Nineteen days ago, I scoffed at the notion that the first nine games of the second half of the season would make-or-break the 2012 Milwaukee Brewers.
Then nine days ago, after a 4-2 start to the second half, I said the team came out of the gate responding to that pressure put upon them.
Now here we are on July 27, four days before the trade deadline and the Brewers have lost seven straight and fallen 10 games under .500.
Hope for the postseason is all but gone. So is ace Zack Greinke, and potentially several others.
Yet in the Brewers last nine losses only two have been by more than two runs. On the year, they have played 39 one-run games, losing 22 of them, many because of a shoddy bullpen.
"I think it's a testament to them as to how we've been playing," manager Ron Roenicke said. "Almost every game is a one run game. If we would've quit, we would've quit a long time ago. We're not going to quit.
"No matter what phase is not going the way we would like it. It could the offense, if the offense isn't scoring runs at all I would still feel confident our pitching staff would go out there and do a good job. So, everybody knows that it's got to be a whole team thing. Last year, the whole team went well. This year, the whole team as a group hasn't been consistent in all aspects of the game and that's why we're unfortunately where we are."
I've been proven right, and wrong, by this team through 98 games. Brewers fans can only hope they continue to prove Roenicke right over the last 64.
Jim Owczarski is an award-winning sports journalist and comes to Milwaukee by way of the Chicago Sun-Times Media Network.
A three-year Wisconsin resident who has considered Milwaukee a second home for the better part of seven years, he brings to the market experience covering nearly all major and college sports.
To this point in his career, he has been awarded six national Associated Press Sports Editors awards for investigative reporting, feature writing, breaking news and projects. He is also a four-time nominee for the prestigious Peter J. Lisagor Awards for Exemplary Journalism, presented by the Chicago Headline Club, and is a two-time winner for Best Sports Story. He has also won numerous other Illinois Press Association, Illinois Associated Press and Northern Illinois Newspaper Association awards.
Jim's career started in earnest as a North Central College (Naperville, Ill.) senior in 2002 when he received a Richter Fellowship to cover the Chicago White Sox in spring training. He was hired by the Naperville Sun in 2003 and moved on to the Aurora Beacon News in 2007 before joining OnMilwaukee.com.
In that time, he has covered the events, news and personalities that make up the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Hockey League, NCAA football, baseball and men's and women's basketball as well as boxing, mixed martial arts and various U.S. Olympic teams.
Golf aficionados who venture into Illinois have also read Jim in GOLF Chicago Magazine as well as the Chicago District Golfer and Illinois Golfer magazines.
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