By all estimations the weather inside Miller Park tuesday night was perfect. While outside the wind blew, the rain poured, and the temperature dropped, inside it remained right around 60 degrees with no chance of precipitation. Nope, no chance of someone's goggles fogging up on this night. No slippery grips on the ball. No excuses to not go out and play ball to the best of your professional abilities. Last week Eric Gagne, the Brewers new 10 million dollar closer, used the excuses above to explain his awful first relief appearance for the Brewers. In that game against the Cubs he came in in the ninth with a 3 run lead and proceeded to be shelled....hard. The punctuation on that performance was a 3 run home run off the bat of Cubs rookie phenom Kosuke Fukudome. He couldn't see well, it was really wet, the mound was sloppy. Wow, is he like a 10 year old making excuses for throwing a rock through a window? It took Eric a full day to just come out and say, "My stuff just wasn't that good." No Sh@#! No chance for excuses on this fine day Mr. Gagne.

   As Brewer fans we've been waiting for this day. It was going to be like showing off your new hot girlfriend to the one who dumped you for the dude with the Porsche. Coco Cordero was back in town. Him, his new fat contract, and the recharged Reds were to face the unstoppable crew with the new look bullpen. Gagne was all set up for redemption. The Brewers kept the one run lead against some awesome starting pitching. The Reds couldn't really get a hold of the ball. All Gagne had to do was come in and get the 3 outs he is paid so much to get. Well, he got the first two and had Corey Patterson strung out with two strikes, one pitch, one good slider or changeup and we forgiving Brewer fans can easily forget about one measly blown save. Instead Gagne served up a tater presented perfectly down the middle for Patterson, which Corey greeted with a nice smooth swing and ushered the ball directly to the Mercedes Benz Buffet in right field. It looked like Corey Hart might have had a chance, but alas he is not 7'6" tall.

   Our new ten million dollar man had blown another one. Up until this season Eric Gagne had secured 177 saves in 187 opportunities. Thus far, with the Brewers, he has blown 2 out of 3. They say the job of the big league closer is mostly mental, well Gagne's psyche has to be pretty rattled right now. Yost and the rest of the powers that be need keep this guy on a short leash. I understand it's early, and the team is still winning as a whole, but we do not want our ace reliever to be leading the team in victories at any point. If he blows a couple more the Brewers need to sit him down. It will be a huge test for Yost, who, at times, is known to stick with struggling players for too long. If the time to win is now, the time to sit on your hands Ned has passed.

Brewer 6-1, Cubs 4-3