We're half way done. Keep going

Let's get through Monday everyone, Mine is almost done already. Go>>>>>>

  Have a great Friday and and an even greater weekend.

   Hang on everyone, it's almost Friday,,have a good weekend, it's going to be a hot one here. Go Pack!, Go Brew Crew!

 Play to the very end like every game matters!

fter a much-needed off-day, Ben Sheets and the Brewers return to action on Friday night for the opener of a three-game series against the Astros at Miller Park.

Sheets is aiming for his first win over the Astros this season after going 0-2 with a 13.50 ERA in two previous starts. He is scheduled to face fellow right-hander Roy Oswalt, who is 1-0 with a 4.61 ERA this year in two starts against Milwaukee, both of which were Houston wins.

Sheets is 3-3 with a 3.71 ERA in eight starts since missing two months with a right shoulder injury. He has pitched exactly seven innings in each of his past five starts since leaving an Aug. 5 start at St. Louis with tightness in his pectoral muscle, and is 2-2 in those games.

The right-hander has gone back to his fastball-curveball combination with an occasional changeup, putting on hold suggestions from coaches to continue working on a "cut" fastball. Sheets declined the notion that he and the team's coaching staff are at odds on that issue.

"No, not at all," he insisted. "I kind of read that. All they want me to do is have that weapon. I ain't totally abandoning that pitch; there's times I still might throw it. They just want me to be prepared. It's just hard to get in a rhythm out there with it."

Manager Ned Yost said earlier this week that he's still holding out hope for another .500 finish, but the Brewers would have to get on a hot streak to do so. They are 12 games under .500 with 22 games to play, and Yost insisted that motivation is not the reason his club has lost 11 of its past 13 games.

"You sign up for a 162-game season, and you'd better give everything you've got for 162 games," Yost said. "You're supposed to be motivated from within. If they have to rely on me to motivate them every day, what kind of player are they going to be?"

Pitching matchup
MIL: RHP Ben Sheets (4-6. 4.54 ERA)
Entered the year with a 7-8 career September record but a solid 3.23 ERA.

HOU: RHP Roy Oswalt (11-8, 3.12 ERA)
Was brilliant in his last start on Sept. 3, no-hitting the Mets through six frames and ending his outing with a three-hitter through 7 2/3 innings.

Player to watch
Brewers outfielder Corey Hart is hitting .367 (11-for-30) in seven games against the Astros this season with two home runs and four RBIs. His OPS (on-base plus slugging percentages) in those games is a solid 1.020.

   Play everyday like it means the pennant!

 After a much-needed off-day, Ben Sheets and the Brewers return to action on Friday night for the opener of a three-game series against the Astros at Miller Park.

Sheets is aiming for his first win over the Astros this season after going 0-2 with a 13.50 ERA in two previous starts. He is scheduled to face fellow right-hander Roy Oswalt, who is 1-0 with a 4.61 ERA this year in two starts against Milwaukee, both of which were Houston wins.

Sheets is 3-3 with a 3.71 ERA in eight starts since missing two months with a right shoulder injury. He has pitched exactly seven innings in each of his past five starts since leaving an Aug. 5 start at St. Louis with tightness in his pectoral muscle, and is 2-2 in those games.

The right-hander has gone back to his fastball-curveball combination with an occasional changeup, putting on hold suggestions from coaches to continue working on a "cut" fastball. Sheets declined the notion that he and the team's coaching staff are at odds on that issue.

"No, not at all," he insisted. "I kind of read that. All they want me to do is have that weapon. I ain't totally abandoning that pitch; there's times I still might throw it. They just want me to be prepared. It's just hard to get in a rhythm out there with it."

Manager Ned Yost said earlier this week that he's still holding out hope for another .500 finish, but the Brewers would have to get on a hot streak to do so. They are 12 games under .500 with 22 games to play, and Yost insisted that motivation is not the reason his club has lost 11 of its past 13 games.

"You sign up for a 162-game season, and you'd better give everything you've got for 162 games," Yost said. "You're supposed to be motivated from within. If they have to rely on me to motivate them every day, what kind of player are they going to be?"

Pitching matchup
MIL: RHP Ben Sheets (4-6. 4.54 ERA)
Entered the year with a 7-8 career September record but a solid 3.23 ERA.

HOU: RHP Roy Oswalt (11-8, 3.12 ERA)
Was brilliant in his last start on Sept. 3, no-hitting the Mets through six frames and ending his outing with a three-hitter through 7 2/3 innings.

Player to watch
Brewers outfielder Corey Hart is hitting .367 (11-for-30) in seven games against the Astros this season with two home runs and four RBIs. His OPS (on-base plus slugging percentages) in those games is a solid 1.020.

 MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers have enough injury problems. Carpal tunnel syndrome is not something they need to add to the list.

But with all of the cap-tipping they have done in the last two weeks, a sore wrist or two does not seem totally out of the question. On Wednesday the Brewers were metaphorically tipping their caps to Dodgers sinkerballer Derek Lowe, who allowed only one unearned run in eight dominant innings and sent the Brewers to a 2-1 loss at Miller Park.

It was another tough-luck loss for Brewers left-hander Chris Capuano (11-10), who allowed only two runs and five hits in eight solid innings but suffered his sixth loss in seven decisions since the All-Star break. The Brewers missed a chance to sweep the National League West Division leaders, an achievement that would have turned the page on their preceding 10-game losing streak.

"Cappy just matched up with the wrong guy tonight," said Brewers manager Ned Yost, repeating a pervasive theme of the Brewers' 10-game slide against the premier pitching staffs of the Marlins and Astros. "We couldn't get him any runs. You've got to take your hat off to Derek Lowe tonight."

Lowe (14-8) was named Monday as the NL Pitcher of the Month for August, in which he finished 4-1 with a 1.69 ERA. He found the same form on Wednesday, recording 20 of his 24 outs on ground balls by employing a "heavy" sinker that the Brewers couldn't figure out.

"That's the best I've ever seen Derek, and I've seen him a lot," said Brewers outfielder Kevin Mench, who is 7-for-30 lifetime against Lowe, including 1-for-3 on Wednesday. "He threw exceptionally well tonight."

The key was his sinking, two-seam fastball.

"It's like playing whiffle ball," Mench said. "You know how you take a whiffle ball and you turn it over, so the circle is down? That's what it looked like today. He was throwing one of those whiffle-ball sinkers today, and we helped him by beating it into the ground."

Said Capuano: "He was masterful out there."

Lowe struck out one, walked one and made way in the ninth for closer Takashi Saito, who recorded his 18th save.

"Sometimes you play good games like we played tonight, but you really have to give credit where credit's due," Yost said. "Derek Lowe pitched a great game. I thought our at-bats were OK, we played great defense and we got great pitching. We just matched up against a guy that's the reigning National League Pitcher of the Month. He's been hot. He's been beating everybody."

Lowe needed only 79 pitches to get through eight innings. Only two pitchers this season have been more efficient: Toronto's Josh Towers threw 76 pitches in eight innings at Tampa Bay on May 14 and the Dodgers' Greg Maddux threw 68 pitches in eight innings against the Giants on Aug. 13.

The Brewers' three-hit effort matched a season-low and came after they banged 27 total hits in consecutive wins to start the series. Yost was not totally thrilled with his club's offensive approach.

"You have to work hard to make him get it up," Yost said of Lowe's sinker. "If it starts thigh-high or a little bit lower, you've got to 'take' it, because you're just going to pound it into the ground. The bottom just falls out. It disappears."

The Brewers took a 1-0 lead on Lowe in the second inning, when Bill Hall scored from first base as Dodgers left fielder Andre Ethier bobbled Geoff Jenkins' double. The run scored unearned on the first of two L.A. errors.

The Dodgers tied the game in the fifth, when Mench misplayed a Matt Kemp hit into a triple and Rafael Furcal followed three batters later with a game-tying sacrifice fly. The visitors took the lead in the seventh on Kemp's go-ahead single.

Mench made his 25th start for the Brewers in left field and believed Kemp's relatively slow ground ball was going to hit the wall that juts out near the foul line, forcing it to carom toward center field. But the baseball missed that wall and instead rolled all the way into the corner as Mench gave chase.

"You're not sure what it's going to do," Mench said. "Sometimes they get topspin, hit the corner and kick out. There's not much you can do with that one. You hope it hits the corner and kicks out."

Capuano lost for the sixth time in seven decisions since making the NL All-Star team, despite his sixth straight quality start (six or more innings and three or fewer earned runs) and also the sixth straight by a Brewers starting pitcher. Capuano leads the Majors with 24 quality starts.

"I'm keeping the team in games, and that's rewarding for me," said Capuano, who said his changeup -- his best pitch -- was inconsistent on Wednesday. "You'd like to come out a winner, but all you can do is take your hat off to the other guy. I feel like I'm doing my job, and that's all I can do. ... I don't feel mentally down or anything. Obviously, I would like the team to be winning."

Does Yost worry about frustration setting in?

"He's smart enough to know that he did his job," Yost said. "These guys need to control what they can control, and Cappy controlled his end of it."

Take care, see you later. Good night. We are going to watch Prison Break tonight.

  Through thick and thin, I will stick by my Brewers, some day they will do it, even if I'm old and grey when it happens.

HOUSTON -- The Brewers called up right-hander Dennis Sarfate and utilityman Vinny Rottino when rosters expanded on Friday, bringing into the fold a pair of promising prospects.

Rottino, 26, will serve as the third-string catcher and can also play the corner infield and outfield positions. Born and raised in Racine, Wis., and originally signed as a nondrafted free agent in February 2003, Rottino batted .420 in August including a four-hit night on Wednesday.

The Brewers had to purchase his contract to get Rottino onto the 40-man roster. To make room, injured second baseman Rickie Weeks was shifted to the 60-day disabled list.

Sarfate, 25, gives the Brewers' bullpen an extra right arm while the club waits for more word Friday on the status of Matt Wise, who has been sidelined by an inflamed nerve in his right elbow. Sarfate is 10-7 this season with a 3.67 ERA and has been pitching out of the bullpen since July 29. As a reliever, he is 3-1 with a 2.89 ERA in 13 appearances.

The Brewers are anxious for a look at Sarfate to determine his future role with the club. He has one more Minor League option remaining, according to general manager Doug Melvin.

Rottino will wear uniform No. 8 with Milwaukee and Sarfate will wear No. 45. Both players will be making their Major League debuts.

Their Triple-A teammates, meanwhile, are trying to hold onto first place for a berth in the Pacific Coast League playoffs. Melvin said the team may make several additional callups once Nashville is finished for the year.