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Enjoy it while you can, Brewers fans! There’s never been any doubt that Ben Sheets (1-0) is awesome. Unfortunately, his career path more closely resembles that of so many broken Cubs starters. He was healthy yesterday as he delivered a complete-game shutout for the Brewers (5-1) against the hapless Giants (1-5). That’s old-school.

Milwaukee now is tied for the best record in baseball with the surprising Cardinals. Hey, both of those teams are in the NL Central. Wouldn’t it be nice if the division weren’t dismissed as the worst in the league this year? Stranger things have happened. Like frogs turning into princes or men getting pregnant.

The Brewers take a game off before heading to Cincinnati to face everyone’s favorite rookie, Johnny Cueto (1-0). Jeff Suppan goes for the Brew Crew at 7:05pm EDT on Tuesday.

Boxscore

Kyle Lohse (1-0) gave one of his great starts yesterday against the Nationals (1-4) and the Cardinals (5-1) reaped all the benefits.

Lohse, who has the consonants at the end of his name pronounced in the reverse order in which they’re spelled, pitched 7 scoreless innings while scattering 4 hits and a walk. Jason Isringhausen (S 3) picked up his third save.

Rick Ankiel was the offensive hero again. The fade he faced last year after the HGH revelation has all but, well, faded. He clubbed his third home run, a solo shot, and also drove in another, to provide St. Louis with more than they’d need.

The Cardinals will take their shiny new best record in the M. L. B. to Houston for the Astros’ home-opener. Todd Wellemeyer (1-0) and Wandy Rodriguez (0-0) are the pitchers at 6:05pm CDT.

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The Pirates (3-3) brought their record back to .500 with a win against Florida (3-3).

Xavier Nady and Nate McLouth both drove in a pair of runs, Nady’s off of his 3rd home run in 6 games. Trade him while his value’s up!

Ian Snell (1-0) and the bullpen were no slouch for once. Snell dominated with 10 strikeouts in 6 innings, and Phil Dumatrait, formerly of the Reds, pitched a scoreless 9th. It must be easier to close out those games when you have a 7-run lead.

The Pirates return home to host the Cubs today at 1:35pm EDT as Tom Gorzelanny (0-1) faces Ted Lilly (0-1).

Boxscore

Edison Volquez struck out eight in his Cincinnati debut and Jeff Keppinger went 3-for-5 with a homer, double, 3 RBIs and three runs scored as the Reds drubbed the Phillies, 8-2, on Sunday.

Volques (1-0) walked two and scattered five hits, all of which stayed in the ballpark. He threw 95 pitches, 58 for strikes. This was not quite as sensational as teammate Johnny Cueto’s major league debut, but plenty good enough to keep the Reds in the game while the offense built a 4-1 lead against Phillies starter Brett Myers (0-1) on Ken Griffey’s two-run homer in the first inning, a solo shot by Keppinger leading off the bottom of the third, and an RBI double by Corey Patterson in the fourth.

Griffey’s blast was his first of the season and the 594th of his career, leaving him six dingers shy of becoming just the sixth player in history to reach the 600-homer plateau. Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Sammy Sosa are the five who have already done it. Myers became the 378th different pitcher to serve up a gopher ball to Griffey.

The Reds broke it open in the sixth, laying a four-spot on Phillies reliever Clay Condrey. Keppinger did most of the damage with a two-run double, and Adam Dunn added an RBI single. By then the Reds’ revamped bullpen had taken over and contributed 3-2/3 innings of one-run relief, with Todd Coffey pitching a 1-2-3 ninth to slam the door on any comeback hopes for Philadelphia.

The win left the Reds (4-2) in second place in the NLC, a game behind the Cardinals and Brewers and a game up on the Cubs and Pirates, with the Astros alone in the basement.

The Phillies’ lone run off Volquez came in the fifth inning when Carlos Ruiz led off the inning with a double, took third on a sacrifice by Myers, and scored as Jimmy Rollins grounded out. You’d like to see a little more mileage out of 95 pitches, I guess – but a win and only one run allowed is quite a bit more than we’ve been able to reasonably expect from a Reds #5 starter in recent memory. Thus, as the Phillies probably said in the fourth inning when Keppinger grounded a ball off his foot down the third base line, and the umps missed it, ruling what should have been a foul ball fair and resulting in a free out for the Phillies, “We’ll take it.”