A smiling Ryan Braun faced reporters Tuesday night and remained defiant in his innocence, a few hours after an ESPN “Outside the Lines” report raised new concerns among the faithful at Miller Park that Braun could face a suspension in the coming weeks.

ESPN ran a story minutes before the Brewers took the field against the A’s indicating that Anthony Bosch, the former head of the anti-aging clinic accused of providing banned substances to a number of high-profile players, had agreed to cooperate with Major League Baseball’s ongoing probe. According to the report, MLB will seek to suspend 20 players connected to the clinic, including Braun, based on evidence provided by Bosch.

After the Brewers’ 10-inning, 4-3 victory, Braun was greeted by a crowd of cameras and microphones at his locker.

“A lot of people here,” he said. “I assume I know why everybody is here. I’ve already addressed everything related to the Miami situation. I addressed it in Spring Training. I will not make any further statements about it. The truth has not changed. I don’t know the specifics of the story that came out today, but I’ve already addressed it, I’ve already commented on it, and I’ll say nothing further about it.”

He did field several questions, saying the threat of a suspension was not on his mind during the game.

“No, of course not,” Braun said. “I’ve dealt with this off and on for the last year and a half, I guess. I think I’m pretty good at avoiding distractions.”

He said he informed about the story by a member of the club’s public relations department after the game, and “I haven’t read the story or heard any specifics about it. … I have nothing else to say about any of that stuff tonight.”

Except that, “We all deal with challenges in life. I think for all of us as baseball players there’s distractions, whether it’s your family situation, relationship situation; there’s all kinds of things that come up throughout the course of the season. For all of us, we have a job to do regardless of what those distractions are. Obviously, this hasn’t been fun. It’s not easy. It’s not something I enjoy. But regardless, I have a job to do and I do my best to do my job every day.”

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The Brewers have made some major roster changes today. They:

– Recalled second base prospect Scooter Gennett from Triple-A Nashville in the most notable portion of the shake-up. Gennett, 23, was batting .297 in the Minors and may not be the sort of player who want to stash on the bench. This could be significant for the still-slumping Rickie Weeks.

– Released veteran infielder Alex Gonzalez, who returned from knee surgery and could not take advantage to start at first base, batting .177 in 113 at-bats.

– Optioned right-hander Mike Fiers back to Triple-A Nashville, a day after Fiers surrendered seven runs, five earned, in 1 2/3 innings of what he termed an “embarassing” loss to the Phillies.

– Acquired third baseman Juan Francisco in a trade with the Braves for Minor League left-hander Thomas Keeling. Francisco, 25, is a career .254 hitter with 19 home runs and 77 RBIs in 209 Major League games with the Reds and Braves. He hit .241 with five homers and 16 RBIs in 35 games with Atlanta this season but was designated for assignment on Thursday.

Francisco will be in uniform No. 21 for Tuesday’s game against Oakland at Miller Park.

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For a few fleeting moments in the eighth inning Sunday, Jonathan Lucroy had homered for the third straight day, this time a grand slam. Then the umpires went to the video tape.

In the first use of replay review this season involving a Brewers batter, Lucroy’s slam was turned into a three-run triple by an umpiring crew led by Tom Hallion. Lucroy was eventually stranded at third base, and the Brewers went to the bottom of the eighth inning trailing by three runs in what became a spirited, 7-5 loss to the Phillies.

Neither Lucroy nor Brewers manager Ron Roenicke mounted an argument.

“I thought it was the right call,” Roenicke said. “They said it has to clear that little fence there, and to me, it looked like it hit the little fence. My eyes aren’t that good, but that’s what it looked like.”

“It didn’t go out,” Lucroy said.

The Brewers trailed, 7-0, entering the eighth before staging a rally against Phillies starter Cliff Lee. He’d allowed only three hits through seven innings before surrendering four singles and a run in the eighth, exiting in favor of right-handed reliever Justin De Fratus with two outs and two runners on.

Aramis Ramirez walked to load the bases for Lucroy, who homered twice in Friday’s series opener, added a key insurance homer Saturday and entered Sunday batting .462 over a seven-game hitting streak that was on the line entering his final at-bat. He fouled off four consecutive two-strike pitches, then connected with a slider and sent it down the left-field line where the ball caromed off the top of the outfield fence.

The initial call was home run, but after a lengthy review, Hallion emerged with a reversal.

“It hit the top of that wire fence and kicked hard to the right back into play,” Hallion said. “I had thought it hit the back green [a wall beyond the fence], but it hit the top of that fence and kicked right. So once we realized it was not home run, I had the crew and we each put together where the ball went to, who picked the ball up and then we just put the runners where [their best judgment said they should be].”

The outfield fence at Citizens Bank Park is particularly tricky. It consists of a green padded wall topped by two metal fences with a flower bed in-between. A hit that lands in the flower bed is a home run, but Lucroy’s struck the railing in front of the flowers and caromed back into play.

Illustrating one of the challenges of instant replay in baseball, Hallion said positioning the runners took time.

“The easy part was seeing where the ball hit and seeing that it was not a home run,” Hallion said.

“He ruled it a triple. In our yard, I don’t know,” Phillies manager Charlie Mahuel said. “First of all, you can’t argue with the decision anyway. At the same time, I look at it and I was hoping it was a double. It would save two runs that way [versus a grand slam]. It didn’t happen. It’s just the way it went. It turned out OK for us.”

Here are some photos of the area where Lucroy’s hit struck the railing atop the padded wall, and a look at that complicated set-up of plantings. There is a sizable gap of several feet between the railing that Lucroy struck, and the green wall from which some fans speculated the baseball must have caromed:

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Add left fielder Ryan Braun to a Brewers injury report that has claimed the team’s three best power hitters, its best starting pitcher and its closer.

Braun was forced to sit out Monday with a nagging right thumb injury. With third baseman Aramis Ramirez on planned day off for his still-healing right knee, and first baseman Corey Hart still rehabbing from knee surgery, the Brewers were extremely shorthanded for the opener of a quick, two-game Interleague Series against the Twins.

“I hurt it two weeks ago, and I’ve just basically been dealing with it since,” Braun said. “We all deal with different things through the course of the season, and you try to compensate and do the best you can with with you’re dealing with. Anything with the hand is tough. I’ve basically been swinging with one hand for two weeks.

Over those two weeks, Braun batted .326 with five doubles, a home run and seven RBIs.

“I’ve changed the way I’ve held the bat, I’ve changed the way I’ve swung,” he said. “And it’s frustrating, because we’re not progressing. It’s not getting any better at all, so it’s just at the point where I need to take the time to get it close to being healthy so I can contribute and do the things I’m used to doing.”

On top of the thumb issue, Braun has been getting treatment all season for a persistent stiff neck.

He was not sure Monday morning how many days he would miss. The series opener with Minnesota marked the fourth of 20 games in 20 days for the banged-up Brewers.

The problem, Braun said, is that instead of getting better with treatment and various methods of padding the bat, the thumb has been getting “progressively worse.”

“I’m not going to swing a bat or do anything today,” he said, “so hopefully it gets better. I don’t want to put a timetable on it. Maybe I show up [Tuesday] and it gets a lot better.”

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A very interesting postgame scrum with Yovani Gallardo after his four-inning, five-hit, four-run, two-walk, seven-strikeout outing against the Pirates today. I thought you may be interested in the whole thing (my own emphasis in bold): 

Gallardo: “It’s definitely frustrating. I mean, I don’t know how to explain it, really. I felt good. I felt good last start, also, and I felt even better today. The walk to [Michael] McKendry, and then [Jordy] Mercer hits that triple. I just left a curveball up in the zone with two strikes. Especially with two strikes, you can’t be doing that. You can’t be having that kind of mistake. And then that one to [Pedro] Alvarez, it was a change-up that he pulls [the bat] in and somehow it stays just fair, it hits the line, which makes it even more frustrating to see the little things like that.”

Question: When you say you’re feeling better, do you feel as good as you did the last few years?

Gallardo: “Yeah, I do. I know we’re going to talk about the velocity again. But, I mean, velocity is not the issue. I’m sure if you ask any guy in here, I’m sure they would want to have 96 [mph] for the rest of their career. My mechanics, they’ve been feeling great the last start and this start. Now it’s just a matter of finishing guys off whenever I need to.

“Like today, that curveball with two strikes [to Mercer]. Just leaving pitches up in the zone whenever I have to locate down.”

Question: Ron Roenicke said he thought your “stuff” was good today, especially the life on your fastball. Were you feeling that way, too?

Gallardo: “Yeah. Like I said, today felt a lot better than my last start against the Dodgers. I felt like I was locating the ball down and away to a righty and going in when I needed to. It was just one of those weird days that everything felt good [and the results did not match]. I was throwing changeups for a strike — when have you guys ever seen that from me? It was one of those things that’s just frustrating. you go out there and have pretty good command of all your pitches, and obviously the results are not there. But it’s a matter of keep moving forward. I know it seems I’ve been saying that for a while now, but there’s not much you can do. I can’t control what happens after I let go of that ball, throw that pitch.”

Question: How about the Pirates? Do you see them as a better team than past years?

Gallardo: “Yeah. Like I said the last time, they make you work. They foul off some pretty good pitches. They make you battle and fight. You leave a mistake up in the zone, and they’ve got the kind of guys who can take advantage of it.”

Question: What is the frustration level, as a group, in this clubhouse right now?

Gallardo: “It’s tough. It’s definitely tough. We all know we’re a lot better than what we’re playing right now. For the team, it’s frustrating. It just seems that we can’t get things together. But we just have to turn it around as a team. Obviously, I know the starting pitching hasn’t been very good. For us as starters, we have to turn it around. We have to go out there and go seven, eight innings and give the bullpen a break, let the hitters swing the bats and putting up some runs and when we get the lead, hold the lead.”

Question: You said the starting pitching hasn’t been very good this year; do you feel like you need to be the catalyst for turning that around?

Gallardo: “I think we all do. Obviously, it doesn’t help that I’m going out there struggling. We all just have to pick each other up. Just like you said, we’ve been struggling, but we can’t let each guy get down on themselves. You have to keep pushing them forward, keep working hard. Not letting guys give up, that’s the main thing. I’m not speaking about anybody in here, but once guys give up, going out there not competing — the guys we have in here, we’re on each other to work on things we need to work on to turn it around. It’s a tough stretch right now. I’m not going to sit here and lie, saying that we’re going out there and doing well. When things are going tough, you just need to work harder and battle through it.”

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An injury has temporarily darkened one of the Brewers’ rare bright spots. The team placed closer Jim Henderson on the 15-day disabled list Saturday with the strained right hamstring he suffered the night before.

A corresponding roster move was coming Sunday, and Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said club officials were still discussing a variety of options. The Brewers have been playing one position player short, but they also need a starting pitcher for Tuesday against the Twins and could use help for a bullpen that has shouldered a heavy workload of late.

The decision to DL Henderson came after he was examined Saturday afternoon by the team’s head physician, William Raasch.

“He didn’t see any gaps, what he was feeling around for in there, so it isn’t a serious pull,” Henderson said. “So we’re just kind of taking the ‘better safe than sorry’ route right now. If they weren’t going to DL me, there would probably be that pressure to rush back. So we’ll just take our time with it. It’s the first time for me.”

The roster move was forecast before the game, when Brewers manager Ron Roenicke told reporters, “It’s going to be a while.”

Henderson suffered the injury in the ninth inning on Friday on a one-out pitch to Russell Martin. Henderson said he felt his hamstring pull at the release point on the pitch while pushing off the rubber, before making an attempt to field a ground ball hit back to him.

Henderson, who is 9-for-9 in save opportunities and holds a 0.92 ERA, threw one warm-up pitch before exiting the game. He has no history of hamstring injuries.

“Hopefully, in a few days it settles down a bit, I’ll get rid of this limp and I can walk around better,” said Henderson, who moved very slowly around the clubhouse on Saturday. “The biggest thing for me is I want to keep my arm in shape and keep that going, because that’s the key right there.”

Roenicke said he would use a “closer by committee” approach during Henderson’s absence.

“It’s tough right now,” Henderson said. “We’re getting hit here [with injuries]; some guys come back from the DL and other guys are going on. We still haven’t played this year full-strength, and I know it’s hurting us in all areas of the game.”

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Mike Fiers will have plenty of eyes on him when he makes his second start of the season Saturday against the Pirates. One pair in-particular will be extra special to him.

Fiers’ mom, Linda Korman, will be watching from her hospital bed in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to see her son take the mound against Jeff Locke. Korman has suffered from lupus for many years. Earlier this season, Fiers received news that her internal organs were failing and spent time with her between starts during a stint with Class A Brevard County.

“She’s always excited for every game, but especially when I’m pitching,” Fiers said of his mom who watches Brewers’ games on her iPad.

Fiers said his mom was moved out of the intensive care unit this week and is “on the right path.”

“They just moved her to a different room the other day, her own room,” Fiers said. “That’s another big step for her. She’s definitely moving the right way.”

Fiers began the season in the Brewers’ starting rotation but was demoted to Triple-A Nashville after one start and two relief appearances. The Brewers did him a favor by transferring him to Class A Brevard County, about a two-hour drive from home, so he could spend time with his mom.

He was recalled to the Brewers on May 12, making five relief appearances since. He is taking Kyle Lohse’s turn in the rotation on Saturday because of elbow irritation in Lohse’s right pitching arm, forcing him to miss a start.

-Kevin Massoth

A fresh arm will soon be on the way to the Brewers’ beleaguered pitching rotation. When left-hander Chris Narveson begins a Minor League rehabilitation assignment next week, he will stretch out as a starter.

Narveson, out since early April because of a sprained ligament in his left middle finger, faced hitters for the first time Friday and said the plan calls for one more extended mound session at Miller Park on Monday, followed by a trip to a Minor League affiliate, perhaps Triple-A Nashville for a Thursday night start against Iowa.

He began the season in the Brewers’ bullpen, a proactive move mean to protect his surgically-repaired shoulder, but prefers to start.

“Definitely,” Narveson said. “That’s what [I] want to do, but you also want to help the team win any way you can.”

He worked a pair of 15-pitch simulated innings against Martin Maldonado and Logan Schafer on Friday afternoon. Narveson threw his full assortment of pitches and deemed the “outing” a success.

“There’s always room for improvement, but I’m ready to go for a rehab start,” he said.

Narveson expects to work only two innings in his first start, so he is still weeks away from a return to the Brewers’ rotation.

He has not pitched extensively since 2011, when Narveson was 11-8 with a 4.45 ERA in 28 Brewers starts and two relief appearances.

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The Brewers placed starting pitcher Hiram Burgos on the 15-day disabled list on Friday with what the team calls right shoulder impingement.

The move made room on the roster for left-handed reliever Tom Gorzelanny who was activated from the 15-day DL with left shoulder tendinitis.

Burgos’ ERA rose from 3.00 to 6.44 in his last three starts after allowing 15 earned runs combined in losses to the Reds and Pirates and a no decision against the Dodgers. The righty lasted just 3 1/3 innings against Los Angeles on Tuesday, allowing six hits and two earned runs.

-Kevin Massoth

Kyle Lohse will miss his next Brewers start with what manager Ron Roenicke called “irritation” in the veteran’s right elbow, a potentially troubling development considering Lohse is nine starts into a three-year, $33 million contract. He began feeling discomfort “two or three starts ago,” Roenicke said, and was recovering slower than usual between starts.

Another right-hander, Mike Fiers, will take Lohse’s turn on Saturday against the Pirates at Miller Park. Lohse is tentatively scheduled to return to the rotation for one of the Brewers’ games at Minnesota next week.

“He could go out and pitch,” Roenicke said. “But because he didn’t have a Spring Training, we would rather try to get rid of this, so we’re going to bump him a start.”

Is an elbow issue a red flag?

“He didn’t seem that concerned about it, so I’m hoping that it’s not that big a deal,” Roenicke said.

Lohse is 1-5 this season despite a respectable 3.79 ERA, mostly because he has the worst run support (2.11 runs per game) of the 59 National League starters with enough innings to qualify for the ERA title. The Brewers are 2-7 when he starts and have scored eight total runs in the seven losses, with more than one run in only two of those games.

Fiers started the season in the Major League pitching’ rotation but was bumped to the Minors after losing his season debut against the D-backs, then recalled to the Brewers’ bullpen when left-hander Tom Gorzelanny was placed on the disabled list. Fiers was the winning pitcher Tuesday night after escaping a bases-loaded, one-out pickle in the fourth inning and going on to work 1 2/3 scoreless frames against the Dodgers.

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