It was yet another perfect example of the Milwaukee Brewers pitching staff’s inability to keep its team in games.

Opening Day starter Jeff Suppan started the night by allowing four runs on nine hits in just 4 1/3 innings, but the Brewers’ offense mounted a five-run ninth inning comeback to send the game against the Cincinnati Reds into extra innings, tied at six runs apiece.

Unfortunately, relief pitcher Todd Coffey — who is second on the team behind Trevor Hoffman in ERA — surrendered a pair of 13th inning home runs, eventually leading to an 8-6 Reds victory on Aug. 24, 2009.

The worst thing is no one honestly could have been surprised by the outcome.

While the Brewers boast two of the league’s best offensive talents in Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder and an elite closer in Trevor Hoffman, the pitching staff as a whole has been absolutely terrible.

Actually, terrible would be a compliment based on their numbers.

Starters David Bush, Manny Parra and Jeff Suppan have struggled tremendously, with each possessing an ERA of 5.00 or higher. Carlos Villanueva and Mike Burns, who each have started at least five games, are both above a 6.00 ERA.

Braden Looper, who has been the only consistent starter for Milwaukee behind Yovani Gallardo, is not much better with an ERA of nearly five runs. Fortunately Gallardo, the team’s de facto ace, has impressed with an ERA around 3.50 in just his second full season.

Simply put, the Brewers have been lucky to win as many games as they have with the way they have pitched this season. If not for Braun and Fielder, they may find themselves much farther out of the picture in the National League Central (think Washington Nationals bad).

Out of 16 NL teams, the Brewers rank 15th or lower in six pitching categories. Milwaukee pitchers have allowed just over 20 more home runs than any other team in the league, which is also good for the most home runs allowed per nine innings pitched.

And while the team’s ERA is not quite Washington’s more than five per nine innings, it is significantly larger (0.25) than the league’s next worst team, the San Diego Padres.

The Brewers were the second team this season to allow 600 earned runs, and they allow nearly 1 1/2 hits or walks per inning pitched. This is reflected in the fact only three teams (Washington, Houston and Arizona) have allowed more hits and only three (New York, Washington and San Diego) have surrendered more walks.

So how does all of this compare to the Brewers’ 2008 numbers?

Last season, Milwaukee ranked among the top four in nearly every pitching category, including ERA, shut outs, runs per game, hits, walks and WHIP.

At 3.87, the Brewers boasted the league’s second best ERA and led the league with 12 complete games and six shut outs — all of which were thrown by Ben Sheets or CC Sabathia.

Remember them?

Sheets and Sabathia, who combined for a 24-11 record and 2.55 ERA, carried the Brewers to last season’s NL Wild Card berth. Sure, Braun and Fielder may have hit the clutch late season home runs, but there is no doubt Sheets and Sabathia made the true difference.

Without them, the Brewers have allowed one more earned run per game despite already throwing more shut outs this season (7) than all of last season (6).

With Sheets and Sabathia averaging nearly seven innings per start last season, the Milwaukee starting rotation combined to pitch more than 6 1/3 innings per start in 2008. This year, however, Gallardo is the only Brewers starter to average more than six innings per start while the staff as a whole averages 1/2 inning less per start in 2009 than in 2008.

As a result, the Brewers’ bullpen has been overworked to the extent that manager Ken Macha has been forced to use pitchers like R.J. Swindle (16.20 ERA in 6.2 innings) and Jorge Julio (7.79 ERA in 17.1 innings). In 2008, only Derrick Turnbow (15.63 ERA in 6.1 innings) finished with an ERA of greater than nine runs.

With such a terrible pitching staff, you would think the Brewers’ front office would go out and acquire significant improvements to both the starting rotation and the bullpen.

Instead, they added Claudio Vargas (who the Brewers had released previously) and Dave Weathers (who is 39 years old). The two have been serviceable, but have had little to no impact.

So goes the story of the 2009 Milwaukee Brewers. In a season where Braun and Fielder (and Weeks) showed they were ready to join the league’s elite, the Brew Crew just have not found consistency on the mound.

Let’s hope they pitch better in September, even if their playoff hopes are gone.

Jordan is a senior majoring in journalism and political science. Want to share your frustration with the Brewers’ pitching staff? E-mail him at [email protected]