Wednesday- Up and down Gallardo

Some things to read while getting a new laptop.

Momentum from a couple of recent wins for the Milwaukee Brewers fizzled out Tuesday night, as a rough outing from Yovani Gallardo led to a 6-4 loss to the Minnesota Twins at Miller Park. Eric Nehm of Brew Crew Ball has the recap, if you missed it.

Gallardo allowed six runs on eight hits and lasted just five innings against the Twins, and his struggles are quickly becoming a trend. Since opening the season with a 1.42 ERA over his first five outings, Gallardo has a 6.23 mark in his last seven starts. He also allowed a pair of home runs Tuesday night and has given up 10 in his last 39 innings of work (2.3 per nine innings). At least he didn’t mince words when discussing the game:

Gallardo was blunt in assessing his outing: “It sucked. Simple as that.”

— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) June 4, 2014

One of those home runs was hit by Twins second baseman Brian Dozier, who went 3-for-3 with a walk and his 12th long ball of the season. Howard Megdal of Sports on Earth has more on the middle infielder’s surprising power surge.

• The game was briefly delayed before the top of the eighth inning when a fan who fell into the Brewers bullpen was taken out on a stretcher. Club officials report he was conscious and alert while being transported to the hospital.
• The Twins turned three double plays Tuesday night and six in the two-game series. Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press has a look at how the Twins appear to be moving away from defensive shifts, despite a growing trend to use them around baseball.
• With Tuesday’s loss, the Brewers are now 11-2 this season in games where Martin Maldonado starts at catcher (h/t @MikeVassallo13).
• @ParkerHageman has a Vine video of Carlos Gomez swatting at a bug with his bat during an at bat.
• The Brewers and Twins wore retro uniforms on Tuesday, and will again in Minnesota Thursday (h/t @AdamMcCalvy).
• The Chorizo won the Sausage Race.

After Tuesday’s game, the Brewers waved goodbye to Miller Park and moved on to Minnesota, where the two teams will continue their home-and-home series tonight. Marco Estrada will face Ricky Nolasco at 7:10 p.m., and Caitlin Swieca has the MLB.com preview. Fifteen of the Brewers’ next 18 games are on the road.

Tonight’s game will also feature Aramis Ramirez for the first time since May 10. Ramirez has missed most of a month with a hamstring strain and wrapped up a rehab assignment with Wisconsin on Monday. He’s expected to serve as the designated hitter tonight and play third base for nine innings on Thursday.

To clear a space on the roster for Ramirez, the Brewers have optioned Elian Herrera back to Nashville (h/t @AdamMcCalvy). He’s appeared in 24 games for the Brewers this season and has a .226/.241/.264 (batting average/on-base percentage/slugging) batting line.

So Ramirez will rejoin the team tonight, but he’s unlikely to regain the cleanup spot in the short term. Ramirez has never started a game in a spot other than as a Brewer, and @AdamMcCalvy notes you have to go back to 2011 and 2010 to find the last time he batted fifth or sixth, respectively.

Brandon Kintzler needed just eight pitches to complete a perfect eighth inning last night, his only perfect outing in his last seven appearances. Before the game, Tom Haudricourt talked to him about his recent struggles.

The Brewers may have four or five players who deserve to be 2014 All Stars, but it looks like any of them that make the team will do so as reserves. Major League Baseball released another All Star voting update on Monday, and Ryan Braun, who had been third among outfielders in the previous update, has fallen to sixth. He’s been passed by teammate Carlos Gomez, who is now fifth and about 35,000 votes behind Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton for the third spot. Jonathan Lucroy, Aramis Ramirez and Jean Segura are all third at their respective positions.

In the minors:

• The affiliates went 0-3 on Tuesday but it wasn’t Brevard County infielder Orlando Arcia’s fault: He went 4-for-5 with a home run and scored twice in the Manatees’ 6-4 loss to Charlotte. You can read about that and more in today’s edition of Minor League Notes at Brew Crew Ball.
• Despite Tuesday’s loss, Brevard County is still over .500 on the season at 29-28, and they’ll have two representatives in the Florida State League All Star Game. Pitcher Tyler Wagner and catcher Cameron Garfield will play in the game, and two more Manatees, pitchers Jed Bradley and Tanner Poppe, were selected but ineligible because they’ve recently been promoted to Double-A.
• The Huntsville Stars will have eight Southern League All Stars: First baseman Nick Ramirez, third baseman Jason Rogers and pitchers Brent Suter, Arcenio Leon, Taylor Jungmann, Tyler Cravy, Drew Gagnon and David Goforth. Jungmann is also ineligible due to his recent promotion to Triple-A (h/t @BrewersPD).
• Nashville pitcher Brad Mills has a 2.00 ERA and 9.4 strikeouts per nine innings in 12 appearances (10 starts) for the Sounds, and can opt out of his minor league contract if he’s not added to the major league roster by June 15 (h/t @Mass_Haas).
• Nashville broadcaster Jeff Hem has an interview with Sounds pitcher Taylor Jungmann.
• The 2014 MLB Draft opens on Thursday, and Brad Krause of Miller Park Prospects has a look back at some of the best and worst selections made in previous years under amateur scouting director Bruce Seid.
• Actually, if you read that post it may spoil this one: JP of Brew Crew Ball has a quiz asking you to name the Brewers’ early draft picks from the last decade.

If you watch the televised portion of the MLB draft, odds are you’ll see longtime Brewers employee Scott Martens. He’s been with the team for 27 years, currently serves as the director of minor league business operations and will be in charge of relaying the name of Brewers draftees from Milwaukee to former Brewer Greg Vaughn, the team’s draft representative. The Green Bay Press Gazette has more on his role.
 
If you’d like more Brewers coverage today but you’re sick of reading, I have a couple of options for you:

• First, I’ll be making my weekly appearance on The Home Stretch with Justin Hull on 95.3 WSCO in Appleton at 3 p.m. today. I’ll be in studio for most of the hour answering your calls, emails and tweets, so follow the above link to listen in live and get your voice heard.
• Also, my weekly appearance on The Watercooler with Jimmie Kaska on Sports Radio 1400 in Eau Claire has been pushed back a day and will happen sometime this afternoon. Follow the @BrewFrostyMug Twitter feed for an update on when that segment will air.

Around baseball:

Athletics: Placed outfielder Josh Reddick on the DL with a hyperextended knee.
Cubs: Placed catcher Wellington Castillo on the DL with a rib injury and designated reliever Jose Veras for assignment.
Diamondbacks: Placed infielder Cliff Pennington on the DL with a thumb ligament sprain.
Phillies: Signed pitcher Jason Marquis to a minor league deal.
Red Sox: Reliever Brandon Workman has been suspended for six games for throwing behind Rays third baseman Evan Longoria on Friday.
Yankees: Claimed pitcher Wade LeBlanc off waivers from the Angels.

Let’s go around the NL Central:

• The Cardinals got a grand slam from Kolten Wong but it was not enough as they lost 8-7 to the Royals at home. Kansas City plated six runs in the fifth and got single tallies in the eighth and ninth for a come-from-behind win.
• The Reds scored four runs in the first inning and coasted to an 8-3 win over the Giants. Billy Hamilton had two hits, stole two bases and scored two runs.
• The Pirates held the Padres to just four hits in a 4-1 win in San Diego. Gerrit Cole pitched 5 2/3 innings for the win and got 3 1/3 hitless frames of relief from four pitchers.
• The Cubs trailed 1-0 in the eighth inning but rallied for single runs in the eighth and ninth to beat the Mets 2-1 at Wrigley Field. Nate Schierholtz’s single drove home the walkoff run.

The Cardinals are now 2-7 in their last nine games (h/t @AdamMcCalvy), and @Mass_Haas notes that they just wrapped up a stretch where they played 19 of 22 games at home. They went 12-10 over that span.

Today in former Brewers:

• Casey McGehee survived a scary moment Tuesday night when he was hit in the on deck circle by the barrel of teammate Giancarlo Stanton’s broken bat. He remained in the game.
• Monday was the 29th anniversary of the 1985 MLB draft, where the Brewers selected catcher B.J. Surhoff with the first overall pick. Surhoff had a pretty good MLB career, but yesterday, I made a guest appearance in Howie Magner’s Sports Nut blog to look at how things might have changed if the Brewers had chosen one of the three potential Hall of Famers on the board: Barry Bonds, Barry Larkin or Randy Johnson.
• Mike Vorkunov of the Newark Star-Ledger has a story on Dana Eveland’s return to the majors with the Mets after a year in Korea.