I will still stick with them though, no matter what. Someday they will win the whole thing. I promise you that. This is last nights heartbreaker loss recap.
HOUSTON -- The Brewers own the National League's second-worst road record for a variety of reasons, usually having something to do with missed offensive opportunities, a bad inning or two from the pitching staff or a little defensive mistake that later looms large.
But in Wednesday's 1-0 loss to the Astros at Minute Maid Park, first baseman Jeff Cirillo made a highlight-worthy play and it cost his team the game. So it goes for the Brewers, a team that has enjoyed even less success on the road this summer than the Spice Girls reunion tour.
"It's a great play that turned bad, I guess," Cirillo said.
"That play right there kind of sums up our road trip," echoed catcher Damian Miller. "I've never had a game end like that. Never seen a play like that. It's frustrating."
Starting pitcher Dave Bush pitched seven marvelous innings, but the Brewers were shut out by Roger Clemens and two Astros relievers and dropped nine games under .500 for the first time this season. They are 23-45 on the road this season including 0-6 on their current trip to Florida and Houston, a serious letdown after a 5-2 homestand rekindled hopes of a run for the team's first postseason appearance in 24 years.
With the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, one out and the teams locked in a scoreless tie, Aubrey Huff hit a sharp grounder along the first-base line. Cirillo made a diving stop, tapped first base and fired home, but because the out had already been recorded at first, there was no longer a force play in order at the plate.
Mike Lamb scored the winning run on what went in the books as Huff's RBI groundout.
"Honestly, I thought even if I tagged the base I still had a shot at Lamb," Cirillo said. "I guess he's a little better runner than I thought. I tried to throw low for Damian. I just didn't get a very good read."
Cirillo's momentum carried him over the foul line, and he initially believed first-base umpire Travis Reininger had called the ball foul. But the call was fair, and Brewers manager Ned Yost agreed.
"Yes, it was fair," Yost snapped at the beginning of brief postgame comments.
"It's a hard play. It's a tough play," Yost continued. "Momentum is taking you that way, and you're right there on the bag. Your instinct when the bag is right there is to tag it."
Miller said he never saw Cirillo tap first base. He received the throw standing upright and did not attempt to tag Lamb or to block home plate.
"I don't know if I had time to tag the guy anyway," Miller said.
"In case you guys didn't understand that last play, I'll explain it to you," a slightly more jovial Astros manager Phil Garner said. "We've been working on it a lot in Spring Training, and we finally got in a situation to use it tonight."
Jose Capellan (2-1) took the tough loss, and Brad Lidge (1-4) got the win for Houston with a scoreless ninth.
The Brewers had a runner in scoring position with one out in the seventh inning against Clemens, in the eighth against Astros reliever Dan Wheeler and again in the ninth against Lidge, but they were unable to score each time.
Astros center fielder Willy Taveras had something to do with the Brewers' continuing inability to score runs, and in Clemens' continued dominance over Milwaukee. Taveras threw out Cirillo trying to stretch a double into a triple in the fourth inning, ranged to the warning track to catch Bush's long fly ball in the sixth and tracked down David Bell's bases-loaded line drive with the bases loaded to end the seventh.
"We have to get better as a whole," Bush said. "In order to win on the road you have to win those close games, whether it's with pitching or getting clutch hits or making good defensive plays. They won the game with a little bit of everything, and that's the kind of stuff we have to come up with. ... Good teams win 10 extra games because they come away with wins in games like this. On the road, especially."
Bush and Clemens dueled through seven masterful innings and surrendered six total hits -- four off Clemens and two off Bush. Bush pitched perhaps his best innings of the season, holding Houston scoreless with one walk and four strikeouts and retiring the final 10 batters he faced, including the final seven without a ball leaving the infield.
"He actually pitched a little better than Roger," Cirillo said.
But with Bush at just 82 pitches in the top of the eighth inning, Yost went to the bench with one out and the bases. Pinch-hitter Geoff Jenkins drew a walk from Wheeler and moved to second on Corey Hart's single, but the next two hitters popped out as the tie remained intact.
"He pitched great, and we really didn't want to hit for him in the eighth right there because he was throwing so good," Yost said of Bush. "But we're trying to find a way to scratch one run there."
Said Bush: "I don't want to come out of any game, whether I'm throwing well or not. But it was a situation where they had some guys on the bench and were trying to score a run. In a game like that, a lot of times one run makes the difference."
Clemens also worked seven innings and matched a season-high with nine strikeouts.
"We got to watch one of the best ever in action," Bush said.
He welcomed the challenge.
"You get locked into games like that where you have to match someone pitch-for-pitch and every pitch is critical," he said. "I enjoy that."
After Wednesday's weirdness, what's next for the road-weary Brewers?
"What's next is we have to make something happen," Miller said. "I think we're just pressing a little bit, especially me. I'm struggling, doing whatever I can to get a hit. It's not easy when you're facing Clemens, Wheeler and Lidge in one night. We gave ourselves a chance, we're just not getting that hit with runners in scoring position right now."