The Philadelphia Phillies have taken advantage of the Brew Crew in the first two games of their NLDS series.  For Brewers fans it has been a roller coaster ride of a season, starting out strong with what seemed like a season with a promising finish and then barely making the playoffs with a Wild Card birth in their final game with the Chicago Cubs.  With the ups from their come from behind victory on Sunday came the downs of the notion that they will need to win three straight to keep away from elimination.  It's been the tale of their 2008 season to come from behind, but in many of their games where this has occurred, it definitely did not need to be so, and their first two playoff games are a prime example.

In Game 1, the credit of course went to Cole Hamels, who pitched a two hit game through eight innings.  On the other side, Yovanni Gallardo could have had the same credit.  Milwaukee had all the chance they needed and squandered their opportunities to shut out the Phillies in the 3rd inning.  Center fielder Mike Cameron took most of the heat for the inning when he dropped what was to most fans a relatively routine fly to center.  However, in another routine play earlier in the inning, Ricky Weeks dropped a perfectly good throw to first from Bill Hall which gave the Phillies the extra out they needed to make Cameron make that play in center.

Fastforwarding into Game 2, the Brewers had their ace in CC Sabathia on the mound pitching once again off three days rest.  In a jam in the second inning, Sabathia walked two straight batters, including pitcher Brett Myers, to load the bases.  With two outs, Shane Victorino rocked a grand slam deep to left field and the Brewers again squandered the big inning early, playing catch up for the rest of the game.

7 of the 8 runs scored by the Phillies in this series have come with two outs in the inning.  The Brewers execute for just one more out and it's just that much easier.  It's these final outs that have kept them from winning these last two games, it's these final outs that kept them from winning their division this year, and it is these final outs that have separated them from the elite in the MLB.

On the other end, the Brewers have had all of the chances they could get, especially in Game 2, to turn the momentum around in their favor by rebutting with a big inning of their own.  However, they decided to use the strategy in swinging at the first pitch, strategy they have used over and over near the end of the season, which has failed them miserabley.  A prime example was right at the beginning of Game 2.  Myers started off very slow in the first inning, giving the Brewers every opportunity to take advantage of his poor pitching.  After striking out lead off man Mike Cameron, Myers walked Duhram and gave up a quick double to Ryan Braun.  The Phillies elected to intentionally walk Prince Fielder to load the bases with one out bringing JJ Hardy to the plate.  Myers walked Hardy on four straight pitches, scoring the first run of the game and bringing up Corey Hart.  But Hart was impatient and swung at the first pitch, a slider on the outside half of the plate that looked to be ball one.  The Phillies executed a double play and the inning was over, stranding three.  Now by all means I can't predict how the inning would have gone had Hart taken the pitch, but after four straight balls and walking in a run, you would think Hart would have taken a look at a few before deciding to protect the plate.

The Brewers made yet another late charge against set-up man Ryan Madson in the 8th.  With a runner on first and second and two outs, Madson was relieved with Prince Fielder coming up by JC Romero.  Fielder jumped on Romero's first pitch, which was a fastball in on his hands.  The broken bat grounder to second ended the inning.  Too often have the Brewers been anxious at the plate.  Surprisingly, Brett Myers proved to be an example of how to bat in a baseball game.  He did it three times in Game 2 and did it twice to Sabathia.  Myers stood in the box and worked the count.  He was patient and he made Sabathia work.  When he was down in the count, he protected the plate and fouled off the strike three pitches until Sabathia walked him.  He waited for his pitch, and in his third at-bat, he found it and drove it into right field for a single.

If the Brewers have any shot at overcoming yet another come from behind obstacle, they should hire Brett Myers to teach them how to bat in the MLB.

About the author:
This article was originally published at rootzoo.com, by FavreisG.  He's a huge baseball fan and is always up for some good sports talk on rootzoo's sports forums.  He loves to talk about who's hot and who's not, discussing the most recent baseball player stats.