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Brewers hope LHP Sabathia can even series

Oct 2, 2008 - 10:10 AM National League Division Series Phillies lead 1-0

Milwaukee at Philadelphia 6:07 p.m. EDT

PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- It was practically yesterday that CC Sabathia pitched the Milwaukee Brewers into the playoffs for the first time in 26 years - and already he's back on the mound again, this time trying to help them survive the first round.

The ace lefthander will go on three days' rest for the fourth consecutive start on Thursday as the Brewers take on the Philadelphia Phillies in Game Two of their divisional series to try to even things up. The Phillies took Wednesday's opener, 3-1.

It will be the fifth start in 17 days for Sabathia (11-2, 1.65 ERA), who has been the definition of a workhorse since being acquired in a midseason trade with the Cleveland Indians.

"Obviously, we're down one game right now with the best pitcher in baseball pitching tomorrow," Brewers manager Dale Sveum said. "So obviously we feel good about ourselves, but obviously we've got to swing the bats better and score more than one run."

In Sunday's regular-season finale, Sabathia tossed his seventh complete game since joining the Brewers, holding the Chicago Cubs to one run and four hits while striking out seven to help Milwaukee clinch the National League wild card. Three days earlier, as the Brewers had fallen out of the wild-card lead in the middle of a miserable September, Sabathia struck out 11 in seven innings to keep them afloat.

Both of those performances came on short rest - and that will be the case once again in Game Two. In two weeks, he has thrown 433 pitches, including 122 on Sunday.

"IIdefinitely feel like it's something I (can) keep doing. My arm feels fine. My body feels fine," Sabathia said. "I think everybody who knows me and that's close to me knows how competitive I am. And if I'm healthy enough and I feel fine enough to pitch that they're not going to tell me not to. Because I'm not going to listen to it. We're going to end up getting into an argument."

His impact down the stretch has been incontrovertible - after all, it wasn't as if his lineup was giving him much help. In his six September starts, the Brewers never scored more than four runs. It's safe to say they got into the postseason on the strength of his left arm.

The Indians had that same idea last year after Sabathia completed a Cy Young Award-winning regular season to lead them to a division title. But the playoffs were a different story, as the lefthander went 1-2 with an 8.80 ERA in three starts.

"I think you'll see a more calmer version of me," Sabathia said. "I think last year I went into the playoffs thinking that I had to throw no-hitters and shutouts every game. I think that's why you saw me pressing a lot and throwing a lot of pitches and not throwing a lot of strikes."

This year, his first task is merely to dig the Brewers out of a 1-0 hole. Philadelphia's own ace southpaw, Cole Hamels, dominated the Brewers en route to a 3-1 triumph on Wednesday. Hamels tossed eight innings of two-hit ball, striking out nine in the process, to earn the victory - though he had to sweat it out over the final frame.

Phillies closer Brad Lidge, who has gone the whole season without blowing a save, nearly put an end to that streak after coming on in the ninth. He served up an RBI double to Ryan Braun, walked J.J. Hardy and threw a wild pitch , leaving both runners in scoring position. Lidge battled back to strike out Corey Hart to end the threat and preserve the Phillies' first postseason victory since Game Five of the 1993 World Series.

The Brewers are working on a long playoff drought of their own - they haven't won a postseason game since Game Five of the 1982 World Series. In order to do snap that skid, they'll have to beat a pitcher that manhandled them the last time he faced them.

Righthander Brett Myers (10-13, 4.55) tossed a two-hitter in a 6-1 victory on September 14 and is 4-1 with a 1.77 ERA against the Brewers in eight career meetings - four starts and four relief appearances.

Myers was infamously sent to the minor leagues for a month in late June, but responded brilliantly with nearly two months' worth of dominant pitching. However, his last two outings of the regular season showed a sudden downturn. He failed to get out of the fifth inning in either start, giving up a combined 16 runs - 14 earned - and 19 hits over 8 1/3 innings.

"I struggled, but that's the time to put that all behind me," Myers said. "It's in the past. It's a new season now. It's time to start over. All that stuff won't even be looked at if we go and win this whole thing and everybody performs well."

The Phillies have won six straight over the Brewers, including a four-game sweep last month that was in the middle of a 4-15 stretch for Milwaukee.

The Brewers' last win over the Phillies was a 5-4 decision on April 23.