MILWAUKEE (AP) -Some of the Milwaukee Brewers’ September callups took empty champagne bottles around to each locker for their teammates to sign moments after their season ended Sunday.
Milwaukee lost 6-2 to Philadelphia in Game 4 of the NL division series but took home some warm memories from its first postseason trip since 1982.
“Every time you lose it’s difficult to deal with. What makes it difficult is because you fought and you battled and you did everything you possibly can to try to stay positive and try to excel,” said Mike Cameron, who had his own roller-coaster ride this week with the birth of his fourth child, Lilo, on Friday. “The experience we got this year, being a part of history in Milwaukee, I don’t think anybody will forget that.”
Even with big questions looming about the pitching staff, Ryan Braun believes he’ll see another postseason trip with the Brewers. The All-Star slugger agreed to a $45 million, eight-year deal in May that runs through 2015.
Braun considered the season a success.
eason experience and as an organization we haven’t been to the postseason in 26 years to expect to get to the World Series and win a World Series.”
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RAYS-ING PROFILE: The Tampa Bay Rays, who finished 26th in home attendance this season despite being on top of the AL East for the majority of the year, have been trying to raise their profile.
Their first postseason berth might be helping.
Rays manager Joe Maddon said he saw a couple walking around downtown Chicago wearing retro Devil Rays’ jerseys. Maddon is hoping to see more Tampa Bay support when he goes to Europe for his honeymoon in November.
“My goal is to see someone walking around either Rome or, you know, Barcelona or somewhere with some Rays gear on,” he said. “I’m bringing my camera and if it happens I’m absolutely taking a photograph and I promise not to set it up.”
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IT WOULD BE BUEHRLE: White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen was leaning toward starting left-hander Mark Buehrle for a possible fifth game.
The White Sox entered Sunday’s game trailing 2-0 in the best-of-five series. Right-hander Gavin Floyd was scheduled to start Game 4 if Chicago avoided elimination.
es the distance.
“I want them to see a lefty every time they come to play,” Guillen said. “Because this ballclub, they have some left-handed hitters that are scary.”
Guillen said he will wait to see how Buehrle, who started Friday in Game 2, feels on Monday before making a decision.
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STILL CHASING: Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie Manuel won’t blame Chase Utley’s hitting woes on a bad hip.
Utley was 0-for-3 in Sunday’s 6-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers that clinched the Phillies’ first trip to the NL championship series since 1993. That drops his postseason average to a dismal .133, well off his season average of .292.
“When Chase Utley’s hip is bothering him enough where he can’t play, I think he’s going to walk right in there and tell me,” Manuel said. “He ain’t nowhere near there yet.”
The All-Star second baseman refused to acknowledge that he was hurting during the regular season, though general manager Pat Gillick said in late July that Utley had been playing with a sore right hip.
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