as they were without Greinke due to a basketball-related rib injury during Spring training. The team opened the season with four consecutive losses. By the end of April, the Brewers had fallen to 5th place in the NL Central, but came back to have an impressive May, by taking advantage of the struggles of division rivals Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals. The Brewers had problems offensively but were carried by the efforts of All-Stars Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, and Rickie Weeks. Nyjer Morgan, who was acquired via trade on March 27 from the Washington Nationals, took over center field for struggling Carlos Gomez. Morgan became a fan favorite in Milwaukee because of his alter-ego and bizarre antics. By the All-Star break, the Brewers were tied with St. Louis for the division lead despite having the National League's worst road record (16–29). The Brewers had NL's best home record at (33–14) which gave them a respectable 49–43 record at the midpoint of the 2011 season. To address some needed bullpen help, the Brewers made another big trade just hours after the All-Star Game, trading two Class A prospects to the New York Mets in exchange for ace reliever Francisco Rodríguez, and also made another trade before the end of the trade deadline for veteran infielder Jerry Hairston Jr., who became essential to the Brewers' success after All-Star second baseman Rickie Weeks suffered a bad ankle sprain in the last week of July and Carlos Gomez was lost with a shoulder injury. The Brewers started to overcome their road woes after the All-Star Break when they went on an 11-game road trip to Arizona, Colorado, and San Francisco. The Brewers ended up having a modest 5–6 mark on the road trip and came back to sweep the floundering Cubs and Astros and take two out of three games against the Cardinals to win eight of a nine-game homestand and take over 1st place in the NL Central. They followed the successful homestand with a sweep of the Astros in Houston; the first time they have swept the Astros away from Milwaukee, and also took 2 out of 3 games in St. Louis to extend the Brewers division lead to 7 games. The Brewers went on to have a stretch of 29 games from late July to mid August where they went 23–6 and finished the month of August with a 21–7