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The smiles showed how much they are enjoying their baseball in Milwaukee this season.<\/p>\nThe smiles showed how much they are enjoying their baseball in Milwaukee this season.<\/p>\n
Zack Greinke jogged back to the dugout with a big grin on his face, his delight mirrored by that of his teammates.<\/p>\n
In the fifth inning of their game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday, manager Ron Roenicke decided to sacrifice Jonathan Lucroy over to second base and he called on Greinke to come off the bench and do the job.<\/p>\n
Milwaukee traded for Greinke over the off-season in the expectation of acquiring a difference-maker who could get them into the playoffs.\u00c2\u00a0 They were looking for the type of contribution they received on Friday night, when the former Cy Young winner struck out nine and gave up only two runs in 7.2 innings as he gained his eleventh win on the season.<\/p>\n
His ability to lay down a pinch-hit sacrifice bunt wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t factored into those difference-making expectations, but the contributions just keep on coming from Greinke and many other members of the Brew Crew.\u00c2\u00a0 He put down a perfect bunt on the first pitch.\u00c2\u00a0 The only mistake Greinke made was in wearing the wrong jersey<\/a>: a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBierbrauer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 version intended to be worn on Sunday as part of a German heritage promotion.<\/p>\n The Brewers have shown themselves to be adept at not letting such minor errors and more pressing problems get in the way of winning with a smile on their faces.<\/p>\n Marco Estrada made a spot start for the Brewers in that Saturday game after Chris Narveson suffered a freak injury, slicing a finger with a pair of scissors whilst tending to his glove.\u00c2\u00a0 Estrada didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t miss a beat, giving up a single hit over five scoreless innings before coming out of the game for Greinke\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pinch-bunt, with the Brewers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 bullpen taking over the rest of the way on the mound.<\/p>\n Narveson was placed on the 15-day Disabled List to recover from his injury, joining several other important players on the sidelines. Milwaukee lost both centrefielder Carlos Gomez and second baseman Rickie Weeks at the end of July; a double blow that could have derailed the team.<\/p>\n However, Nyjer Morgan has been an able deputy in centrefield, making some highlight plays with the glove and bringing the same enthusiasm and energy that Gomez does to the team.\u00c2\u00a0 Weeks is one of the best second baseman \u00e2\u20ac\u201c indeed one of the top position players when healthy \u00e2\u20ac\u201c in the game, so replacing him has been trickier.\u00c2\u00a0 Felipe Lopez, brought back to the team prior to the trade deadline, hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hit much while filling Weeks\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 fielding position, but other players have stepped up.<\/p>\n On Saturday, the Brewers even received a positive contribution from Yuniesky Betancourt. He was seen as the bitter pill Milwaukee had to swallow as part of the trade to acquire Greinke from the Kansas City Royals and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done what was expected of him: provided a bit of a power from the shortstop position and not a lot else.\u00c2\u00a0 Against the Pirates, that was all the Brewers needed as he hit a solo shot in the second inning for what proved to be the only run scored by either team.<\/p>\n Heading into their game on Sunday, the Brewers had won fifteen of their previous seventeen games, a sequence that included taking four games from six against their closest rivals in the NL Central: the St. Louis Cardinals.\u00c2\u00a0 Now that they finally have a good starting rotation to go alongside the batting core of Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder and Weeks, the smiles in Milwaukee could last long into the offseason.<\/p>\n