Somewhere last night, a whiny baseball purist with a stick up his butt sent the following text: Brewers 4, Pirates 2
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Cubs 9, Mets 6
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Braves 10, Phillies 4
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Well, today we get to see what Yovani Gallardo's got. Should he be pitching today? Until tonight none of us will really know. But Bernie's Crew is against it. I don't anticipate Gallardo being left in to get shelled as he would have been under a certain previous manager. In fact, I only really expect him to go 3-4 innings before Mark DiFelice, Seth McClung, Carlos Villanueva or Jeff Suppan are summoned to eat the middle innings. But, if Gallardo can provide a quality start, it could become a shining moment in Brewer history.

So I'm assuming you all saw Prince Fielder's walk off home run Tuesday night, right? But did you know he hit it wearing Brewer underwear? Home Run Derby has the full scoop.

It appears that, if the game means something, CC Sabathia will come back around on short rest and pitch again Sunday. He needs to throw 6 more innings to reach 250, which no major leaguer has done since Livan Hernandez threw 255 in 2004. Tom H. is praising his efforts and determination, but Umpbump has a poll up asking if the Brewers are screwing Sabathia by pitching him this much.

So you may know that Ryan Braun has led the NL in total bases for most of the season. He's actually in second now, one base behind David Wright. But did you know Braun is also the only major league outfielder to have played in over 140 games with no errors? Not bad for a guy's first year in the outfield.

So Baseball Prospectus has a statistic they call "Secret Sauce," which predicts which teams will do well in the postseason. The Brewers do not fare well in this stat, so I don't buy into it.

The Brewers are, however, compelled by the power of grit. Craig Counsell is one of three players who could play in the World Series for their third different team this season. Only 24 players in history have done it.

On injuries:

Carl Crawford still hasn't received medical clearance to start hitting live pitching and will likely miss the ALDS with his injured hand.
Andy Pettitte has a sore shouder and is done for 2008.
Rockies OF Willy Taveras is done for the year with a stress fracture in his leg.

The Orioles have enough injury news to warrant their own heading. Follow that link to read about the second opinion on Daniel Cabrera's elbow, reliver Jim Miller's torn muscle in his side, Dennis Sarfate's fractured collarbone and Melvin Mora's hamstring.

Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia had to be evacuated yesterday due suspicious packages that turned out to be hot dogs. You can make all the jokes you want, but aren't all hot dogs pretty suspicious packages?

TV ratings confirmed what we all suspected: No one outside of New York cared about the final game at Yankee Stadium enough to choose it over the Packers/Cowboys game. Also under the heading of "no one cared," the Nationals are about ready to set a record for lowest attendance in the first season of a new ballpark.

The Mariners lost their 100th game last night. Somehow, they're even worse than the Giants, who played nine rookies in the seventh inning last night.

So Corey Patterson has collected over 360 plate appearances for the Reds this season despite hitting .206/.241/.341. This lead to rumors that he was only playing because he's dating Dusty Baker's daughter. It was a good theory, but turned out to be false. Now it's just inexplicable again.

Drink up.

So the Brewers win, the Cardinals lose, the Cubs lose, and they appear to be signing Jim Edmonds. That's win-win-win-win if I ever saw it.

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BDD Recaps

The circle of life continues: Chris Capuano will have Tommy John surgery as soon as Thursday, giving up the effort to come back without it. Also on Thursday, 2006 first round pick Jeremy Jeffress will return from his 50-game drug suspension and report to Brevard County.

Beyond that, it's kind of a slow day for Brewer news. Baseball Analysts, though, did take a look at players looking to avoid a sophomore slump, including one guy you may have heard of who's hit 6 extra base hits in 3 days.

On injuries:

Milton Bradley was held out of last night's Rangers game with a sore shoulder.
J.D. Drew injured his wrist making a sliding catch and is day-to-day.
A's 2B Mark Ellis missed last night's game with a hamstring injury, and will miss a few more.
O's C Ramon Hernandez missed last night's game with a sprained left wrist.
Reds SS Jeff Keppinger fouled a ball off his knee last night and has a fractured kneecap.
O's 3B Melvin Mora was hit by a ball in warmups yesterday and missed last night's game.

If you haven't been paying attention, Lance Berkman is pretty hot right now. He's hitting .605 in his last 11 games, and has scored a run in 15 straight games, leaving him 2 games shy of tying the NL record Rickie Weeks tied earlier this season.

Berkman also won this week's BaseballHappenings blogpoll for NL MVP. Brandon Webb ran away from the field in the Cy Young voting, and Geovany Soto dominated the Rookie voting. Here's the ballot I cast:

MVP:
1. Lance Berkman
2. Chase Utley
3. Chipper Jones

Cy Young:
1. Brandon Webb
2. Edinson Volquez
3. Carlos Zambrano

Rookie of the Year:
1. Geovany Soto
2. Jair Jurrjens
3. Kosuke Fukudome

Click the link above for the full results.

A rare former Brewer trifecta happened yesterday: The Mets designated Nelson Figueroa for assignment, called up Claudio Vargas and activated Matt Wise from the DL in the same day.

Oh, and here's a story about Tigers P Nate Robertson's unrequited love for bats.

Drink up.