Chirurgie » Doug has been aggressive since he came here,

MILWAUKEE — For most of the season Josh Oliver Jersey , the Milwaukee Brewers‘ bullpen has been the team’s anchor, slamming the door on victory after victory as the Brewers walked what manager Craig Counsell called a “high wire act.”

Now, though, the relievers are getting some breathing room thanks to a suddenly dominant starting rotation and when the Brewers open a three-game weekend series Friday night against the Philadelphia Phillies at Miller Park, they’ll sit atop the NL Central, 1 1/2 games ahead of the second-place Chicago Cubs.

Milwaukee’s starters have allowed no more than one run in four straight games and have combined for a 2.55 ERA over their last 12 despite the absence of right-hander Zach Davies, who’s out for a second time this season with shoulder soreness, and right-hander Jimmy Nelson, who’s yet to throw a pitch this season after suffering a shoulder injury last September.

“Our pitching has been outstanding all year,” outfielder Lorenzo Cain said. “The starting pitching http://www.jaguarscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-quincy-williams-ii-jersey , bullpen, have pretty much been carrying our team for the most part.

“We definitely need to step up as an offense and try to score some more runs. We’re putting too much pressure on our pitchers as a whole. They’ve been outstanding, have been holding the fort down for the team and doing a great job all year long.”

The offense fared well last weekend against the Phillies. Milwaukee scored 12 runs in each of the first two contests of the three-game set and tagged right-hander Jake Arrieta (5-4, 2.97 ERA), who gets the start Friday night, for four runs over 5 1/3 innings Saturday.

The veteran right-hander was off to a good start in his first season with Philadelphia but has allowed nine earned runs in his last two starts, spanning 11 1/3 innings.

He stands a good chance to snap out of that funk at Miller Park, where he’s 3-0 with a 2.03 ERA in five career starts and is 8-5 with a 2.96 ERA in 16 career starts against the Brewers, including last weekend’s clunker.

That loss stretched Philadelphia’s losing streak to four games but the Phillies have won three of four since, including a 9-3 victory Thursday afternoon against the Rockies.

The victory marked a breakthrough for Philadelphia’s offense which had gone 257 innings without scoring more than three runs in a frame Ryquell Armstead Jersey , hadn’t scored more than six in a game since May 19 and recorded at least 10 hits only once since May 17.

“The process has been there,” first baseman Rhys Hoskins said. “Sometimes it just feels like every break doesn’t go our way. We know that we’re capable of (high-scoring innings) every time we step on the field. But it’s nice to see it finally happen.”

The Phillies’ bats will try to stay hot against Brewers’ starter Brent Suter (6-4, 4.61 ERA), who held Philadelphia to three runs over five innings in his last outing.

The left-hander has earned a victory in four of his last five starts. He is 1-0 with a 3.27 ERA in two starts versus the Phillies.

Doug Pederson called for a pass to his quarterback on fourth down, went for 2-point conversions when the chart said otherwise and stuck with the same aggressive approach in the biggest game of his coaching career.

The Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl champions because they weren’t intimidated and wouldn’t back down just like their coach.

”We just wanted to stay aggressive,” Pederson said. ”My mentality coming into the game was that I was going to stay aggressive with Nick (Foles), and allow his playmakers to make plays.

They made one big play after another in a 41-33 victory over the New England Patriots on Sunday night to win the franchise’s first NFL title since 1960.

Pederson was criticized for being too aggressive in his rookie season when the Eagles were 7-9. He didn’t change his philosophy this year, but his players executed the plays.

On fourth down from the 1 with 34 seconds left in the first half, running back Corey Clement took a direct snap and pitched to tight end Trey Burton, who threw to Foles for a touchdown that gave Philadelphia a 22-12 lead.

”A quarterback going out on a route? I was pumped to go over there and talk to Doug and we agreed to do it http://www.jaguarscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-gardner-minshew-ii-jersey ,” Foles said. ”We worked on it for a long time and executed perfectly. We’ve been working on it for a month.”

Burton was recruited as a quarterback out of high school by Florida. He was confident he’d make the right throw and Foles would make the catch on a play called ”Philly Special.”

”Coach has some guts,” Burton said. ”People don’t realize how great of an athlete Nick is. I would’ve thrown to him even if he was covered. He would’ve gone up to get it.”

Other teams who failed to topple New England after taking leads in playoff games were too conservative. Atlanta blew a 28-3 lead in last year’s Super Bowl and Jacksonville had a 20-10 fourth-quarter lead in the AFC championship game.

But the Eagles never let up the same way they went after Minnesota in a 38-7 win in the NFC title game two weeks ago.

”We wanted to be aggressive,” running back Jay Ajayi said. ”We understood that this is a team that doesn’t quit, that plays four quarters and we were going to have to be aggressive all game long. We showed that. We wanted to set the tone early and we wanted to keep our foot on the gas.”

Pederson’s aggressive nature almost backfired when he went for a 2-point conversion early in the second quarter because Jake Elliott had missed an extra point on the team’s first score. When it failed, the Eagles led 15-3 and that loomed large when they fell behind 33-32 in the fourth quarter.

But Pederson didn’t hesitate going for fourth-and-1 from the Eagles 45 with 5:39 left in the game and the team trailing by one point. Foles tossed a 2-yard pass to Zach Ertz and later connected with Ertz on the go-ahead TD pass .

”Doug has been aggressive since he came here,” Ertz said. ”That’s part of our identity. It’s a big reason we’re here and now we’re champions.”

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