Day 3: "It's only, like, eight inches bigger!"

 Before I begin, I just have to say sorry that I haven't updated in forever! The Blogger website was down so none of us have been able to post anything until today. I'm really not a blogging slacker, I swear :)

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As I said in my last entry, this day began with a very early wake-up.  Luckily, we had no problems with anyone failing/refusing to wake up so we were all ready to go in the lobby on time and were on the road by 5:30 a.m.  A few of us immediately went to sleep in the van (myself included) but after stopping for breakfast at McDonalds we were all fairly awake for the rest of the six hour drive to Milwaukee.  Once we arrived, we went straight to Miller Park and walked around/took pictures/etc. and then went to find our seats.  They were, as you’ll see from the pictures below, a lot higher up than our seats for the Twins game, but I actually kind of liked that.  We were right behind home plate and had what I thought was a great view of the field. 

For me, this game was exciting because it was my first time scoring by myself (well, sort of by myself – Bill helped me with the tricky parts).  I really enjoyed scoring because I found myself feeling a lot more invested in the game than I otherwise would have been despite my ambivalence towards both teams.  I also found myself feeling pretty confused – the game had 12 total pitching changes along with many other lineup changes, so towards the end of the game I was running out of places to put everyone’s names and I had no idea what to do with the changes in the batting order.  There was also the little problem of the Padres scoring eight runs in one inning...while it was exciting to watch, it was irritating to score in a book that has no extra innings.  I was forced to get a little creative....I’m not sure Bill would approve, but at least I didn’t waste a page! 

Just like in the Kernels and the Twins game, the first batter (Denorfia) scored a home run, with Bartlett and Headley also scoring runs in the first inning.  In the top of the third, Maybin and Johnson scored giving the Padres a 5-0 lead, but the Brewers managed to make it a tie by the bottom of the fifth (Braun and McGehee scored in the fourth, Kotsay, Fielder, and Braun in the fifth).  Betancourt then scored in the bottom of the sixth but the team was done for after the Padres scored eight runs in the eighth inning. 

After the game, we went straight to our hotel, checked in, and had dinner.  Then we were given our first official writing assignment: to spend 40 minutes writing a short essay and then to spend 20 minutes writing a list of observations from the trip so far.  After completing this assignment, we met in Dr. Bob’s room to talk about what we had written.  When we were done there, we called it a night. 

Staying entertained in the van.

Loved this view!

Scoring like pros :)