Friday's Frosty Mug: Brewer News, Links And Notes To Get You Ready For The Weekend

Some things to read while hating everything and everyone.

If you saw the 2012 Milwaukee Brewers play on the road, you'd never guess they could be this good at home. They beat the Phillies 7-4 on Corey Hart's eighth inning grand slam and are now winners of seven straight Miller Park games for just the seventh time in the ballpark's eleven year history. Morineko has the recap, if you missed it.

Roughly 24 hours after sitting out Wednesday's game in an effort to end his recent slump, Ryan Braun took a very rare early BP session and went on to hit two of the Brewers' four home runs last night. The first was his 30th of the season, making him just the second Brewer ever to reach that mark five times. Here are last night's home run distances and trot times (via Larry Granillo of Baseball Prospectus and Hit Tracker Online):

Braun now has five multi-homer games this season and 17 for his career. Among Brewers only Prince Fielder (22) and Gorman Thomas (19) have more two homer games.

Other notes from the field:

• The Brewers are now 22-10 in their last 32 games at Miller Park. They're 9-23 in their last 32 road games.
• Corey Hart's grand slam was the fifth by a Brewer this season and his first since 2010.
• The Brewers have hit seven home runs off Cliff Lee in two games this season. The only other team that has hit more than three against him is the Mets, who have faced him four times.
• Manny Parra was the first Brewer pitcher used in the ninth yesterday, but has never recorded a professional save at any level. He was eventually lifted in favor of Jim Henderson.
• We've got video of Ron Roenicke's postgame comments.
• The Hot Dog won the sausage race.
  

The series continues tonight at Miller Park when these two teams meet again at 7:10. Adam Rosenbloom has the MLB.com preview and noted leisured gentleman Carson Cistulli of FanGraphs gave tonight's Vance Worley/Yovani Gallardo matchup a four out of ten on his NERD scale. Today is also Team Photo Day.

Norichika Aoki went 0-for-4 with a strikeout last night, but at least he has this going for him: The JS says he's the third least likely player to ground into a double play in all of baseball.

In injury news: Shaun Marcum is back with the team after making a pair of rehab starts with Wisconsin but the Brewers aren't ready to announce their plans for him yet. Marcum is scheduled to throw a bullpen session today and if that goes well he could start as soon as Monday.

In the minors:

• The affiliates went 3-3 yesterday and all three wins were one run games. The game of the night was in Nashville, where the Sounds needed ten innings to beat Tacoma on a walkoff sac bunt by Eric Farris. You can read about that and more in today's Minor League Notes.
• Brewerfan.net says the Brewers have released Helena infielder Kevin Bedard. He was a 22nd round pick in the 2010 draft but hit just .245/.318/.301 over three seasons in Rookie ball and was hitting .152/.193/.190 in 23 games for Helena in 2012.
• John Sickels of Minor League Ball listed Helena first baseman Adam Giacalone, who is hitting .353/.418/.462 in 49 games for the H-Brewers, as one of six potential sleepers from the 16th round of the 2012 draft.
• Bob Brainerd of Time Warner Cable Sports 32 has a profile of Wisconsin native and Wisconsin pitcher Eric Semmelhack.

If you're heading out to Miller Park this weekend I'm jealous because you'll get to try this: The Brewers are serving Philly Cheese Steaks at the Chef's Table concession stand on the loge level.

If you'd like more Brewer coverage today but you're sick of reading, my weekly appearance on The Home Stretch with Justin Hull on 95.3 FM/AM 1570 The Score in Appleton has been archived. We covered a variety of Brewer topics over most of an hour.

Finally, congratulations are due out this morning to Ashcampbell, 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 plenty of time to make your picks for today.

Around baseball:

Cubs: Signed pitcher Horacio Ramirez to a minor league deal.
Marlins: Placed infielder Nick Green on the DL with a sprained thumb.
Orioles: Placed infielder Wilson Betemit on the DL with a wrist injury.
Red Sox: Acquired pitcher Pedro Beato from the Mets to complete the Kelly Shoppach trade.

Yesterday's top story around baseball might have been the Padres, as MLB officially approved their sale to San Diego businessman Ron Fowler for $800 million. I still say that if the Padres are worth that, then the Brewers could be worth significantly more.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to hide Carson's paper.

Drink up.