MILWAUKEE -- "That was fun, man!"
This was Chris Archer, earlier in the weekend, recalling for me the riveting atmosphere at PNC Park the night he made his fist-pumping, F-bombing debut and had the place rocking.
It most certainly was not Archer after this:
Boom, boom, boom, the Brewers' bats rang out all afternoon all over Miller Park, toward a 7-4 bombing that left the Pirates limping toward the next leg of this nine-game trip and left Archer ... well, who knows?
"I didn't execute. Five consecutive hits. Six runs in one inning. I just have to be better," Archer would say with a slight sigh. "I know I keep saying that, but ... my stuff's good, everything feels good, I just have to execute at a higher level. One or two mistakes is OK. A six-run inning is inexcusable."
That was the Milwaukee third, highlighted by the two-run blasts above by Mike Moustakas and Manny Pina.
"The rest of our staff has done a great job this whole month that I've been here," Archer continued. "I need to be better."
Clint Hurdle didn't offer many answers, either.
"They hit the mistakes," he'd say of the Brewers in the third. "They hit a couple sliders left up over the plate, and they both got hit hard. They basically capitalized on missed location. He had three other innings where I thought he spotted up his fastball well, got his offspeed where he wanted it. There was a lot of good to hunt from here, and there are things you can learn from mistakes. You're going to have rough stretches. He's having one. He's going to figure it out."
Really, who can figure this out?
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