The RHM clan headed to Milwaukee, WI this Memorial Day weekend for some fun. We stopped at a Milwaukee Brewers game for our first visit to Miller Park.

The place is very nice, and the tailgating experience is unique. More details wil l come, including a panoramic photo of the park. For now, here’s the view as we approached from the parking lot.

No, he’s not a Pokemon, but Cincinnati Reds fireballer Aroldis Chapman seems to add to his move set the more battles he’s victorious in.

Remember back to Saturday when the Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals? Chapman got the win in that affair, shutting down the Cardinals in the 7th inning.

Yesterday, Chapman did it again, this time against the Milwaukee Brewers. He was brought in in the bottom of the 8th in a tie game with runners on first and second. He promptly hit the first batter he faced to load them, but after that, the Brewers didn’t have a chance. He struck out Carlos Gomez and then got Ryan Braun to ground weakly to third for the final out.

But he wasn’t done. The game was still tied heading into the bottom of the 9th, so rather than use his closer, Dusty Baker sent Chapman back out. Again, the Brewers didn’t have a chance. He made Prince Fielder look silly, striking him out, got a fly-out from Casey McGehee, and then picked off the one runner he did allow to reach. Oh, and all of this with his fastball consistently north of 100 miles per hour. John Fay described it as Chapman’s best game so far.

Chapman threw 19 pitches, 17 strikes.

“That was the best he’s looked,” Baker said. “He was throwing quality strikes and getting quality hitters out. … They got guys over there who can hit in the clutch.”

Obviously the guy would be more valuable in the starting rotation, but he sure is a nice option to have right now. And until then, he might just be making Baker a better, smarter manager.

Let’s hope he he’s not reached level 100 yet. I’d hate to see him maxed out so early.

Boxscore

Ah, at last: a Reds game without a rain delay. Sometimes that dome really pays off.

Tonight Bronson Arroyo took the mound for the Reds and put in a really good showing, giving up just 2 runs (1 earned) on 6 hits and two bases on balls through 6 and a third innings. Logan Ondrusek, Bill Bray, Nick Massett and Jordan Smith filled in the rest of the innings and gave up another three runs among them, but that’s OK when your offense has put together a six-run third.

From the offense, Dusty Baker changed the line-up to shake it up, to excellent results. Brandon Phillips knocked in three of the team’s six from the clean-up spot. Jay Bruce and Ryan Hannigan each contributed two more RBI from the two hole and seven hole respectively. Jonny Gomes and Arroyo filled out the rest of the RBI story.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a game wrap on Red Hot Mama without a mention of Joey “minor obsession” Votto: he went 1-for-5 to pull his average down to .383 but extend his on-base streak to something unholy like 40 games or something.

Tomorrow the Reds continue the series with the Brewers tomorrow in Milwaukee at 8:10 p.m. Mike Leake will take on Marco Estrada.

Thank you, Milwaukee Brewers for also losing so as to offset the 2011 debut of Badroyo and keep the Reds in a one-game lead for first place in the division. I hope we can do it again sometime.

Of course, we the way we “do it again” is by both teams continuing to lose, we’ll have to start worrying about the Chicago Cubs. And, by extension, the end of the world.

The USA Today released the opening day payrolls for all major league baseball clubs today. The Cincinnati Reds’ payroll of $75,947,134 sits comfortably at 19th (out of 32), one spot up from 20th last year.

As John Fay notes, the Reds have set a club record this year.

The Reds’ overall payroll is $75.9 million, the most in club history. The previous high was $74.1 million in 2008.

The Reds place in their own division is also in the bottom half at 4th. The Chicago Cubs are first with $125,047,329, while the Pittsburgh Pirates are last with $45,047,000.

The NL Central table is below.