Tuesday's Frosty Mug: A six-pack of losses

Some things to consider while brainstorming movie ideas.

Kyle is taking a short vacation, so I will be providing your daily dose of Brewers news and links today. Going back to last night, the current slide for the Brewers continued as they fell to the Nationals 10-5, marking their sixth straight loss. Noah has the recap, if you missed it. The Brewers needed a longer start from Gallardo with an exhausted bullpen, but he could only pitch into the fourth as he allowed eight runs on nine hits, forcing Roenicke to further exhaust his bullpen to cover some innings.

On the offensive side, Rickie Weeks and Juan Francisco hit back-to-back home runs in the sixth inning. Joe Block notes that this was the sixth time this season that the Brewers hit back-to-back home runs. Jaymes Langehr also notes that at his current pace, Juan Francisco will lead the Brewers in home runs by the end of the season.

Johnny Hellweg came on in relief last night and pitched the eighth inning. He allowed two runs in the inning, but only one earned after an error by Jean Segura allowed a run to score. Earlier in the day, the Brewers announced they would bump back Hellweg's next start so he could help in relief. With the Brewers bullpen overworked, the rotation had to be rearranged. As of now, Wily Peralta is scheduled to start today, with Kyle Lohse going tomorrow and the rest of the rotation TBD.

Other notes from the field:

• Gallardo has now allowed thirteen runs over his last seven innings, covering two starts.
• Bryce Harper's home run in the first inning was the 100th home run the Brewers have allowed this season. That puts them on pace to allow 200 home runs in 2013.
• The Brewers first run came thanks to three consecutive singles in the fifth inning.
• Jeff Bianchi took over in left field for the eighth inning.
• Yuniesky Betancourt didn't play in last night's game. It was the first time this season that the Brewers lost a game in which he didn't make an appearance.

Game two of the series between the Nationals and the Brewers is tonight. Wily Peralta and Stephen Strasburg meet in what appears to be a big mismatch. The game is at 6:05 pm today, and Quinn Roberts of MLB.com has the preview.

One of the Brewers that has generated a lot of discussion about trade potential is Norichika Aoki. It had been reported before that the Brewers owned Aoki's rights through his arbitration years once his current contract was finished. However, a double-check of the contract yesterday revealed that Aoki will be a free agent at the end of the contract. There is still a team-friendly option for next year that will most likely be exercised, but this changes the conversation on his trade value drastically.

The most discussion from yesterday may have come from a report released by TMZ. The report said that MLB will interview Porter Fischer this week, who claims to have evidence of players (such as Ryan Braun and Alex Rodriguez) who purchased performance-enhancing drugs. He will be paid a "consultant fee" for his interview. I would like to remind everyone that this isn't really any new information in the case, and we don't know what evidence Fischer will be bringing. Also, the source is TMZ, so it's hard to say how credible it is, sometimes they're accurate and sometimes they're not. For now, it's the same situation, that we should just wait and see what happens next.

In his notes on Monday, Ken Rosenthal posted an observation from a MLB scout, who said that, "There's a lot of quit on that team." Ron Roencike offered a response to that comment, saying that he didn't see it in his team. He also criticized the scout for making an anonymous observation, saying he didn't know what he was talking about.

Here's your daily reminder about how bad first base has been for the Brewers in 2013. Jeff Sullivan of FanGraphs took a look at the Brewers situation and compared it to some of the worst seasons by a position for a team in MLB history. The Brewers first base situation has been so bad that there are eight pitchers in MLB this season that have a higher OPS than the Brewers first basemen (min 20 PA).

In the minors:

• The affiliates went 4-2 last night, with Nashville, Huntsville, Brevard County, and Wisconsin all getting wins. Brevard County was going to play a double-header yesterday, but rain shortened game one and canceled game two. As usual, morineko has these notes and more in her daily minor-league notes.
• The Timber Rattlers rallied from a two-run deficit last night to win 4-3. Chris Mehring of Rattler Radio has some postgame coverage for the game.
• Huntsville cancelled a planned gun raffle for Wednesday's game after Minor League Baseball officials advised that it "was likely not in the franchise's best interests". They will still hold their Second Amendment Night and will offer free admission for members of the National Rifle Association.

The Brewers haven't had a lot of success in the international market, and they hope to change that soon. Ryan Topp notes that today is international signing day, which is the start of the signing period for international players. The rules on signing players are changing this year, with the amount of money that teams can spend based on their records from last year.

Around baseball:

Diamondbacks: Placed Trevor Cahill on the 15-day DL with a right hip contusion and selected the contract of Chaz Roe from Triple-A Reno.
Nationals: Activated Bryce Harper from the 15-day DL and optioned Erik Davis to Triple-A Syracuse.

If you've been paying attention to the news in the last few days, you've seen the stories about the nineteen firefighters that died while battling the wildfires in Arizona. Yesterday, all of the teams in action observed a moment of silence in memory of these firefighters, and the Diamondbacks and Mets had a jersey in their dugouts to honor these firefighters as well. The Diamondbacks are also planning more memorials for when they return home on Friday.

Taking a look around the NL Central:

• The Reds scored seven runs off of Giants starter Mike Kickham in 2 2/3 innings, and then the rain came a few innings later. A downpour in Cincinnati resulted in the game being called early, giving the Reds an 8-1 win in six innings. Bronson Arroyo got the complete game win, allowing one run in those six innings. (Manny Parra also tweeted a picture of the rain.)
• The Brewers lost in Washington 10-5.
• The Pirates, Cubs, and Cardinals all had the day off.

Today's standings and probables:

Finally, some historical notes for you. First, today is the anniversary of one of the most famous pitching duels of all time. Chris Jaffe of The Hardball Times chronicles a sixteen inning pitcher's duel between Warren Spahn and Juan Marichal, where both pitchers went the distance in a 1-0 win by the San Francisco Giants. The game finally came to an end in the bottom of the sixteenth, when Willie Mays hit a walk-off solo home run. Also, today in Brewers history covers a seven RBI game by Damien Miller back in 2007.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to find this game.