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Hall ends slump in style

MILWAUKEE — One of Ken Macha’s favorite sayings is: “The players make out the lineup.”

No, the Milwaukee Brewers’ manager doesn’t actually allow players to come into his office and write their names on the lineup card. What Macha means is players force their way into the lineup by producing.

On the flip side, players scratch their names from the lineup by not producing. That was the situation in which Bill Hall found himself when the Brewers began a three-game series Monday against St. Louis at Miller Park.

Yet, by the time Hall stepped to the plate to become the hero of the Brewers’ dramatic 1-0, 10-inning nail-biter over St. Louis, he insisted he was confident that things would turn out.

“Today I had the most confidence I’ve had in a long time, even before I knew I was going to play,” said Hall, out of the lineup after a nightmarish three-city trip in which he went 1-for-28.

“When they called my number, that confidence kind of showed.”

Indeed, it did. Putting into practice the things he had worked on with hitting coach Dale Sveum, Hall drove a 2-1 slider from reliever Kyle McClellan to right-center for a game-winning, two-out single.

Hall’s hit allowed the Brewers to feel better than the Cardinals about the marvelous pitching duel staged by Yovani Gallardo and Chris Carpenter. Carpenter was perfect against the Brewers for six innings and Gallardo didn’t allow a hit until the sixth, with hitters having no chance for the most part.

Both right-handers went eight innings and allowed only two hits. That left it to the respective bullpens and Hall, who went inside with Sveum during the game and took swings in the batting cage, waiting for his chance.

Hall’s biggest shortcoming during his skid has been facing right-handed pitchers, against whom he was batting .167. Because of flaws in his approach, he had become easy prey, especially for breaking balls away.

That’s why it was particularly meaningful for Hall to take a breaking ball away from McClellan the other way to right-center, scoring Casey McGehee from third on what otherwise would have been an extra-base hit.

It was exactly what Sveum had preached to Hall—go with the pitch instead of trying to pull it.

“It was actually a pretty good pitch, down and away, maybe a little bit off the plate,” said Hall. “But I was looking out there. I’m just happy I finally got a hit to right field.

“I’ve been through some tough times. I just knew it was going to turn around. I’ve been doing some stuff to help out with that, a lot of visualization, a lot of meditating to get myself back to how I felt when I was swinging the bat good.”

If not for a double-switch snafu by Macha, Hall wouldn’t have been at the plate at that particular time. When Trevor Hoffman came on to pitch the ninth inning, Macha wanted Hoffman to bat in the sixth spot and Hall ninth, which was coming up in the bottom of the inning.

But Macha didn’t signal to home plate umpire Chad Fairchild before Hoffman made it to the mound, so the double-switch was not allowed. Instead, Hall and Hoffman went into the lineup in the spots occupied by the players they replaced.

“(Fairchild) said once Trevor got to the mound, it was too late,” said Macha. “My dispute was he hadn’t gotten to the mound yet. It all worked out in the end.”

Thanks to Hall putting behind him one of the worst stretches of his career and somehow managing to clear his head with the game on the line.

“I’ve been having a lot of conversations with people, trying to figure out why my mind tends to make me feel this way, from time to time,” said Hall. “It’s all about getting rid of negative thoughts as fast as possible. That’s one of the things I’m working on.

“Obviously, the swing is the swing. I have some things to work on there. But if you feel confident enough, you have a chance to get a hit.”

Before the game, Macha was telling reporters what it would take for Hall to get back in the good graces of the manager.

“I want to see guys come out and work their way out of it,” said Macha, whose club snapped a first-place tie with St. Louis in a series opener for the second time this month.

In that regard, Hall did a nice job of punching his way out of the corner, at least for one day.

“Obviously, the swing is the swing . . . if you feel confident enough, you have a chance to get a hit.”