On Thursday, the day after the Brewers scored 3 runs off of the D-backs’ pen to win the game, Arizona returned the favor…in spades.

Starter Manny Parra pitched 6 scoreless innings and left with a 5-0 lead (thanks, in part to home runs by J.J. Hardy, to continue his hit streak, and Mike Cameron–both of ace and likely NL All-Star game starter Brandon Webb)…yup, Webb allowed 5 ER over 6 IP.

Mitch Stetter then pitched a scoreless 7th…and Eric Gagne pitched a scoreless 8th.

Then, figuring a 5-run lead was safe, Brewers’ manager Ned Yost thought Guillermo Mota would be okay…wrong. Mota proceeds to give up a single, a walk, and then another single to start the inning…to the 7-8-9 hitters. Brian Shouse spells Mota, but sees pinch-hitter Chad Tracy, who promptly doubles to clear the bases. Yost opts for closer Salomon Torres, now leading only 5-3. Torres allows three straight hits, leading to three runs, and the loss.

Fortunately, both the Cards and Cubs lost as well.

So the Crew finishes with a series split, and probably the most disheartening loss of the season. Mota should never have been put in, in hindsight, and has given up at least one earned run in each of his last three appearances, and finished June with a 6.48 ERA for the month. Torres was overdue for a bad outing, but he sure picked the wrong day to do it.

The Crew returns home for the holiday for three against the Pirates.

After cutting the lead to 2-1 in the 6th, the Crew tied the game in the 7th on a two-out triple by Gabe Kapler, followed by an RBI double by Mike Cameron off D-backs reliever Chad Qualls. Rickie Weeks homered to start the 8th and give the Crew a 3-2 lead, only to see Justin Upton take it back with a home run of his own in the bottom of the inning.

The Crew scored the winning run off of D-backs closer Brandon Lyon in the top of the 9th…Russell Branyan led off by getting on thanks to a Mark Reynolds‘ error, and advanced to second on a sac bunt by Kapler. Cameron proceeded to single in Branyan with the eventual winning run.

The Crew goes up against D-backs’ ace Brandon Webb Thursday afternoon to go for the series win. Manny Parra takes the hill for the Crew.

But the D-backs retaliated off the Brewers’ starter Jeff Suppan by adding a pair of earned runs in the 4th, and two more in the 5th, making a game of it with an 8-5 score when handing the game off to the bullpen.

But the pen, save another earned run by Guillermo Mota, held the Snakes at bay after Salomon Torres closed out the 9th for his 14th save of the year, and the Crew took game two, 8-6. Milwaukee sits just four back of the Cubs in the loss column.

J.J. Hardy hit home runs in each of the first two innings, the second just after Joe Dillon hit his first home run of the season. Mike Rivera, giving Prince Fielder the night off a first due to a lefty starting for Arizona, also collected a pair of hits and a pair of RBI’s.

Lastly, today’s the last day to vote for your Brewers favorites for the All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium…visit brewers.com to vote.

The offense got off to a quick start and got Bush a 2-0 lead in the first. Bush gave the lead up in the bottom of the first when he allowed to runs of his own. The D-backs scored three in the fifth and never trailed after that. Mark Reynolds added an insurance run in the seventh when he hit his 17th home run of the season.

JJ Hardy continued his hot hitting as he went 3-5 on the night with an RBI and a run scored. Jason Kendall had a good game as well. Kendall went 2-3 with a walk. He also threw out Eric Byrnes at third base. Kendall is having a great season behind the plate and has been a savior for the pitching staff.

Jeff Suppan takes the mound for the Crew tonight against Randy Johnson. The Brewers need to win two of the next three in Arizona to finish with a .500 road trip. If they can do that, things should set up nicely for them going into the All-Star break.

Then I read JSOnline.com’s Tom Haudricourt’s blog on it.

Even the Heller & Murphy show on Madison’s ESPN1070 affiliate devoted the better half of an hour to it.

The “it” is that the Brewers will trade for Indians’ ace C.C. Sabathia for the stretch run…or are at least the front-runners to do so, according to Buster Olney of ESPN.

Pete had initially speculated that Prince Fielder could be part of the trade, as it is widely believed that Fielder will not sign a long-term deal with the Brewers, and Brewers’ GM Doug Melvin will trade him. While possible, I think that trading the team’s most popular player during a playoff chase will never happen.

The consensus from fans seems to be that the Crew would have to include either ‘07 first-round pick Matt LaPorta and/or his teammate from AA Huntsville Mat Gamel as part of the deal. A couple of blogs, including the JSOnline.com post and also Sportsbubbler.com, have fans quoting Melvin as saying he won’t trade either for Sabathia. Of course, things change.

First, let me relay that I have a bias–I have Sabathia on my fantasy team, and would love to see him on the Brewers (where, hopefully, he could get some more run support).

Also, I was initially opposed to this move…clarification–I think Sabathia would help the Brewers, and seeing him with the Cubs would certainly hurt the Crew’s chances to make the playoffs.

But giving up a top prospect for a “rent-a-player” is like robbing from Peter to pay Paul. In other words, Melvin’s charge is to field a good ballclub for 2008 and beyond.

Gamel, a third-baseman, is the front-runner to take over at third in ‘09 in case Bill Hall doesn’t find his groove by next year. LaPorta, now an outfielder, also played first base while at the University of Florida, and is believed by many to take over for Fielder in 2009 should Melvin realize that signing Fielder to a long-term deal would be impossible and subsequently trade him.

That said, we have no idea if Gamel and/or LaPorta will ever make the major leagues. Besides injuries, either could struggle, God forbid, at AAA Nashville next year. You may also recall that I posted here and elsewhere that I still had my doubts that LaPorta was the top prospect in the Brewers’ organization, as was projected by Baseball America. My doubts are based on the fact that LaPorta was deemed a surprise pick last June…plus the fact that he only has one year of pro ball under his belt.

That said, I’m just smart enough to realize that I don’t know a whole lot about LaPorta, other than his stats, which are impressive.

Where am I going with all this? First, my gut feeling is that Melvin is going to make the trade, and will wind up trading either LaPorta or Gamel, but not both. Also, I think both the Brewers and Indians will wait until after the All-Star game before getting serious. My guess is that Melvin will want to pull the trigger earlier rather than later–if done on July 31st, the Brewers would like only get 11 or 12 starts out of Sabathia; if done on July 16th, the day after the All-Star game, Melvin would likely get at least two more starts out of his new pitcher.

The Indians will likely be able to demand three players total. My best guess is that they will want another pitcher in return, probably a starter over a reliever. Carlos Villanueva is one possibility, albeit a remote one. Jeremy Jeffress, now in Single A at Brevard County and 2-3 years away, is another. Relievers Tim Dillard or Sounds’ reliever Luis Peña must also be considered by the Indians, especially if they are looking for bullpen help for ‘09 or ‘10. Tony Gwynn, Jr., is another remote possibility, as he is out of options for 2009, I believe.

The Crew would also have to move a starter to the bullpen–likely Dave Bush. They’d also have to make a roster move, and would likely demote Villanueva down to AAA Nashville–either of which could ruffle the chemistry in the clubhouse.

Of course, this will only happen if the Brewers remain in the hunt, and feel the need to add a player, as well as the Indians thinking that they are out of it…that may not happen until the end of July. Anyway, Brewers’ fans are going to be rooting against the Indians for the next month or so.

Pitching Probables:
Monday, 6/30, 8:40 p.m. CT: RHP Dave Bush (4-7, 4.94) vs. LHP Doug Davis (2-3, 3.68)
Tuesday, 7/01, 8:40 p.m. CT: RHP Jeff Suppan (4-6, 4.05) vs. LHP Randy Johnson (4-6, 4.94)
Wednesday, 7/02, 8:40 p.m. CT: RHP Seth McClung (5-3, 4.25) vs. RHP Micah Owings (6-7, 5.18)
Thursday, 7/03, 2:40 p.m. CT: LHP Manny Parra (8-2, 3.95) vs. RHP Brandon Webb (12-4, 3.21)

Things to look for:
1. Can the Crew take 3 out of 4 to finish the road trip with a winning record?
2. Can McClung replicate his 1 ER over 6 IP vs. the D-backs on June 3rd? In that same game, Randy Johnson fanned 8, but allowed 4 runs (3 earned) en route to the loss.
3. The Brewers have not seen Brandon Webb yet in ‘08…can they knock around Webb enough to give Ben Sheets an edge up to be the NL starter for the All-Star game? Webb has a 3.21 ERA for the year…but a 3.88 ERA at home, and a 4.76 ERA for the month of June.

The Milwaukee offense apparently decided to leave Minnesota sometime after Saturday night’s game because they sure didn’t show up on Sunday. They managed only three hits on the day against Kevin Slowey. JJ Hardy extended his hitting streak to 11 with a double. Corey Hart and Mike Cameron each had a hit as well. That means Rickie Weeks, Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, Russell Branyan, Bill Hall and Jason Kendall registered a big fat 0 in the hit column. Not what you would hope for from a contending team.

The team is now 3-3 on their current 10-game road trip and travel to Arizona to start a four game series with the Diamondbacks tomorrow night. Dave Bush takes the mound for the Brewers against Doug Davis.

The Crew got to Twins’ ace Livan Hernandez early, plating runs in the first three innings to give Parra a 5-0 lead after 3 innings. Parra cruised from there, allowing just 2 hits over 7 IP.

Ben Sheets will try to win the series for the Crew on Sunday.

The Crew took a 2-1 lead in the top of the second. Then a 6-3 lead in the top of the fifth. But starter Seth McClung allowed two more runs in the bottom of the fifth, and the pen gave up another pair of runs, and Milwaukee lost the first game at Minnesota, 7-6.

Corey Hart, Russell Branyan, and J.J. Hardy all hit home runs on the evening (Hart hit two, actually, to bring his ‘08 total up to 14), accounting for all 6 Brewers’ runs.

The Twins collected three dingers of their own on the night, all solo shots.

But the Twins got the eventual game-winning run in the bottom of the 8th…after Guillermo Mota took the hill with a 6-6 score. After getting lead-off batter Carlos Gomez to pop-out to Branyan at first–and Nick Punto to fly out to Ryan Braun in left, likely Twins’ all-star catcher Joe Mauer secured the come-from-behind win for the Twins with a home run to right-center. Joe Nathan gave up a pair of hits, before getting Prince Fielder to ground out with the third out to give Nathan his 22nd save of the year.

Manny Parra gets his chance on Saturday night…rumor has it that Eric Gagne will be activated before the game and take over the 8th inning set-up role that Mota’s had recently…only time will tell if Gagne will be better than Mota or not.

Pitching Probables:
Friday, 6/27, 7:10 p.m. CT: RHP Seth McClung (5-3, 3.79) vs. RHP Nick Blackburn (6-4, 3.68)
Saturday, 6/28, 6:10 p.m. CT: LHP Manny Parra (7-2, 4.29) vs. RHP Livan Hernandez (8-4, 5.23)
Sunday, 6/29, 1:10 p.m. CT: RHP Ben Sheets (9-1, 2.59) vs. RHP Kevin Slowey (4-6, 3.96)

Things to look for:
1. The Brewers didn’t face Twins’ ace Livan Hernandez earlier this year…do they remember his style enough to overcome Hernandez’s 6-0, 3.86 mark at home this year? And can Manny Parra overcome his 2-2, 7.24 mark on the road this year?
2. Amazingly, Ben Sheets has not pitched against the Twins since 2004, presumably giving Sheets a bit of an edge.
3. Seth McClung allowed just 4 hits over 6 IP against the Twins earlier this year…can he repeat that in the Metrodome?