But the Brewers did enough to win, 4-1, against a team that played as if the series already had been decided.
"They did a better job than us," Jimmy Rollins said, "but we're going to come out and find a way in the next one."
They'd better. The crowd, which was more nervous than fanatic last night, will be at full throat this afternoon when the Brewers take their hacks against Joe Blanton. One more win and the Brewers will force a deciding fifth game in Philadelphia on Tuesday that would match CC Sabathia against Cole Hamels.
For October theater, that would be a great game, but the Phils would just as soon cancel the production with a win today.
"I've been ready for this game," Blanton said.
If he isn't, the Phillies face the possibility of a meltdown after taking a stranglehold on this series. The Brewers still don't look all that good, but they aren't done yet, and they stand one more victory from really placing the pressure on the Phils.
"We've got to come back and try again," said Ryan Howard, who got his first two hits of the series last night, which was a good sign. "We wanted to finish this off as fast as possible, but that didn't happen."
Last night, even though Jamie Moyer struggled to find the strike zone and piled up pitches in the early innings, Milwaukee didn't really break through against him. The fans responded when Moyer walked the first two batters in the bottom of the opening inning and then wild-pitched them into scoring position. And while the Brewers got the runners home, with a sacrifice fly and a base hit to amp up the crowd, they didn't turn the inning into anything more.
"I finally started to get a feel for the ball around the third inning, but by then the damage was done," Moyer said. "They had a 1-2-3 first inning and got a little momentum, and I wanted to match that and take it from there, but I didn't get it done."
