On this day in 2002 the Brewers welcomed the Cubs to Miller Park on a Sunday aftrnoon for a matchup between the worst and second worst teams in the NL Central. The two teams entered play with a combined record of 27-57, but over 41,000 fans came to see them anyway.

Those fans got to see quite the game as the Brewers built a 3-0 lead, blew it in the eighth, allowed the Cubs to take a 4-3 lead in the ninth, scored in the bottom half of the inning to send it to extras, then lost 5-4 in eleven innings on Corey Patterson's RBI sac fly.

The real history was made during the Cubs' first rally, though. Two of the Cubs' three runs in the eighth scored on Fred McGriff's home run, making him just the second player in major league history to hit a homer in 40 different ballparks. Ellis Burks was the other. By the time McGriff retired he had homered in 43 parks, including twice in Milwaukee County Stadium (1987 and '88) and five times at Miller Park.

With help from the B-Ref Play Index, happy birthday today to 1986 Brewer Rick Cerone. He turns 58. We covered his birthday in this space last year.

With his home run in the sixth inning today, Ryan Braun continued to climb in the Brewers record books. That home run was the 393rd extra base hit of his career, giving him sole possession of sixth place all time. Here is the list of the top ten players with the most extra-base hits in franchise history:

At his current pace, Ryan Braun should pass Prince Fielder for fifth place at some point in 2012.

In addition, Corey Hart recorded his 21st extra-base hit of the season with a double in the third inning. He is currently on pace for 87 extra base hits in 2012. If he were to hit that mark, it would tie a franchise record for extra-base hits in a season, currently held by Prince Fielder and Robin Yount.

Finally, with his double today, Jonathan Lucroy recorded his 54th career extra base hit. He is currently 11th in extra-base hits among catchers. Here is the list of the top 11:

At his current pace this season, he would finish the season with 50 extra base hits in 2012, which would move him into 7th place on this list.

It was a 2-2 game before this, but this gave the Twins the lead for good. Scott Diamond and Denard Span both singled with one out to put runners on first and second, and this double by Joe Mauer gave the Twins a 4-2 lead, and they would lead for the rest of the game.

2) Josh Willingham's First Inning Two-Run Home Run: -.180 WPA (Video)

The Twins scored first thanks to this home run. Denard Span led off in the game with a double, and this home run made it a 2-0 Twins lead early.

3) Denard Span's RBI Single in the Sixth Inning: -.124 WPA (Video)

After Justin Morneau and Alexi Casilla both reached base on errors, and Jamey Carroll walked to load the bases, Denard Span came up. This hit turned a 4-2 lead into a 6-2 lead with two unearned runs.

4) Norichika Aoki's Third Inning RBI Double: +.118 WPA (Video)

At the time, this tied the game for the Brewers. Corey Hart doubled to start the third inning, and Norichika Aoki followed him with another double to tie the game at 2-2.

5) Travis Ishikawa Grounds into a Double Play in the Fourth Inning: -.089 WPA

Rickie Weeks led off the fourth inning with a single in a 2-2 game, but Travis Ishikawa wiped him off the bases with this double play that took a potential scoring opportunity away.

6) Norichika Aoki Out at Home on Aramis Ramirez's Fielder's Choice in the Third Inning: -.084 WPA (Video)
7) Corey Hart Leads Off the Third Inning With a Double: +.075 WPA
8) Norichika Aoki's First Inning Single: +.072 WPA
9) Ryan Braun's Sixth Inning Solo Home Run: +.062 WPA (Video)
10) Rickie Weeks Grounds Out to End the First Inning: -.061 WPA

Joined in progress:

I like the way they swung the bat. A couple of guys hit the ball well also but to let games fall apart in the late innings like we're doing, it's hard to watch.

On the defense falling apart (didn't catch this section clearly because of the highlights playing over the postgame interview, so I missed a little here):

There certainly was [a collapse] defensively today, but I think we're playing ok defensively. I'm not concerned about that. I think we're going to be solid there. I'm concerned that we need to get some length from our starters, and they have been pitching well. We got a couple starts that were a little off, but they have been giving us some more length and they have been pitching better. I think they'll continue, and if we do that we can get into the guys in the bullpen that we want to be pitching in close games...I'm trying to bring in guys that are a little bit more fresh. I brought in Veras again today and didn't really want to. I brought in Ax to get a little bit of work but didn't necessarily want to also. I need to stay away from some of these guys. Ax hadn't pitched in a while; we didn't mind bringing him in, but some of these other guys, we need to give them a break.

About Scott Diamond, the Twins starter:

Real good breaking ball, real good command with it. Spotted his fastball ok. I thought we had some good at-bats against him. I know we didn't score a lot of runs off him, but I thought we had good at-bats. It's location. He locates the ball really well.

On being seven games under .500 and needing to make a run:

Well, it can't be too much longer. It is a long season certainly. It's not at the point where I still don't think we can turn this thing around. We've got a long ways to go, and I don't want to have to have the huge winning streaks and month-long streaks where it's the only way we can get back in it, but we need to concentrate on getting back up to .500 and when we get hot, we have a chance to take off. This crew can get it done. I can't answer why we're playing the way we are lately but we can get it done.

WP: Scott Diamond (3-0)
LP: Marco Estrada (0-3)

HR: Josh Willingham (8), Ryan Braun (11)

MVP: Norichika Aoki (+.132)
LVP: Marco Estrada (-.240)

Win Expectancy Graph and Star of the Game Voting

The Brewers came home to play, but it was the Twins who felt at home tonight.

The Twins got on the board early tonight thanks to a two-run home run from Josh Willingham in the first inning. The Brewers, with a reorganized lineup, responded in the bottom of the first with an RBI groundout from Ryan Braun to score Corey Hart. They then tied the game in the 3rd inning with a RBI double from Norichika Aoki.

The Twins would retake the lead in the fifth inning with an two-run RBI double from Joe Mauer, and added two more runs thanks to two errors by the Brewers and an RBI single from Denard Span. Ryan Braun got a run back in the sixth inning on a solo home run, but the Twins took it right back with an RBI sacrifice fly from Justin Morneau in the top of the seventh. After that, it got out of hand as the Twins added on four more runs in the eighth inning.

The Brewers loaded the bases in the ninth inning, but Edwin Maysonet struck out and Corey Hart grounded out to end the game.

Marco Estrada was not terrible today, but he wasn't good either. He pitched five innings and allowed four runs on six hits and one walk while striking out five. It was good enough to keep the Brewers in the game, but the defense and bullpen would put it out of reach. Manny Parra allowed two unearned runs thanks to three Brewers errors in the sixth inning. Jose Veras allowed a run in his inning of work, and Vinnie Chulk allowed four in his inning. Tim Dillard faced one batter and recorded an out, and John Axford worked around a hit and an error for a scoreless inning.

The loss ends a six-game winning streak against the Twins at home.

The series against the Twins continues tomorrow. Carl Pavano starts for the Twins, and Yovani Gallardo starts for the Brewers. First pitch is at 3:10 PM.