Brewers Reach .500, Again

Hello again, Brewer fans. I made it back from the heat of Louisiana and now I'm ready to talk baseball. I kept track of my beloved Brewers via ESPN while I was gone, and I had to do a double-take a couple of times. Surely that crawl line didn't say we lost 6-5 to KC? I thought it was a joke the next day when I saw that we got shut out by KC. KC?? Are you kidding me?

I can deal with losing two to Detroit, ( I don't like it but I can deal), because they are the best team in baseball. But losing two of three to the worst? Exactly how do the Brewers plan to contend this season when they're getting shut out by the freaking Royals?? I can't comment too much on this series, however, because I didn't get to see any of it. Brewers highlights on Sportscenter, or even Baseball Tonight, are a very rare thing. Believe me, I was looking! Hell, ESPN didn't even feel it was necessary to include the final lines for our pitchers in the crawl.

At least we got the best of Chicago. We won one we should have lost, and lost one we should have won, but we took three of four from the Cubbies, and that's always a good thing. How sweet was it to watch Derrick Turnbow smoke a fastball past Derrek Lee yesterday? D-Bow pitched his first four-out game since last September, and notched his 23rd save of the season. Matt Wise was still suffering a bit (apparently) from the nasty run-in with the salad tongs, but he managed to get out of a couple of jams without two much damage.

I still don't understand how you cut your finger open on a pair of salad tongs. I can see a pinch maybe, but a bleeding cut? Do we need an instructional video sent to the clubhouse? Incidentally, Journal Sentinel Food Editor Nancy Stohs offered some safe dining tips to Matt in her column today.

Geremi Gonzalez recorded his first win as a Brewer, despite screwing up a play that my 4-year-old niece could have made. That goof cost the Brewers when Jacque Jones lined a two-run single to cut the Crew's lead 1. It also cost the Brewers in terms of their bullpen. Ned was forced to call in the cavalry sooner than he wanted to, but at least they got the job done. It wasn't pretty, but they got it done.

So as June fades into July, the Brewers are once again at .500, but can they stay there as they travel to Minneapolis to take on the white-hot Twins? The Twins have been on a definite hot streak lately, and they have a great record in the Metrodome, 27-10. This is not good news for a team that usually doesn't play great on the road. But hey, streaks are made to be broken right?

Carlos Villanueva is the man being given the ball tonight to try to do just that. The Twins are offering up Brad Radke to face Carlos, and Radke doesn't have a good history with the Crew. Radke is 3-7 against the Brewers, with five straight losses. Maybe our guys can take advantage of that.

On the other hand, Carlos has been doing his homework. Apparently his downtime in Chicago was spent watching film of Twins batters, and creating his own scouting report for each one. You gotta hand it to this kid. He's really not letting any of this phase him. How many young guys could keep it together the way he did when he made his first start against Cincy? On ESPN, no less! He's here and it seems like he plans to stay. Good on you, Carlos. Go get 'em!

NO MORE MOELLER?

It looks like backup catcher Chad Moeller may be in jeopardy of losing his job. Ned Yost wouldn't say for certain, but he did say that Chad's lack of productivity had the plate had been duly noted. I guess it's hard to justify keeping him around when we've got Mike Rivera tearing up AAA. Time will tell. We all know something needs to be done. We all know Chad was the last Brewer to hit for the cycle, (in 2004), but as Janet Jackson would say, what have you done for me lately?

INJURED ARMS ON THE MEND

It looks like our DL may get a bit smaller in the coming weeks. Tomo Ohka is scheduled to pitch this weekend in Brevard County, Florida. This will be the first of (most likely) three minor league rehab starts for Ohka. Ben Sheets is scheduled to throw batting practice this weekend in Minnesota, and says he might soon be ready for a rehab assignment. Jorge De La Rosa is currently on rehab assignment and combined with Travis Phelps last night for a five hitter in AA Huntsville.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Brewers are currently even at 40-40, while this time last year, they were 37-42. Not going to make any predictions, but it's always good when your current record is better than it was the same time last year. At the beginning of the season, Ned Yost set a goal to win 1 1/2 - 2 extra games per month in order to improve on last season's record. At five games better than last season after three months, (not counting tonight, obviously), it looks like the Brewers are on pace to achieve that goal.

And finally, as I was writing this post, I got a call from Kelly with the Milwaukee Brewers telling me I had just won four tickets to this Wednesday's game against Cincinnati. How about that? Until next time, go Brewers!