Tuesday's Frosty Mug: No Braun, no problem

Some things to read while no longer being surprised.

After months of starting pitching struggles, last night the Brewers got their second consecutive eight inning outing. Yovani Gallardo was the story in a 6-1 win over the Marlins, and Eric has the recap if you missed it. It was the first time Gallardo has pitched eight innings in a game since August of 2011.

On top of his best outing of the season, Gallardo also reached a pretty notable statistical milestone last night: With his second strikeout of Marcell Ozuna Gallardo reached 1000 K's for his career, becoming just the third Brewer ever to do it. He's also only the sixth Mexican-born pitcher in MLB history to reach that mark.

Gallardo's start came at a key time for the Brewers, as they're currently trying to get by without Ryan Braun. Braun missed yesterday's game and may sit out the entire Marlins series with his sore thumb, which would give him roughly five days of rest (counting Sunday's abbreviated outing and Thursday's off day) to get better.

Other notes from the field:

• The Brewers are now owners of the NL's longest active winning streak.
• Norichika Aoki led off last night's game with a double and now has a hit in eleven straight games. He's also still riding a 72 at bat streak without a strikeout.
• Meanwhile, Aramis Ramirez went 0-for-4 last night and snapped an eleven game hitting streak.
• The Brewers were the beneficiary of a TOOTBLAN when Juan Pierre was caught off second base on a liner to Rickie Weeks in the sixth inning. You can see video of the play here.

The series continues in Miami tonight when Wily Peralta takes on Jacob Turner at 6:10. Stephen Pianovich has the MLB.com preview.

Jean Segura only had one hit last night, but he still leads the NL with 84 and has at least one in each of his last seven games. If you missed it, we have video of Alanna Rizzo's excellent story on Segura for MLB Network. (h/t John Steinmiller)

Unless the Brewers get red hot in the coming weeks, we're probably going to continue to have conversations about how they should look ahead to the future. It's always tempting to tear down a disappointing team and go into a full-on rebuilding mode, but Nicholas Zettel of Disciples of Uecker uses the Royals to illustrate the potential pitfalls of doing that.

Meanwhile, Scooter Gennett's role in this team's future is also up in the air. Bernie Pleskoff of MLB.com says Gennett plays bigger than his 5'9", 150 lb frame would indicate.

In the shorter term future, David Villavicencio of MLB.com has updates on three rehabbing Brewers: Chris Narveson has one start left in his planned four-start rehab stint with Nashville, Hiram Burgos had a setback in his rehab but should make a minor league start soon and Corey Hart continues to travel with the team but is "still not close" to a minor league assignment. I'm starting to get to the point where I'll be surprised if we see Hart before the All Star break.

In the minors:

• The Brewers continue to work to get their top 2013 draft picks signed. Today we have word that third round pick Barrett Astin has agreed to terms. We've got the details on Astin and all of the other 14 picks believed to have come to terms in our draft signing thread.
• Meanwhile, Brewer 2010 first round pick Dylan Covey signed with the A's for $370,000. His decision not to sign with the Crew probably cost him well over a million dollars.
• Back on the field, the affiliates went 2-2 last night and Jed Bradley pitched seven innings while allowing just one run for Brevard County in their 4-2 win over Jupiter. You can read about that and more in today's Minor League Notes.
• Chris Mehring of Rattler Radio has video highlights from Wisconsin's 8-2 win over Clinton, and I've got much more from the game in the Timber Rattlers Notebook.
• Congratulations are due out this morning to Wisconsin outfielder and 2012 second round pick Tyrone Taylor, who was recently named the Midwest League Player of the Week. He's the first Wisconsin player to receive this honor in over a year.
• Nashville broadcaster Jeff Hem has an interview with Sounds manager Mike Guerrero.

If you haven't yet, please take a moment today to vote in this week's BCB Tracking Poll. It will remain open through the day today and results are scheduled to be posted tomorrow.

Around baseball:

Angels: Designated infielder Chris Nelson for assignment.
Blue Jays: Signed pitcher Chien-Ming Wang and designated third baseman Andy LaRoche for assignment.
Diamondbacks: Placed pitcher Matt Reynolds on the DL with an elbow strain.
Indians: Acquired infielder John McDonald from the Pirates for a PTBNL or cash.
Marlins: Placed first baseman Casey Kotchman on the DL with an oblique strain.
Nationals: Released pitcher Zach Duke.
Padres: Placed second baseman Jedd Gyorko on the DL with a groin strain and designated catcher John Baker for assignment.
Red Sox: Designated infielder Pedro Ciriaco for assignment.
Twins: Placed outfielder Aaron Hicks on the DL with a hamstring strain.

Let's go around the NL Central:

• The Reds are winners of just three of their last eight games, but one of those victories came last night when they beat the Cubs 6-2. Brandon Phillips drove in all six Reds runs, including four on a grand slam.
• The Brewers, of course, beat the Marlins 6-1.
• The Cardinals and Pirates were off Monday.

Here are today's updated standings and probables:

This morning's edition of Today In Brewer History marks the 43rd anniversary of the trade that ended the Brewer career of prominent Ball Four character Steve Hovley. Chris Jaffe of The Hardball Times notes that it's been 2000 days since Geoff Jenkins signed with the Phillies as a free agent, effectively ending his Brewer career. Today is also 1961 and 1965 Milwaukee Brave Frank Thomas' 84th birthday, and Plunk Everyone notes that his 51 career HBP are the second most ever for a player born on June 11.

Now, if you'll excuse me, someone broke my chair.

Drink up.