Brewers responding after no-no

Baseball Betting Lines

06/21/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sometimes, before you can begin the road of recovery, you need to first hit rock bottom. Over dramatic, yes, but that moment may have happened for the Milwaukee Brewers over a week ago.

Milwaukee had just 10 wins in its last 29 games before getting no-hit by Justin Verlander and the Detroit Tigers on June 12. That embarrassing setback dropped the Brewers to 34-30 on the season, but luckily still good for a 5 1/2-game lead over Chicago and St. Louis for first place in the NL Central.

Since then however, the Brew Crew has gone 7-1 to push their mark back up to 41-31. Milwaukee has won three straight series and is 10 games over .500 for the first time since late May.

The club has also seen its lead in the division stretch to 7 1/2 games over the Cardinals.

The Brewers wrapped a recent nine-game road trip 5-4 on Sunday before kicking off a nine-game homestand the following day. The franchise had lost three of the first four games on the trek, including the no-hitter, but then ripped off four straight wins, two at Detroit and another two in Minnesota.

"We're on a bit of a roll right now, which is nice," Brewers manager Ned Yost said after his team bested the Twins 5-2 on Saturday.

Milwaukee then closed out the trip with a 10-9 loss to the Twins before sweeping the Giants in three games to begin its homestand.

The series was an interesting one to say the least because it featured an appearance by Barry Bonds, who is chasing Hank Aaron's home run record of 755. Aaron, of course, spent the majority of his career in Milwaukee, first with the then Milwaukee Braves before ending his it with the Brewers.

Yost admitted on his club's official Web site that Bonds' visit was an event.

"But it's not because of any other factor than he's a great player," Yost told the site. "We look at him like we look at every team's great player."

However, Bonds and the Giants left Milwaukee disappointed. Not only did the club fail to win a game, but Bonds went just 1-for-6 without a homer.

HALL'S HOT

Bill Hall is finding his hitting stroke.

Hall burst on the scene with a 35-home run campaign a year ago, but had just six home runs and a .250 average after an 0-for-4 day on June 8 at Texas.

Since the, Hall has had a hit in eight of 10 games, lifting his average to .270. In one of those games, Verlander's no-hitter, Hall walked three times in three plate appearances.

Hall also has a pair of home runs in his recent stretch, including a grand slam in the series finale against the Giants on Wednesday. The slam highlighted a five-RBI day for the center fielder.

"Billy has really been putting together some really good at-bats for a stretch now," said Yost after the game. "He is fighting off good pitches and has been hammering what he can handle."

SUPPAN IS NOT

Jeff Suppan continues to struggle since his start to the season. The right- hander is 0-2 over his last three starts and has allowed 18 runs (17 earned) over that stretch.

He was hammered for nine runs and 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings of a no-decision against Minnesota on Sunday.

WOUNDED BREWERS

J.J. Hardy left Wednesday's game against the Giants in the third inning because of tightness in his lower back. He had missed the previous game because of tightness in his left hip.

Starting pitcher Chris Capuano was a late scratch from his scheduled start last Wednesday against Detroit and then landed on the 15-day disabled list due to a strained left groin.

He joins Corey Koskie (post-concussion syndrome) and pitcher Elmer Dessens (strained right shoulder) on Milwaukee's 15-day DL.

Rickie Weeks came off the disabled list on Monday and has gone 4-for-11 since, with all four of his hits being doubles. Weeks was serving as the leadoff hitter before being sidelined with soreness in his right wrist, but has been batting eighth since his return.

UP NEXT

The Brewers continue their homestand with a visit by Kansas City. The Brewers' Jeff Suppan (7-7, 4.69 ERA) counters Jorge De La Rosa (4-7, 5.23) in game one on Friday, followed by Dave Bush (4-6, 5.48) versus Brian Bannister (4-3, 3.21). Rookie Yovani Gallardo (1-0, 4.26) toes the rubber in the finale on Sunday against Odalis Perez (4-7, 6.06).

Houston will then visit Milwaukee to close out the residency.

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.