Davis outduels Cappy

Theirs used to pitch for us...ours used to pitch for them. They're both left-handed, former teammates, neighbors and friends. Former Dback Chris Capuano was squared-off against former Brewer Doug Davis Wednesday evening. With the way Brewers have been hitting lefties this year, and the way Chris Capuano has been taking a pounding of late, I was thinking it would be a slugfest. Nope. Both starters pitched shutouts for the first three innings; both then surrendered their only two runs of the evening in the fourth--the Brewers coming on a 2-run homer by Kevin Mench, making up for slipping in the field in the top of the inning leading to both the Dbacks runs. Davis exited after 6 IP and 112 pitches, with just 3 hits, but only 1 K and 5 BB's; Capuano lasted 7 IP, 99 pitches, and allowed 4 hits with 5 K's and 2 BB's. Davis was relieved by Tony Peña; Yost gambled and went with veteran Grant Balfour making his debut with the Brewers and his first MLB appearance since 2004. Peña and Balfour each pitched 2 innings...but the similarities then ended. Peña was dominating, allowing just one hit while fanning three; Balfour started the top of the 8th by getting Chris Young to strike out and Orlando Hudson to ground out, Balfour plunked Eric Byrnes and seemingly came undone--after Byrnes stole second (mostly on a bad throw by Damian Miller), Balfour walked Conor Jackson on five pitches, then put a 94 m.p.h. fastball right over the plate for third-baseman Mark Reynolds to dump into deep left-center. Mesa and José Valverde kept the Crew finished off the Brewers to give the Dbacks game three, 5-2. With the Cubs' win, the Crew are back to only 3½ games ahead. Thursday's finale is a day game with Yovani Gallardo filling in for Ben Sheets...hopefully, Gallardo's move to the bullpen won't impact his ability to start games.