The Juice: A-Ram’s walk-off homer lifts Brewers, Chipper caps special day with perfect night

The Juice is back for its fifth season of fun! Stop by each weekday for an ample serving of news from the action, plus great photos, stats and video highlights.

Brewers crack Bell: This was a wild afternoon affair at Miller Park that featured plenty of offensive fireworks, especially in the later innings. Trailing 9-2 in the seventh, the Miami Marlins rallied for three runs, and then six more in the eighth, answering Milwaukee's two in their seventh, to tie the game at 11. Jose Reyes then put them in front with a solo homer in the tenth, which set the stage for another Heath Bell adventure.

Well, maybe I shouldn't put it like that, Bell had actually converted 14 straight save opportunities entering Tuesday. He was also one little out away from making that 15, until Aramis Ramirez took him to dead center field for a two-run homer that gave the Brewers a 13-12 victory. The walk-off shot was the sixth of Ramirez's career, and the eighth home run hit in the game. Miami hit five of those and reached double digit runs for the first time all season.

Back to the drawing board: One great start against the Los Angeles Dodgers was not an indication of better things to come for Tim Lincecum. Rather, it was an overwhelming indication of just how awful the Dodgers offense can be without Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier. Facing a healthy Washington Nationals lineup on Tuesday, Lincecum was flat out torched for a career-high eight runs in 3 1/3 innings, and the Giants could not overcome that early onslaught, falling to the Nats, 9-3.

M's avoid perfection, O's avoid disaster: Baltimore Orioles rookie Wei-Yin Chen retired the first 19 Seattle Mariners he faced before Casper Wells ended his bid for perfection with a solo home run. That cut Baltimore's lead to 4-1. One inning later, the Mariners went to work on Chen and reliever Pedro Strop, eventually evening the score at 4, but leaving the bases loaded in the process. Having dodged that bullet, Baltimore forged back ahead in the ninth thanks to Robert Andino's solo home run. That was enough breathing room for All-Star closer Jim Johnson, who set Seattle down in order to record his 24th save and give the O's a 5-4 win.

Chipper's perfect day: Late Tuesday afternoon, Chipper Jones learned that he had been selected to his eighth and final All-Star Game (as a replacement for Matt Kemp). Tuesday night, the Atlanta Braves celebrated his selection with a 10-3 win over the Chicago Cubs, and it was Chipper leading the way with a perfect 5-for-5 night (the third five hit game in his career) at the plate and four runs knocked in.

Oh, and he didn't stop there. He also threw in his first stolen base of the season for good measure, and turned in a marvelous defensive gem.

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Quote of the Day:

— Manager Bobby Valentine promising a better performance on Wednesday after his Red Sox suffered a gut-wrenching 3-2 loss to the Oakland A's.

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Photo of the Day: Pie Bandit strikes in Pittsburgh

Drew Sutton takes his first career shaving cream pie to the face from A.J. Burnett after his ninth inning home run gave the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 8-7 victory over the Houston Astros. It was Sutton's major league home run since Oct. 3, 2010, and the victory pushes Pittsburgh to eight games over .500 for the first time in 20 years.

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Three Facts for the Water Cooler:

• With their 11-1 loss to the New York Mets, the Philadelphia Phillies fell to 36-46, putting them ten games below .500 for the first time since July 22, 2002.

• Ivan Nova took the loss for Yankees in their 7-4 defeat at the hands of the Tampa Bay Rays, snapping his personal 12-game road winning. According to Elias, that was the fourth longest road win streak in franchise history.

• The 183 runs scored on Tuesday night were the most in single day this season. The Chicago White Sox provided just over 10% of that production, crushing Roy Oswalt and the Texas Rangers by the score of 19-2.

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