Tuesday's Frosty Mug: Brewer News, Links And Notes

Some things to read while stocking up.

The Brewer road woes continued last night in Denver, as the Brewers fell behind 8-0 early and showed some late signs of life but still lost 9-6 to the Rockies. -JP- has the recap, if you missed it.

The wheels came off the Mike Fiers bandwagon in the early innings last night as he allowed all eight aforementioned runs on nine hits while recording just six outs. The eight runs he allowed were more than he had given up in his previous 62 innings. Mike Vassallo notes that Fiers had pitched nine straight quality starts and came up just short of Cal Eldred's Brewer rookie record ten straight in 1992.

Last night's game was the first the Brewers have played without Jean Segura since calling him up a week ago. Ron Roenicke told Todd Rosiak (linked via Twitter) that it was just a routine off day for Segura, who was also shaken up on a play at the plate on Sunday. Segura, by the way, is now on Twitter.

Other notes from the field:

• Norichika Aoki went 0-for-5 last night to snap his hitting streak at 13 games. The longest active Brewer streaks now belong to Ryan Braun (five games), Jean Segura (four games) and Yovani Gallardo (four games).
• Fiers is the sixth different Brewer pitcher to allow at least eight runs in a game at Coors Field. Ben Sheets and Yovani Gallardo are among the others.
• Carlos Gomez hit a two run home run in the sixth last night and circled the bases in 17.22 seconds. He had three hits in the game.
• Corey Hart and Travis Ishikawa were both hit by pitches last night, and Hart is now the tenth most frequently hit Brewer of all time. Plunk Everyone has more on the topic, of course.
• We've got a look at the game's turning points and a transcript of Ron Roenicke's postgame comments.
• Carey Rottman, a survivor of the recent theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado, threw out the first pitch.

The series continues tonight at 7:40, and Alex Angert of MLB.com has the preview. Noted leisured gentleman Carson Cistulli of FanGraphs notes that tonight's Randy Wolf/Tyler Chatwood matchup is the MLB.TV free game of the day, and gave it a three out of ten on his NERD scale.

The Brewers were already down 4-0 in the third inning when Mike Fiers came to the plate for the first time last night, but he bunted anyway. Jack Moore of Disciples of Uecker used one of my tweets from yesterday to compare Ron Roenicke to Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver regarding bunt usage. Today, by the way, is Weaver's 82nd birthday.

Mark Rogers is still expected to rejoin the team tomorrow to make his scheduled start following the birth of his first child, but in the meantime the Brewers are making use of his roster spot: They've placed him on the paternity list and recalled infielder Jeff Bianchi to get back to full strength on the bench. Bianchi grounded out in a fifth inning pinch hit appearance last night and is now 0-for-13 on the season. He's expected to be returned to Nashville when Rogers is reactivated.

In the minors:

• The affiliates went 1-3 last night but Nashville's loss wasn't Tyler Thornburg's fault: He pitched five innings and allowed just one unearned run in their 5-4, 12 inning defeat against Salt Lake. You can read about that and more in today's Minor League Notes.
• Jonathan Raymond of MiLB.com has more on Thornburg and his outing.
• Rattler Radio has video highlights from Wisconsin's 7-4 win over Clinton. I was also in attendance and have a game recap and three features in the Timber Rattlers Notebook.
• Congratulations are due out to Wisconsin pitcher Mark Williams, who was named Midwest League Pitcher of the Week after throwing eight shutout innings over a start and a relief outing. This is the second time Williams has won the award in 2012.
• Nashville broadcaster Jeff Hem has an interview with Sounds manager Mike Guerrero.
• The UW-Milwaukee Athletics site has a feature on former Panthers Chad Pierce and Eric Semmelhack, who are now teammates with Wisconsin.
• Jim Henry of the Tallahassee Democrat has a profile of Helena pitcher Will West, whose season has wrapped up early so he can have hernia surgery. (h/t to @Mass_Haas for the last two notes.)

If you'd like more Brewer coverage today but you're sick of reading, I have a couple of options for you:

• I'll be making my weekly appearance on The Watercooler with Jimmie Kaska on Sports Radio 1400 in Eau Claire at 5:15 today.
• From there I'll move directly over to The Sports Den with Downtown Ollie Burrows on SportsFan 100.5 in Wausau at 5:30.

If you haven't yet, please take a moment today to vote in our Brew Crew Ball Tracking Poll. The poll will remain open through the day today and results will likely be posted on Thursday.

Finally, congratulations are due out this morning to Cecil Cooper's Love Child, yesterday's winner in our SB Nation Pick 6 contest. Here's the full leaderboard.

Tonight's action starts at 6:05, so there's still time to make your picks for today.

Around baseball:

Dodgers: Placed infielder/outfielder Jerry Hairston Jr. on the DL with a hip injury.
Mariners: Are expected to place first baseman Mike Carp on the DL with a hip injury.
Orioles: Acquired reliever J.C. Romero from the Indians for a minor leaguer.
Phillies: Placed outfielder Nate Schierholtz on the DL with a broken big toe.

We discuss excessive bunting a fair amount here. In fact, this is the second time I've brought it up this morning. With that said, it could be worse: Craig Calcaterra of Hardball Talk notes that Alcides Escobar, who has been batting second for the Royals, has bunted the runner over in each of his last five first inning opportunities.

Elsewhere in former Brewers and Brewer broadcasters:

• Colin Bennett of Reviewing The Brew has a list of the best left-handers in Brewer history.
• Daron Sutton is still suspended by the Diamondbacks and the team appears to be sticking to their story that it's over a dress code violation.
  

This morning's edition of Today In Brewer History marks the 41st birthday of 1995-2002 Brewer Mark Loretta. Plunk Everyone notes that Loretta's 71 career HBP are also the second most ever for a player born on August 14. Chris Jaffe of The Hardball Times notes that it's also the 49th anniversary of Hank Aaron's second career grand slam off Hall of Fame pitcher Don Drysdale. Drysdale only allowed three slams in his career.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to make some edits.

Drink up.