MVN - Most Valuable Network

Olsen dazzles as Marlins down Brewers

Scott Olsen put on a show on Tuesday night, coming within one strike of a complete game shutout. What little offense that was needed was provided by Mike Jacobs, who hit his ninth homer of the year, a 3rd inning two run shot off of Jeff Suppan and the Marlins blanked the Brewers 3-0.

As Olsen breezed through a career high 8 2/3 innings, he showed that he has something that is rarely found in veterans, let alone 24-year-olds: Incredible resiliency. Coming in, the Brewers had yet to lose to a lefty. They were hitting southpaws at a .279 clip. Olsen was coming off of his first loss of the season and his worst start of the season, a 102 pitch, 5 inning, 4 run outing against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Three hours later, Olsen had thrown 120 pitches, another career high and he had given up just 2 hits, a career low. In 2007, Olsen’s ERA was 5.81, the highest of any NL starter with at least 162 innings under his belt. After his fifth 2008 start, Olsen is the fourth best pitcher the NL with a 2.22 ERA. During his postgame interview, Olsen showed that he has something else, something that until now, had been the oil to his vinegar: Maturity. He was less concerned about getting pulled with 2 outs in the 9th and more concerned about his team winning the game. Watching this kid grow into a man both on and off the mound is too much fun.

The series continues tomorrow. Dave Bush vs. Burke Badenhop.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 at 12:15 am and is filed under Game Recaps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.