Randy Wolf Pitches Brewers Past Cardinals in Game 4 to Tie Up NLDS

Randy Wolf did a hell of a job Thursday evening keeping his Milwaukee Brewers in the game, helping to tie up the series and force the National League pennant to eventually be decided at Miller Park.

The 35-year-old lefty went seven solid innings in Game 4, surrendering just two runs on seven hits with a walk and six strikeouts in his team's 4-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. Pretty sure Wolf, who also nailed a double in the third, was excited to end his embarrassing drought of 342 starts without a playoff victory, which was the most among active pitchers. It's a good thing too, because he didn't take his last loss very well:

“You know, I’ll be honest with you, the day after the Diamondbacks start I didn’t eat or shower. I don’t know if they call that depression, but it was tough to swallow."

Now losing St. Louis pitcher Kyle Lohse moves to second on that crappy list with 298 starts, trailing only Ted Lilly’s 318. Speaking of skids, Game 4 marks the Brewers' first road win of the playoffs and their first postseason victory since Game 1 of the 1982 World Series, also in St. Louis... Some of you weren't even born yet.

Matt Holliday gave the Cardinals an early 1-0 lead with a solo shot in the second before Allen Craig added a homer the following inning. The Brewers answered with a two-run fourth to knot it back up when Prince Fielder scored on Jerry Hairston, Jr.'s RBI double and Yuniesky Betancourt drove him home with a shallow base hit to center. Ryan Braun, who now owns a .471 batting average after going 16-for-34 this postseason, brought Nyjer Morgan in on a blooper to left in the fifth before Rickie Weeks scored on a fielding error by Ryan Theriot to complete the scoring.

Wolf tossed 107 pitches before Francisco Rodriguez pitched the scoreless eighth and closer John Axford came in for the save to bring the best-of-seven series even at 2-2.

The two sides will play one more game at Busch Stadium (where the families of Brewers players will be seated God knows where) at 8:05pm ET Friday night on TBS before the series moves back to Milwaukee. Jaime Garcia will face Zack Greinke for the second time this series, the last being Game 1 in which Greinke managed to get the 9-6 win even though he didn't pitch all that well.

[Brew Crew Ball]

Brewers Sport their Rally Caps, Beat Cardinals in NLCS Opener

It's pretty amazing the way Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder can turn a game around.

The Milwaukee Brewers rallied in the fifth inning of NLCS Game 1 against their bitter division rivals with huge back-to-back hits by Braun and Fielder to come away with a 9-6 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Braun launched a 463-foot, two-run bomb in the first inning before adding a two-run double during the huge six-run fifth. Fielder followed up with a homer worth two runs before Yuniesky Betancourt capped the comeback with a two-run shot of his own.

While we were honestly hoping for a few plunkings, maybe a bench-clearing brawl, and definitely some more smack-talk from the two sides, all we got was a small stir-up and an umpire's warning to Tony La Russa after Jaime Garcia hit Fielder immediately after Braun's first inning longball.

Brewers ace Zack Greinke, who made some awkward comments regarding Chris Carpenter and his "phony attitude" on Saturday, hinted that there may have been some heckling coming from the opposing dugout on Sunday:

Brewers Win Seventh Straight, Crush Chris Carpenter

The Milwaukee Brewers are on a roll.

With the best home record in the major leagues at 40-14, the club rolled over Chris Carpenter's stripey socks and the St. Louis Cardinals Monday with a 6-2 rally. And after going 40-41 at Miller Park all last year, this is a welcome change.

In a matchup of two former Cy Young winners, the Brewers managed only one hit off Carpenter before the fifth inning. Suddenly, the first six batters reached including Nyjer Morgan, who nailed a go-ahead three-run double.

Meanwhile, Zack Greinke allowed a first-inning, two-run homer to Matt Holliday, but his offense pulled it off to give the righty his ninth win.

Well, This Sucks

Brewers fans will have to wait a few weeks after the season starts before they get to see their new ace Zack Greinke take the mound. The new addition to the team is going to start the season on the disabled list after fracturing a rib during a basketball game with buddies a few weeks ago.

Greinke was quoted as saying:

"I've been doing this for a couple of years now, and people are always saying, 'You're going to get hurt.' It finally caught up to me. I was hoping it was just bruised, but I guess its worse than that. So I guess I have to stop playing [basketball] now. I had a lot of fun while I was doing it, but it wasn't worth it."

Uh... you think?

Brewers Add Takashi Saito to Bullpen

After acquiring Zack Greinke from the Kansas City Royals and Shaun Marcum from the Toronto Blue Jays this month, the Milwaukee Brewers have agreed to a one-year deal with right-handed relief pitcher Takashi Saito.

The 40-year-old Japanese righty was 2-3 with a 2.83 ERA in 56 appearances with the Atlanta Braves last season, adding to his 17-13 career record and 2.19 ERA spanning five major league seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston and Atlanta.

Zack Greinke Joins Milwaukee Brewers

Acquired by the Milwaukee Brewers in a six-player trade this weekend, Zack Greinke has finally shaken the dust of Kansas City off his cleats.

The Brewers received the right-hander along with shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt and some cash in exchange for shortstop Alcides Escobar and center fielder Lorenzo Cain -- two Major League ready players. The Royals were also allowed two decent pitching prospects, rightys Jeremy Jeffress and Jake Odirizzi.

You've Come A Long Way, Zack Greinke

Awards season continues with the American League Cy Young announced this afternoon. Hopefully none of you were surprised when it was given to the only logical pitcher: Mr. Badass himself, Zack Greinke. Man, we love this kid.

The Kansas City Royals right-hander deserved this honor more than anyone -- even lights out righty Felix Hernandez, who took second in the voting. Greinke was shorter on wins than your average 19-21 game winners of the past, but his season was chock-full of domination. He and his damn-near unhittable slider went 16-8 with a big league-best 2.16 ERA and 242 strikeouts. For the sake of comparison, King Felix went 19-5 with a 2.49 ERA for the Seattle Mariners.

Greinke, who is getting hitched this weekend, agreed to a $38 million, four-year contract last winter and will receive a $100,000 bonus for winning. He landed 25 of 28 first-place votes for 134 points by the BBWAA while Hernandez drew 80 points with mostly second-place votes.

The humble and silent but deadly hurler quit the game for a month-and-a-half back in 2006 due to a social anxiety disorder. He has since made the cover of Sports Illustrated, was selected to the 2009 All-Star team, received the 2009 Bullet Rogan award, and also the player's choice Pitcher of the Year honor.

Funny, some folks in KC didn't get the memo. Be sure to check back tomorrow when the National League winner is announced. We hope that honor goes to the most adorable pothead in MLB, though it'll likely be handed to one of two St. Louis Cardinals hurlers.

[KC Star] | [Walkoff Walk] | [Kings of Kauffman]

Zack Greinke is a Bad Ass

Zack Greinke would have -- at the very least -- 20 wins by now if he pitched for a team that would give him a decent amount of run support. Unfortunately, such is not the case for anyone in the 63-88 Kansas City Royals rotation.

Nevertheless, the lights-out right-hander reinforced his Cy Young bid by holding the Boston Red Sox to just two hits over six scoreless innings Tuesday night, aiding his team to a rare 5-1 victory.

Greinke (15-8) is 3-0 with a minuscule 0.26 ERA in his five most recent starts, surrendering 18 hits and just one earned run over 35 innings, while lowering his big league-leading ERA to 2.08. Man, what a badass.

Manager Trey Hillman admitted his bias, "I’ve seen all his starts. I have a very difficult time believing there is anybody better in the major leagues, that’s as good a pitcher as Zack Greinke is in the year 2009."

There's The Greinke We Know and Love

Zack Greinke tossed eight solid innings for his first win in nearly a month Tuesday, leading the Kansas City Royals to a 2-1 victory over the Houston Astros, and snapping a five-game skid for his club who's won just seven of their last 23 games.

Greinke (9-3, 1.90 ERA) surrendered one run in the first before pitching seven shutout innings. He allowed eight hits overall, but not one extra-base hit, and no more than one per inning after the first.

The Royals (30-39) are currently sitting at fourth in the American League Central, 8.5 games behind the division-leading Detroit Tigers, and 1.5 ahead of the struggling Cleveland Indians.

P.S. Much-needed vacations are awesome. So are cabins, lakes, beers and online gambling. I missed you guys lots.

[The Hardball Times] | [Souvenir City] | [Astros County]

Was Zack Greinke Jinxed?

At what point do we bring up a pitcher's scoreless streak without jinxing him? Do we keep it to ourselves? Whisper it to the dude sitting next to us? Write a giant cover story about it? That is, if you believe in that sort of thing.

The same question arose when reading about Kansas City Royals ace Zack Greinke's long string of goose eggs all over the internet this week, just days before he gave up his first earned run in 43 innings on Wednesday. It took only two batters: a double by Marco Scutaro before Vernon Wells singled him home with two outs in the first to produce the first earned run off the righty since last September, a streak that spanned six incredible starts.

Continue reading this story at Fantasy Pros 911.

Sunday's Babelicious Scoreboard

The fact that the Kansas City Royals (10-22) are losing 100 games a year lately has nothing to do with the Detroit Tigers (19-11) win last night. Nope. The Tigers are just on a mean roll right now. Make that seven straight W's.

Zack Greinke (1-4, 5.71 ERA) allowed six runs and nine hits over just four innings. It was reminiscent of his his previous outing against the Tigers on April 16th, where he failed to even get out of the first inning, allowing three hits and four runs on a Pudge grand slam.

Zack Greinke Has Issues

Zack Greinke thought his baseball career was over last year, after being diagnosed with a social anxiety disorder.

Greinke, one of 2002's most awkward first-round draft picks, left Kansas City's spring training camp unexpectedly on Feb. 25, 2006 and headed to his Florida home for what he described as personal reasons. He returned to the Royals in September and says now that he's over it.