The Baseball Beat: June 28

The Brewers continue to flounder each week. Right when they look like their about to turn the corner, they lose four straight close games and are back where they started.

After that 1-0 Zack Greinke gem, the Brewers had won five of seven and were 33-37 and looking sort of, almost...alright. Then, they lost the last two of the White Sox series and went to Cincinnati and lost the first two of that series. The Crew was able to salvage the last game of the series in Cincy yesterday, thanks in part to two bases loaded walks from Reds' reliever Jose Arredondo.

Rickie Weeks is probably the least clutch hitter the Brewers have had since he came up. I may be in the wrong here but I feel like I've never seen him get a hit in the ninth inning and he usually punches out quickly in the ninth. He's gotten the monkey off his back a bit lately but his rising batting average will do nothing but help the Brewers this year (obviously).

Other news and notes around the league:

• Chase Utley returned to the Phillies' lineup last night and made his presence felt immediately. Utley homered in his first at-bat in the first inning and went 3-for-5 for the game. Mac from Always Sunny probably shit himself. Look for the Phillies to get back into the race real quick here. They're a notorious second half team and they're about to get healthy. I still stand by my prediction of them winning the NL pennant.
• Mike Stanton (because I refuse to call him Giancarlo) will be one guy representing the National League in the home run derby. Praise Allah. This guy might hit one 600 feet at Kauffman Stadium. Stanton has been pretty good this year but probably is a stretch for the All-Star team.
• The Los Angeles Dodgers signed Cuban defector Yasiel Puig (I wonder why Cubans have such weird names) to a $40 million contract. This is clearly the case of Magic Johnson showing the league how much money he has. That's a ton of money for a guy that no one in America has seen much of.
• Did you know the Red Sox traded Kevin Youkilis to the White Sox? No? You must be stuck in the stone age.
• This just in: the San Francisco Giants can pitch. They just swept the Dodgers in a three game series at AT&T Park to move into a tie for first place in the NL West with those Dodgers. Fun fact? The Dodgers never scored a run. That's amazing. So amazing, it's the first time in the Dodgers 123-year history that they were shutout in a series of at least three games. Wow.
• Nyjer being Nyjer yesterday. Enough said.

-Big Money