Umpiring not all to blame for this one

Ball 4. That was the decisive call made my home plate umpire Bill Welke on a Mark DiFelice fastball over the plate about letter-high. Clearly, the ball looked to have been a strike. In the official Major League strike zone per mlb.com, the strike zone is clearly stated as, "The Strike Zone is that area over home plate the upper limit of which is a horizontal line at the midpoint between the top of the shoulders and the top of the uniform pants, and the lower level is a line at the top of the knees. The Strike Zone shall be determined from the batter's stance as the batter is prepared to swing at a pitched ball." That sounds like a strike to me. There always seems to be a game like this one every year between the Cubs and Brewers that seems to go in the Cubbies favor. In 2007, the Brewers led 5-0 after the first inning, only to allow the Cubs to come back and win on a walk-off home run by Aramis Ramirez in the bottom of the ninth inning. Last year, it was in the four game opener at Miller Park, with Brewers ace CC Sabathia pitching. Sabathia was pitching great, until a Rickie Weeks error changed the face of the game, and eventually the series, to put the Cubs up in front. The Cubs eventually swept the four game series at Miller, and the Brewers never came close to first place again. Maybe they just have the Brewers' number. I don't know; what I do know is that not all the blame can be put on Welke and his call. The Brewers had many chances in this game that they let slip away from them. Both the players and the manager are responsible for this loss. Leaving 11 runners on base, while scoring one run will never win you a baseball game, bar none. With the way the offense was performing, I agree it was the right decision to send Jeff Suppan around third for the go ahead run after a Prince Fielder's line-drive single in the top of the seventh inning. It just so happened that Cubs' centerfielder Kosuke Fukudome made a perfect throw to the plate to get Suppan. It was just bad luck for the Brewers. If it were any runner in that situation other than Suppan, the Brewers take the lead in the 7th. If Fukodome's throw is a foot to the left or right, Suppan scores and the Brewers are able to take the lead that way. However, what the Brewers need to focus on doing is not trying to crush home runs, especially in the rough Chicago wind that was blowing in today. In the top of ther fourth, the bases were loaded with no one out following Carlos Zambrano hitting Prince Fielder with a pitch in the shoulder. Casey McGehee came up for the Brewers, swinging at the first pitch, and popping up for the Brewers. Not the kind of at bat you want in that situation. With Counsell on third, there is good speed in order to get the run home on a sac fly. However, in the next at bat, Mike Cameron also pops out to the infield. Thanks to Corey Hart's patience, the Brewers were able to get their only run of the game via a walk, but then J.J. Hardy came up and, you guessed it, he popped out to end the inning. Earlier in the bottom of the second, thanks to Ryan Theriot misjudging of the ball, and Jake Fox's error, the Brewers had two on with no one out. Craig Counsell came up to the plate and tried bunting on two balls that were both high, fouling both of them off. It has to be simple enough to just pull the bat back, but it is clear that the Brewers do not have the greatest plate discipline. Two pitches later, Counsell strikes out swinging on curveball in the dirt, a very frustrating at bat. If Counsell is able to get Suppan to third and Kendall to second, two runs will probably score from Prince's single. Macha also has to take some of the blame for this loss. First, why is Jody Gerut even considered to be put in the game? The guy has done nothing in his stint with the Crew thusfar this season and is batting below .100 for the club. (On the other hand, Tony Gwynn Jr. is hitting .308 for the Padres in the leadoff spot. Wait, don't the Brewers need a lead off hitter?) Ok, so Corey Hart hasn't had the greatest year, batting .248. But put in Catalanotto who is a much more reliable player than Gerut. All that I have seen from Gerut with the Brewers is the speed he covers in the outfield. So maybe that was what Macha's move was for. But Hart is also one of the fastest Brewers too, is he not? Of course in Gerut's only at bat in the ninth, he hits a lazy fly ball to center for the second out of the inning. So now we fast forward to the tenth. The Cubs have Theriot on second with two outs after Derek Lee advances him from second on a flyout. Then Macha decides to walk Milton Bradley, why? I don't understand the reasoning behind it because well, it is Milton Bradley. Sure, you get the force at second, but Bradley hasn't been exactly lighting it up from behind the plate. He is hitting .239 with five home runs and 17 RBI's and most of that has been while in the fourth spot in the batting order. Oh yeah, and he is hitting .192 against right handed pitching this season to go along with and 0-2 in his career lifetime versus Brewers' righty Mark Difelice. But the Brewers decide to walk him and later DiFelice falls behind Soto allowing the bases to be loaded and nowhere to put Fox. It just seemed inevitable that DiFelice would walk in Fox to end the game and put the Cubs above .500 and within two games of the division lead. Even though the call was bad at the end, the Brewers as a whole are the ones to blame for this loss.