Monday- The Unlikely Sweep

Some things to read while going wherever the wind takes you.

The Brewers wrapped up the weekend on a high note, completing a sweep at Boston’s Fenway Park with a 4-0 win over the Red Sox on Sunday. Adam McCalvy has the MLB.com recap.

The game featured the second consecutive scoreless outing and win for Yovani Gallardo, who scattered seven hits and kept the Red Sox off the board for 6 2/3 innings. His 12 2/3 innings pitched this season are the most in all of baseball by a pitcher who has yet to allow a run.

Sunday’s game also featured the return of Ryan Braun, who played right field and went 2-for-4 with a stolen base and a run. Braun was limited to DH duty on Friday and sat out Saturday’s game, saying it was “counterproductive” to play with his thumb in its current condition. His long-term prognosis is up in the air at this point, but a slight majority of voters in this Reviewing the Brew poll still expect him to appear in over 100 games this season.

Braun was, of course, booed in his first appearance at Fenway Park on Friday. Tom Haudricourt notes, however, that it could have been much worse. Marc Normandin of Over the Monster captured the scene pretty well in our Tweet of the Day:

That was a solid “We know who you are, Ryan Braun, but don’t care enough to sustain the loud boo” boo from Fenway.

— Marc Normandin (@Marc_Normandin) April 4, 2014

Other notes from the field:

• David Schoenfield of ESPN says the Brewers sweep was this weekend’s most impressive result.
• Speaking of impressive things, on Saturday, Carlos Gomez hit a home run about two-thirds of the way up the light tower above the Green Monster. Hit Tracker says the ball traveled 381 feet, but that seems low to me. 
• Gomez rounded the bases in 17.66 seconds after the blast, and Larry Granillo of Wezen-ball says it was the fastest trot time in all of baseball on Saturday.
• That homer accounted for one of the six runs against Red Sox starter Clay Buchholz, and You Can’t Predict Baseball notes that he didn’t allow six runs in all of April last season.
• The next day, however, the clubhouse was still abuzz about a different play. Martin Maldonado made a great pick and throw from his knees to catch a would-be base-stealer Saturday, and Ron Roenicke said, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better play from a catcher.” BrewGIFs captured the play in gif form.
• Elsewhere in solid defense, Khris Davis made a nice diving play on Sunday. You can see the video here, then relive it again through Jess Lemont of The Brewers Bar’s illustration.
• Our own @howiemag says the Brewers should get to borrow the Red Sox World Series rings, but one reader at Brew Crew Ball is thinking even bigger, awarding the Brewers the Baseball World Championship belt.
• This was the first time the Brewers have swept the Red Sox since October of 1993 (h/t @AndrewGruman). That series featured the final MLB appearance of Robin Yount.

After yesterday’s game, the Brewers headed to Philadelphia, but they’ll have to wait a day to open play there, as the Phillies postponed their home opener to tomorrow due to the threat of rain. Kyle Lohse will take on Kyle Kendrick when the two teams finally take the field tomorrow afternoon, and Adam McCalvy has the MLB.com preview.

Lohse struck out eight Atlanta Braves in his first start of the season last week and now has 1,371 Ks in his career, the 21st-most among active pitchers. At Brew Crew Ball, JP notes that Lohse has a small chance of passing 1,500 this season.

Meanwhile, Wei-Chung Wang continues to wait for a different milestone: his first MLB appearance. He’s the only member of the Opening Day roster that has yet to appear in a game, and Adam McCalvy has a story on his extended wait for his debut. So far, the closest Wang has gotten to game action came on Sunday, when he came onto the field to help Ryan Braun warm up between innings (h/t @AdamMcCalvy).

The other members of the Brewers bullpen, however, have been excellent. They have a combined 1.02 ERA over 17.2 innings, and as of Saturday, Baseball In-Depth noted, they were one of 12 MLB relief corps averaging more than nine strikeouts per nine innings. Tyler Thornburg recorded three strikeouts in his two innings of work yesterday.

Will Smith also has five strikeouts in four innings this season and has settled nicely into a setup role. Before this weekend’s series in Boston, David Laurilia of FanGraphs talked to him about his pitch selection in a bullpen capacity.

Francisco Rodriguez also has yet to allow a run in three appearances and has recorded a pair of saves. Noah Trister of the Associated Press says K-Rod has been one of the season’s early bullpen surprises.

Aramis Ramirez has also been a nice surprise in April, shedding his reputation as a slow starter by hitting .440/.440/.480 (batting average, on-base percentage, slugging) in his first six games. Nathan Petrashek of Cream City Cables has a slightly belated preview of his 2014 season.

In the minors:

• The affiliates went 3-2 on Sunday, with two of the wins coming from Huntsville, where the Stars swept a doubleheader against Jacksonville. Brad Krause of Miller Park Prospects has quick recaps from all of yesterday’s action.
• Wisconsin split a doubleheader with Peoria on Sunday, and I was in attendance covering the games for Brew Crew Ball. Follow that link for a full recap with quotes from starting pitcher Preston Gainey, track star-turned-outfielder Johnny Davis and manager Matt Erickson.
• Brad Krause of Miller Park Prospects was also there and shared his photo gallery.
• Brevard County was off on Sunday, but shortstop Orlando Arcia already has three extra base hits in their first three games. @Mass_Haas notes that, despite losing a full year to a broken ankle in 2012, Arcia is still the youngest player in the Florida State League.
• Tim Froberg of the Appleton Post Crescent has a profile of 2012 first-round pick Clint Coulter, who is looking for a different result in his second season with Wisconsin.
• Nashville broadcaster Jeff Hem has interviews with Sounds pitchers Jimmy Nelson and Johnny Hellweg and new manager Rick Sweet.
• The Brewers have released pitcher Will West. West had appeared in 29 games between rookie ball and Wisconsin after being signed as an undrafted free agent in 2011, but is now serving a 100 game suspension following a positive drug test.

If you’d like more Brewers coverage today but you’re sick of reading, I’ll be making my weekly appearance on The Talking Cheeseheads this afternoon. The interview will air during the 3 p.m. hour on Sports Talk AM 1090 WAQE in Rice Lake, and during the 4 p.m. hour on Sports Fan 100.5 FM in Wausau, and it will be available online at the link above. 

Around baseball:

Blue Jays: Designated reliever and former Brewers prospect Jeremy Jeffress for assignment. 
Diamondbacks: Claimed outfielder Roger Kieschnick off waivers from the Giants. 
Dodgers: Acquired pitcher Colt Hynes from the Indians for a minor league pitcher and designated outfielder Mike Baxter for assignment.
Mariners: Designated pitcher Hector Noesi for assignment. 
Nationals: Placed outfielder Scott Hairston on the DL with an oblique strain. 
Pirates: Extended manager Clint Hurdle and general manager Neal Huntington’s contracts through 2017, with club options for 2018.
Rays: Signed shortstop Yunel Escobar to a two-year, $13 million contract extension with a club option for 2017.
Red Sox: Placed third baseman Will Middlebrooks on the DL with a calf strain. 
Royals: Designated infielder Pedro Ciriaco for assignment. 
White Sox: Placed reliever Nate Jones on the DL with hip soreness. 
Yankees: Placed 1B Mark Teixeira on the DL with a hamstring strain. 

Let’s go around the NL Central:

• The Pirates kept pace with the Brewers for first place in the division with a 2-1 win over the Cardinals on Sunday. Edinson Volquez and three relievers combined to allow just three hits in the game.
• The Reds held the Mets to just four hits in a 2-1 victory. On top of pitching seven innings for the win, Alfredo Simon helped his own cause by singling to lead off the sixth and scoring the game-tying run as Cincinnati rallied from a 1-0 deficit.
• The Cubs avoided a sweep in Philadelphia with an 8-3 win over the Phillies. Left fielder Ryan Kalish was on base four times for Chicago with a double, triple and two walks, scored twice and drove in three runs.

Here are today’s standings and probables:

The Cubs played their home opener on Friday, but at least one fan wasn’t around to see it. The Chicago Tribune has a story on a man who was ejected from Wrigley Field for being too drunk and arrested for damaging a police car, all over an hour before the game’s 1:20 p.m. scheduled first pitch.

Meanwhile, no team in the Central is having a season that compares to the Diamondbacks. They won on Sunday, but their 1-7 start entering the day was their worst in franchise history.

Today in former Brewers:

• Paul Molitor is now ninth on baseball’s all-time hits list after Derek Jeter passed him for eighth place on Saturday. Molitor collected 3,319 hits over 21 MLB seasons, including 2,281 as a Brewer.
• Manny Parra recorded his first professional save in the Reds’ win over the Mets on Sunday (h/t @AdamRubinESPN via @AdamMcCalvy).
• Matt LaPorta also had a big day Sunday, hitting a pair of home runs in the Mexican League (h/t @BenBadler)
• @ChrisCotillo reports Todd Coffey should sign soon and three-to-five teams are showing interest in Randy Wolf, who was recently released by the Mariners.
• Brad Wheeler of The Globe and Mail talked to Gregg Zaun about his outspoken style on Blue Jays broadcasts (h/t BBTF).