“Mark Freakin’ Buehrle? Are you kidding me?”

That was my reaction (toned down considerably since I was at a family gathering) after hearing that the White Sox pitcher had just gone deep on Braden Looper. But this wasn’t the first time the Brewers gave up a home run to a pitcher this year. In fact, remarkably, it was the fourth time already this season.

Here are the offenders:

• Russ Ortiz, SP, HOU, off Dave Bush — .208, 7 HR, 49 RBI in his career
• Adam Wainwright, SP, STL, off Jeff Suppan — .258, 4 HR, 15 RBI
• Josh Johnson, SP, FLA, off Dave Bush — .112, 1 HR, 10 RBI
• Mark Buehrle, SP, CHIW, off Braden Looper — .105, 1 HR, 1 RBI

Buehrle’s home run has to be the most disturbing since he gets only a handful of at bats a year as an AL pitcher, had never hit a home run or even had an RBI before and the White Sox won the game by just one run. Johnson’s home run also came in a one-run loss for the Brewers and was the only non-solo shot (it was a three-run home run). The team has lost all four of the games in which pitchers have hit home runs against them.

To put this trend in perspective, there have only been 12 home runs hit by pitchers in MLB all season. Two have been hit by Yovani Gallardo. So, of the 10 home runs hit this season by non-Brewer pitchers, 40 percent have come against the Brewers.

My advice to the Brewers pitchers?

STOP IT.

Tags: Brewers, Home Runs, Pitchers

This entry was posted on Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 2:39 pm and is filed under RFB. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.