Despite sickness, Moeller delivers

Ailing Chad Moeller hit for the cycle, and Bill Hall's homer beat the Reds.
MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Chad Moeller was just trying to finish the game. He ended up hitting for the cycle.
Fighting muscle aches and chills, the unheralded Milwaukee catcher had the best game of his career in the Brewers' 9-8 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night.
"I really do feel under the weather," Moeller said. "My whole focus was really just getting through nine innings behind the plate somehow, some way. It probably helped me out because I didn't think about anything except just three more outs, or six more outs."
The Brewers rallied from an 8-6 deficit in the ninth inning, and won on pinch-hitter Bill Hall's two-out, two-run homer off closer Danny Graves. Moeller was in the dugout tunnel near a heater when he saw Hall's line drive leave the park on television.
"If we would have gone extra [innings], it would have been a real battle for me," Moeller said. "I don't know if I would have made it through."
Hall's home run made sure he didn't have to.
"Those are the times when you have your best games," Hall said. "It means you are not trying to do as much."
First since 1991
Moeller homered in the second, doubled in the fourth, tripled in the fifth and singled in the seventh, becoming the first Brewers player to complete the cycle since Paul Molitor in 1991.
Obtained from Arizona last offseason in the Richie Sexson trade, Moeller is the fifth Brewers player to accomplish the feat.
Molitor, who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this summer, did it on May 15, 1991, at Minnesota, when Milwaukee was in the American League.
The other Brewers to hit for the cycle were Hall of Famer Robin Yount on June 12, 1988, at Chicago; Charlie Moore on Oct. 1, 1980, at California; and Mike Hegan on Sept. 3, 1976, at Detroit.
"It's pretty darn cool to be in that company," Moeller said. "They are some of the best that have ever played the game. I am nowhere even in the ZIP code of being with those guys. But with this one little silly stat I am."
Moeller's first three hits came against starter Cory Lidle. Moeller completed the cycle with a single off reliever Ryan Wagner, prompting a standing ovation from the sparse crowd.
Had been in slump
Moeller, who drove in four runs, entered the game in a 3-for-24 slump. He's the first Brewers player to hit for the cycle at home, and just the second big league player to do it in Milwaukee. Gary Ward was the first on Sept. 18, 1980, for Minnesota.
The last major league catcher to accomplish the feat was Pittsburgh's Jason Kendall on May 19, 2000, against St. Louis, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
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