National League's 4.30.) He has an outside chance to finish with an ERA less than half the major-league average (MLA, and I believe I just coined that acronym; tell your friends). I don't know how often a qualifier for an ERA title has done that, but the last time it happened was 2005, when known steroid user Roger Clemens posted a 1.87 for the Astros, compared to an MLA of 4.28.

I'd also like to note that Victor Martinez knocked in all three Cleveland runs in today's game, which is certainly nice to see. He's hitting .333 in 21 at-bats since coming off the DL, with six RBIs and his only home run of the year.

Yeesh

There was an optimism around Northeast Ohio today. I saw people wearing Browns paraphernalia everywhere I went today, and in recent days, I've heard talk about how our guys should be able to hang with the mighty Dallas Cowboys. They're tough, but we've got a lot of talent, people said. Our newly revamped defensive front ought to be able to pressure Tony Romo, people said. Derek Anderson and our high-octane offense will surely put enough points on the board to make it interesting, people said.

Then the game started.

Buckeyes weren't too good

Ohio State would have been in serious trouble yesterday against the Ohio Bobcats if not for five OU turnovers and two big plays on special teams, one of which overlaps both categories. OU, a 33 1/2-point underdog, was leading 14-6 going late in the third quarter before the Buckeyes finally remembered they're supposedly the third-best team in the nation.

In the words of Brian Hartline: "That was pathetic. It was a pathetic performance. OU should have won the game. I don't know how we came out with it."

Todd Boeckman wasn't very good, but in his defense, the running game wasn't taking much pressure off him. OSU really missed Beanie Wells, who is expected to be back next week for USC, and thank goodness. I would have liked to see more of Terrelle Pryor, who only played one series while the game was still in doubt. He got some garbage time at the end, but only threw two passes in the game, both of which were incompletions. He did some nice work with his legs, though, rushing for 37 yards on five carries.

The Buckeyes outgained the Bobcats for the game, 272-254. Any Big Ten team that puts up numbers like that against any MAC team should be deeply disappointed, whether they're ranked third in the nation or not.

Oklahoma City blunder

And we have a new entrant in the worst team name in North American sports competition. The team formerly known as the Seattle Supersonics is now known as the Oklahoma City Thunder. I've always hated team names that aren't plural; they seem cartoonish to me. And I like names that are geographically based, like the Seattle Supersonics, reflecting that area's connection to the world of aviation, with Boeing and all. The Oklahoma City Thunder simply reflects that the area has bad weather every now and then. I wonder what that's like.

The team trademarked six names, then waited until yesterday to pick one. They could have been (in alphabetical order) the Barons, Bison, Energy, Marshals, Thunder or Wind. None of those are very good, and we Clevelanders wouldn't like to see them named the Barons, because that's one of our old hockey names. But the Oklahoma City Marshals would have been a decent name.

It's incredible that the Thunder isn't the worst one they considered. The Energy? The Wind? Did they just open up a dictionary and pick whatever words their fingers landed on?

Tribe's having fun

The Indians' 9-3 win over the White Sox yesterday was a lot of fun to watch, in large part because it involved fine performances by two guys who have been hurt much of the year. Victor Martinez hit what was rather unbelievably his first home run of the year, in his third start since having elbow surgery in June; and Fausto Carmona -- though he wasn't exactly dazzling -- won his third straight start, going 5 2/3 innings. He's now 8-5 with a 4.51 ERA, and if you subtract his disastrous first start off the disabled list, in which he gave up nine runs in 2 1/3, he's 8-4, 3.81.

The expanded roster limit allowed the Indians to call up Josh Barfield, Michael Aubrey, and pitchers Brian Slocum, John Meloan and Tom Mastny. That'll come in handy if they play a 20-inning game. The next game Meloan pitches in will be his major-league debut, so that's pretty exciting.

The news isn't all good, though. Travis Hafner, who's been on a rehab assignment in AAA Buffalo for the last week or so, is deemed not ready to return to the bigs despite hitting .318 in seven games for the Bisons. But he appears to have a positive attitude about it, and says he'll keep working on his shoulder through the offseason and be ready to come back in the spring. I have my doubts whether he'll ever again be the hitter he was a couple of years ago, but I hope I'm wrong.

Also, Aaron Laffey has been shut down with elbow inflammation. I believe he has a bright future if he can stay healthy, but that's always a big "if" when you're talking about a young arm.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Cleveland Indians have a 20-game winner

Now THAT's how you win your 20th game. Cliff Lee is 20-2, after toying with the Chicago White Sox for the full nine tonight, finishing with a five-hit shutout. And Gaylord Perry is no longer the Indians' last 20-game winner, a title he held for 34 years.

I hope to post a game-by-game look at Lee's season after he wins the Cy Young. But to sum it up, this is the best season I've ever seen an Indians pitcher have. He's better than CC was last year, he's better than Jose Mesa was in 1995, and he's better than Bert Blyleven, Rick Sutcliffe, Dennis Martinez, Tom Candiotti, et al ever were in Tribe uniforms. The fact that he's doing this for a team that's fighting for third place makes it that much more impressive. And he's got a month to build on that total. He could end up with 24 or 25 wins.

Congratulations, Cliff. (I assume he's a regular reader.)

Speaking of CC ...

Did you see the clips from his "one-hitter"?* He made one of the best defensive plays I have ever seen a pitcher make. He caught a line drive with his bare hand. Granted, his bare hand is bigger than most people's mitts, but still. And then he threw to first to double off a runner. CC has been absolutely out of his mind since arriving in Milwaukee. He's now 9-0 since the trade, with an ERA of 1.43, in 10 starts as a National Leaguer. That, my friends, is patently ridiculous.

Of course, the story from that game involves the one "hit," which was an infield "single" by Andy LaRoche. It was what some commentators would call a swinging bunt; LaRoche topped the ball, it bounced in front of the plate, and Sabathia himself attempted to field it with his aforementioned bare hand, which apparently doesn't work for him unless the ball's traveling as fast as a car. CC fumbled the ball and could not recover in time to throw out LaRoche. LaRoche was about 30 feet down the line when CC touched the ball, and there is no doubt he could have -- had he fielded it cleanly, using his glove if necessary -- thrown the runner out. But the official scorer in Pittsburgh scored it an error, saying it would have taken an above-average play to throw the runner out.

At this point, I should like to express an opinion about baseball's reverence for its single-game accomplishments. A no-hitter is but one example; you've got your single-game RBI records, your single-game stolen base records, your single-game outfield assist records, etc.

Baseball's single-game feats come in three tiers, with one each for pitching, hitting and fielding: On the first tier, you've got a perfect game for pitchers, four home runs for hitters, and an unassisted triple play for the glovemen. One could make the argument that an unassisted triple play belongs in a different category because it only involves a single play and requires a great deal of luck, but I am including it because it still happens within the confines of a single game, and it takes some luck to pitch a perfect game or hit four home runs as well. These events are about equally likely: There have been 17 perfect games, 15 four-homer games, and 14 unassisted triple plays in major-league history. Of course, the four-homer game is the only one that's possible to top, but it hasn't happened yet.

If you look at the players who have accomplished these top-tier feats, you'll see a wide range of players. To use the perfect game as an example, you'll see some Hall of Famers (Sandy Koufax, Cy Young, Catfish Hunter, Cleveland's Addie Joss, and future first-balloter Randy Johnson); a bunch of guys who had strong careers but fell short of that level (Dennis Martinez, David Wells, Mike Witt, etc.); and a few guys who actually finished their careers with losing records (Charlie Robertson, Don Larsen, our own Lenny Barker). So while being a great player surely increases the likelihood of appearing on one of these lists, it's also quite possible to get there as a mediocre player. Hard-hittin' Mark Whiten hit four homers in a game, but if he ever got a single Hall of Fame vote, the writer who voted for him would deserve to be stripped of his vote. And our boy Asdrubal Cabrera turned an unassisted triple play earlier this year, shortly before being sent down to the minors because he wasn't hitting.

In the second tier, you've got no-hitters, hitting for the cycle and the standard triple play, which of course is a team feat. There have been 256 no-hitters, 278 cycles, and 672 triple plays in major-league history. So the defensive feat is considerably more likely, but it's still rare enough to be notable. The names on these lists almost seem random; for example, in the last decade, no-hitters have been credited to such luminaries as Anibal Sanchez, Clay Buchholz, Bud Smith and Jose Jimenez -- and six Astros combined on a no-no of the Yankees.

In the third tier, you've got your odd records like most strikeouts, most hits, etc., and while these are arguably more impressive than those in the second tier, if not the first, they are not held in nearly the same esteem. Ask me, the cycle is a highly overrated accomplishment that has occasionally prompted a player to abstain from taking the extra base, which actually hurts his team. I've watched a few no-hitters myself (I saw Barker's perfecto and Bud Smith's no-no, and I saw Dwight Gooden no-hit the Mariners, all on TV), and it is kind of thrilling. But the bottom line is winning, and it does occasionally happen that a pitcher throws a no-hitter and loses. The reverence for these single-game feats sometimes overshadows the idea that you're supposed to try to win the game, and I find that troubling.

Getting back to CC, the Brewers have appealed to the commissioner's office for the one hit to be changed to an error. I don't know how I feel about this. The official scorer does not affect the outcome of the game, but can have a profound impact on these revered feats, obviously. I feel the official scorer blew this one, but now that the game's in the books, turning it back into a no-hitter would be anticlimactic at best. And if it had been scored an error from the start, would the Pirates' hitters have approached the ninth inning differently, knowing a no-hitter was on the line? I don't know. I was in favor of overturning it last night, but right now, I think I'm against it. Ask me in an hour, and my answer might be different. But the only thing that really matters is that the Brewers won. They're in a pennant race, after all.

* Could be a no-hitter, if the Brewers' appeal is upheld.