[BirdWatcher]

Brewers record: 3-1 (week), 48-27, 1st place, MGL (season).

Short week with the All-Star game on Saturday, July 3rd.

June 27, versus Los Angeles: 3-5.

The Brewers drop the rubber match against L.A. with Erik Sloan (8-4, 2.74) getting the loss, having allowed 3 runs on 7 hits over 7 innings. Joe Willemse went 2 for 4 in the loss, hitting his 7th double and swiping his 4th base.

June 29-July 1, at Phoenix: 8-5, 8-3, 7-1.

The Brewers close out the symbolic first half of the season with a three game set in Phoenix against the 8th place Speed Devils.
In the first game the Brewers are led by Brett Taranto- who went 2 for 4 with 3 runs scored, 4 RBI, hitting his 7th triple and 4th homer- to an 8-5 win. RodRod was 3 for 5 with 2 runs scored and hit his 16th double. If Sadahige Kawasaki is the unluckiest pitcher on the Brewers staff this season, Cheol-han Lee is the luckiest. Cheol-han (9-1, 3.67) wasn't particularly sharp- giving up 5 runs on 11 hits over 6 2/3rds innings- and still got his 9th victory.

Sekien Hamasaki (6-3, 3.00) did a nice job in the second game, giving up just 2 runs on 5 hits over his 8 innings pitched for the win. Another nice game for Brett Taranto, who collected 3 hits in 5 AB's, scoring twice, and hitting his 5th HR. Brad Sherman also went 3 for 5 and drove in 2 runs.

The calendar flips to July and the Brewers stay hot, closing out the sweep with a 7-1 win behind captain Matt Helm. Matty (6-0, 2.47) gave up not a single run on 3 hits over his 8 innings pitched. Joe McPhillips went 3 for 5 with 3 RBI in the win. McPhillips also picked up his 14th stolen base (in 17 tries). Brett Taranto, naturally, went 2 for 5 with 2 runs scored and hit his 19th double and extends his hitting streak to 20 games.

Notes from around the league:
The El Paso Dawgs, long the doormats of the Shoeless Joe League, head into the All-Star break in 1st place with a 48-27 record! Columbus (47-28) is just 1 game out, with the Milwaukee Cadets- another team without much history of winning- in 3rd place at 43-32, 5 games back.
The Brewers go into the break hot and now have a 5 game lead over the Brooklyn Aces (43-32). L.A. is in third (41-34, 7 games out.)
Brett Taranto leads all of the WPK in batting average at .378, OPS at .984, is 2nd in the MGL in RBI at 50, and 3rd in batter WAR at 3.7.