Aftersoon Sports Brief - Brewers win 4 of 6 games against Cubs and San Diego

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They say that good teams beat the clubs they’re supposed to beat and that’s only starting to happen for the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers have won four of six over the past week against the Chicago Cubs and San Diego, who have the two worst records in the National League. That moved Milwaukee to within four and a half games of first place in the NL Central, after they were eight down on May 27th. Now, the Brewers will play a pair of road series against the two worst teams in the American League, Kansas City and Minnesota. And if Milwaukee can take 4 of 6 again, they’ll be back at .500 for the first time since April 24th when they were 9-9. The Brewers will open a three game series tonight at Kansas City, against a Royals’ team that’s 10 games below .500 with a four game losing streak. Ned Yost’s Royals just got swept for three games at Pittsburgh, and scoring only seven runs in the process while batting .138 with runners in scoring position. Yost, a former Brewers’ skipper, said he’s tired of making excuses. But tonight, the Royals have a reason to be sharper on their game as they face Zack Greinke – who spent seven years at KC before he was dealt to Milwaukee before the 2011 season. Greinke hopes to win his third straight start. The Royals are putting up right hander Luis Mendoza, who’s filling in for the injured Felipe Paulino.

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Former Brewers’ slugger Russell Branyan is playing in AAA after he missed the first two months of the season with a back injury. He returned last week to the New York Yankees’ farm club at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and he was named the International League’s player of the week. The 36 year old Branyan had two homers and six RBI’s against the Durham Bulls last Tuesday and he pounded three more homers in his next four games. Branyan had five blasts for the week, with 12 RBI’s in nine contests. He’s a 14 year Major League veteran. He had two stints with the Brewers, the first in 2004 and ’05, and the second in 2008.

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The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers can clinch the first half title in the Midwest League’s Western Division tonight with either a victory at Clinton, or a Beloit loss at home to Peoria. The Rattlers have a five game lead over second place Beloit with six games left in the season’s first half. Wisconsin has already clinched at least a Wild Card playoff spot, making the post season for the first time since 2005. The Rattlers closed out their series against Beloit with an 8-7 victory yesterday. Elsewhere in the Midwest League tonight, Kane County is at Quad Cities. Burlington plays at Cedar Rapids. Eastern Division champion Lansing is at Fort Wayne. Dayton plays at Great Lakes. Bowling Green hosts West Michigan. And Lake County entertains South Bend.

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In the Northwoods League, the La Crosse Loggers and Lakeshore Chinooks are both tied for the South Division lead, as their current series continues tonight in Mequon. La Crosse beat the Chinooks 6-1 last night. Both are now 8-5, with a one game lead over the second place Wisconsin Woodchucks. The ‘Chucks won at Madison 9-6 last night, while Green Bay edged Wisconsin Rapids at home 5-4 in 10 innings and Eau Claire won at Battle Creek 7-3. All those series continue tonight. Elsewhere, Waterloo is at Rochester again tonight, after the Bucks pounded out a 21-10 victory last evening. Duluth hosts Willmar. Thunder Bay is at home against Saint Cloud. And Mankato entertains Alexandria. Mankato leads the North Division at 10-3.

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Bay Port will play Hartford tonight in the first Division One semi final at the state high school spring baseball tournament near Appleton. Hartford won its quarter-final game 5-1 over Middleton early this afternoon, after Bay Port eliminated Kenosha Bradford 9-0 in the tournament opener. Middleton took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but Hartford went in front for good in the third with a three run rally. Kevin Klipstein drove in three runs and scored once for Hartford, which improved to 16-11. Middleton ended its season at 20-8. This afternoon, Stevens Point was playing Oconomowoc in the day’s third Division One quarter final. The winner will play in the other semi final tonight against the team that wins the last quarter-final, either Appleton North or Sun Prairie.

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It’s been five years since the Milwaukee Brewers faced the Kansas City Royals in Interleague play. And it’s been six years since the Crew has visited Kauffman Stadium, where they’ll open a three game series against the Royals tonight. The Brewers are only 100-117 lifetime against American League teams, for a winning percentage of .461. But if Milwaukee wants to make a run in the National League Central, they’ll have to pound on the Royals and their next opponents at Minnesota. KC and the Twins both have the American League’s two worst records at a combined 21 games below .500. Tonight, Zack Greinke will make a somewhat emotional return to Kansas City, where he won the Cy Young Award with the Royals in 2009. The Crew will see familiar faces in the other dugout as well, including ex-Milwaukee skipper Ned Yost and former Brewers’ infielders Yuniesky Betancourt and Alcides Escobar. Greinke is 7-2 this year with a 3.13 ERA. He’s coming off a road win against the Chicago Cubs in which he gave up two hits in seven innings and struck out 12 batters. The Royals will send right hander Luis Mendoza to the hill. He’s 2-3 with a 5.36 ERA and he’s starting in place of Felipe Paulino, who had a strained groin last week against Minnesota.

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Brewers’ slugger Ryan Braun remains third in the fan voting for the three National League outfield starting spots in next month’s All Star Game. According to the latest vote totals released this afternoon, Braun has just over 1,550,000 votes. That’s almost 200,000 more than the fourth place vote getter, Melky Cabrera of San Francisco. Carlos Beltran of Saint Louis remains second among NL outfielders. And the injured Matt Kemp of the Dodgers has almost 2.6 million votes, the most of any National League player. Also, Milwaukee’s Rickie Weeks is fifth in the fan voting at second base and the injured Jonathan Lucroy is fifth among catchers. The All Star Game will be played July 10th in Kansas City.

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The Green Bay Packers started their June mini camp today. Unlike the recent organized team activities, this mini camp is mandatory for the players. Coach Mike McCarthy says he’s trying to get his personnel to think about playing the game, instead of cramming to learn the new playbook that was practiced in the OTA’s. And McCarthy said the mini camp gives rookies and other younger players a sense of what it will like at training camp which starts in late July.

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The Milwaukee Admirals are expected to announce their new head coach either this week or next. The Admirals’ parent team in the NHL, the Nashville Predators, are conducting interviews. Assistant general manager Paul Fenton says he has some more candidates to speak with but he’s getting closer to making a decision. The new coach will replace Ian Herbers, who recently became the new coach at his college alma mater in Canada, the University of Alberta.

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