This is an important week for the Milwaukee Brewers. They have six games at home. One of them, tonight, they play without the Chicago Cubs playing meaning the Crew gets a chance to gain a half game on the National League Central. They did just that on Monday night with a 5-2 win over Cincinnati. Brewers scored five unanswered runs after Cincinnati hit two home rusn in the second inning. With the thunder and lighting going on outside, Brewers provided their own noise inside the ballpark.

Player of the Game: Travis Shaw – We blogged about his home run already, but that was a big-time hit from Shaw. Brewers were hitting Homer Bailey all night, but it didn’t result in any runs besides a Christian Yelich home run. Shaw finally got to him with a big fly. He finished the game in the seventh in a weird move by Craig Counsell, but that’s not to be argued about tonight.

Silver Star: Manny Pina – You know who isn’t getting enough credit lately? Manny Pina. Let’s look at what’s he’s done in the month of August. He’s hitting .370 with 10 hits and two runs driven in. He’s not exactly mashing with only two extra base hits, but he’s adding some offense to lower part of the order. Pina’s average is up to .246 on the season. That’s the highest its been all year, and he was around .213 in June. Productive night this evening with two hits and an RBI>

Honorable Mention: Chase Anderson – Hear me out. Chase still sucks against right-handed batters. It’s a real problem. He also stinks at home when it comes to giving up home runs, but he pitched pretty well besides two mistakes. He barely gave up anything the rest of the game and could have honestly went a couple more innings for Counsell if needed. Anderson struck out six and did not walk a batter.

Next up: Junior Guerra goes for Milwaukee. Guerra will try to right the ship after a rough outing in Chicago. Guerra has been good at home this year unlike his road woes. Guerra handled this Reds team pretty well in his two starts against them. Cincinnati sends Sal Romano to the mound. He hasn’t been good all year and struggling in his last 30 days.

Charlie.