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The Milwaukee Brewers were slugging the ball into the stands — and onto Waveland and Sheffield — with the wind blowing out during batting practice at Wrigley Field as they opened their big series with the Cubs Tuesday night. Even so, the mood around the Brewers’ batting cage was markedly different from the last time they were here. The sunken-eyed Ryan Braun, the “Hebrew Hammer,” was quietly efficient as usual, smashing balls into the left-field stands, but the left-handed slugger Prince Fielder eschewed the personal sound effects (“Bam!”) he offered last time he was taking swings in the Wrigley cage. The few Milwaukee fans in the Wrigley grandstand before the game tried to make up for it by hooting and cheering Fielder’s every tape-measure clout that landed deep in the bleachers or out on Sheffield, but on the field the Brew Crew was silent — no batting-practice games or situational hitting — and manager Ned Yost worked his chewing gum hard, with his jaw muscles tense and flexing.
