BREWERS WITH ANOTHER BIG WIN
For the second game in a row the Brewers provided all of their offense in the first inning and made it hold up.

The Brewers got to MARK PRIOR (2-2) early. SCOTT PODSEDNIK led off with a double, a ball that should've been fielded by Cubs SS RAMON MARTINEZ. CRAIG COUNSELL then laid down a perfect bunt and 3B BRENDAN HARRIS, who was making his MLB debut, overthrew firstbase and Pods came around to score and Counsell was put on second. BEN GRIEVE drew a walk in the first and then KEITH GINTER hit a line-drive homerun into the Brewers bullpen on a 3-1 pitch that gave the Brewers an early 4-0 lead.

GEOFF JENKINS continued to look bad at the plate, going 0-3 with a walk. He is now hitting at a .249/.311/.429 clip with 11 homeruns. I'm thinking that it might be time to move Jenks out of the #3 spot, especially with Grieve getting hot. Perhaps putting Grieve at #3, OVERBAY at #4 and Jenkins at #5 would take some pressure off of the struggling Brewers leftfielder. I'm guessing that it'll only be a matter of time before Brewers fans start booing him because he is really having an awful year.

As I alluded to earlier, Ben Grieve has been looking much better at the plate. He's got his OBP up to .409 right now, with a solid 1-2 with two walks last night. The only thing that worries me about Grieve is that he isn't hitting for much power (4 HR, 10 2B) his last homerun came on May 28th against San Diego.

VICTOR SANTOS improved his record to 8-3. The Crew is getting a pretty good return on a guy who was a non-roster invitee and who started the year at AAA Indianapolis. Entering this season he had a career record of 2-8 and posted an ERA of 7.01 with Texas in 2003 and an ERA of 10.39 for Colorado in 2002.

NL WILD CARD STANDINGS
CHI 46-37 ---
LA 44-37 1.0
SF 45-39 1.5
MIL 43-38 2.0
CIN 44-39 2.0
FLA 43-41 3.5
NYM 42-40 3.5