Wednesday- The ankle’s all right

Some things to read while going way outside.

The Milwaukee Brewers and Baltimore Orioles played extra innings for the second consecutive night on Tuesday, but no one could have predicted this result. The Brewers picked up a 7-6 walkoff win in the 10th inning on an RBI-double from Yovani Gallardo, who was pinch hitting just two days after missing a start with a sprained ankle. Eric Nehm of Brew Crew Ball has the recap, if you missed it.

Gallardo’s big hit allowed the Brewers to salvage a game in which they blew a 5-0 lead and had to score in the bottom of the ninth to go to extra innings. Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a look at Tuesday’s bizarre ups and downs.

Khris Davis homered Tuesday night for the eighth time this season, capping off an unusual day. Earlier in the day, he talked to reporters about receiving a death threat that merited an investigation from MLB security.

Other notes from the field:

• Yovani Gallardo was the first MLB pitcher to deliver a walkoff pinch-hit since Glendon Rusch also did it for the Brewers in April of 2003 (h/t @MikeVassallo13).
• Jonathan Lucroy had two hits Tuesday night, now has at least one in nine consecutive games and has reached base safely in 18 consecutive. Both are the longest streaks by Brewers this season.
• One of those hits was a double. Lucroy leads the team with 21, but 19 of them have come on the road (h/t @jstein1981).
• The Brewers have at least 10 hits in seven consecutive games.
• Jean Segura had a hit in the bottom of the first inning and is now 4-for-6 on the season when leading off games (h/t @MikeVassallo13).
• You Can’t Predict Baseball notes that Gallardo was not the only starting pitcher to pinch hit in Tuesday’s game. Orioles starter Bud Norris also bunted as a pinch hitter in the ninth.
• Jordan, a young fan who received a well-publicized hug from Carlos Gomez earlier this season, threw out Tuesday night’s first pitch.
• The Italian won the Sausage Race.

Less than 24 hours after his walkoff hit Tuesday night, Yovani Gallardo will take the mound against Bud Norris and the Orioles at 7:10 p.m. tonight. Alec Shirkey has the MLB.com preview.
 
Despite a hot start to the season and a win last night, the Brewers still have a lot of work to do to make sure they get a chance to play baseball in October. Before Tuesday night’s game, Dave Cameron of FanGraphs looked at projected win totals for 2014 and still had the Brewers at 84, the National League’s sixth-highest projected total.

The Brewers had a chance to win in the bottom of the 10th inning Tuesday after Francisco Rodriguez worked a scoreless top half, working around a walk and recording a strikeout on the heels of blowing a save Monday night. Before the game, Ron Roenicke talked to reporters about K-Rod’s recent command issues.

In the same interview, Roenicke also defended the much-maligned “contact play,” which was on when Elian Herrera was doubled off on Mark Reynolds’ line drive Monday night, costing the Brewers a chance to score. This quote on the matter is likely to give some critics a splitting headache:

“Roenicke said the Brewers had run the contact play successfully many times since he began managing the team in 2011, and Monday night was the first time it had backfired.”

A lot of Brewers played a part in Tuesday night’s game, but the smallest role belonged to Logan Schafer, who was inserted into the game as a pinch hitter in the eighth but removed without batting when the Orioles brought in a left-handed reliever. Schafer is hitting .194/.284/.306 (batting average/on-base percentage/slugging) in 84 plate appearances, and Benjamin Orr of Reviewing the Brew asks if the Brewers can justify keeping him around.

Yovani Gallardo’s return to the starting rotation today means Marco Estrada will get two extra days off before starting the opening game in the Cubs series Friday. Estrada leads all of baseball with 16 home runs allowed and is on pace to shatter Braden Looper’s franchise record of 39 allowed in a season. Justin Schultz of Reviewing the Brew has a look at the pitches that have gotten Estrada in trouble.

Meanwhile, Kyle Lohse allowed four runs Monday to snap a streak of eight consecutive quality starts dating back to April 13. Lohse still has a 2.92 ERA and is striking out better than seven batters per nine innings for the first time since 2006, though, and Derek Harvey of Brew Crew Ball says he might be having his best season.

By the time Lohse is ready to take the mound again Sunday, Aramis Ramirez may be back in the lineup behind him. He took ground balls at third base on Tuesday for the first time since going on the disabled list with a strained hamstring.

And, of course, when you’re nursing a strained hamstring, you can’t just walk around Milwaukee. autoevolution has a story on the 2014 Bentley Flying Spur Ramirez is driving these days.

In the minors:

• The affiliates went 3-2 Tuesday, and the big win came from Wisconsin, where outfielder Michael Ratterree’s 10th-inning grand slam powered the Timber Rattlers to a 6-2 win over Clinton in a game suspended by rain on Monday. Brad Krause of Miller Park Prospects has short recaps of all of the day’s games.
• We are eight days away from the 2014 MLB draft, and Noah Jarosh of Brew Crew Ball has a look at six players various publications have the Brewers selecting with the No. 12 overall pick.