THE STRESSES OF SUMMER. I suspect that somewhere there's a baseball pundit observing, "If somebody had told you in March that the Brewers would be leading the division on the Fourth of July you would have been delighted." Perhaps so, but does the road have to be so arduous?

"There was an article about the GM and the leftfielder," [field manager Ken] Macha said, "and I'm in the boat."

Not only that, but it was a rowboat in shark-infested, roiling waters and the manager had no paddle.

Whether the Milwaukee Brewers are in that vessel just before the break is a matter of perspective. They are 12th in the National League in hitting, 13th in pitching, ran a Tigers-Twins-Giants-Mets-Cubs gauntlet down a starting pitcher or two and are somehow hanging around the Central leader board with the St. Louis Cardinals in town.

The team has a knack for getting to the top of the standings and then frittering the lead away, which raises fan anxiety. The Central Division will make for interesting watching, with six teams at or above 0.500, and the Brewers gaining ground tonight on St. Louis and separation from Chicago and Cincinnati.