MILWAUKEE — Ryan Braun is expected to be back in Milwaukee and available Thursday night when the Brewers open a four-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals at Miller Park.

Braun left the team Thursday morning for Los Angeles David Montgomery Jersey , where he received a cryotherapy injection in his right thumb — a procedure he has undergone four times since first receiving treatment on the thumb following the 2014 season.

“It started bugging him the last couple of days so he flew out (Thursday) morning),” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “It’s something that he expects from time to time. When it starts (bothering him), we try to get in front of it and knock it out right away.”

Braun was expected to miss Milwaukee’s game Wednesday night at Pittsburgh, but Mother Nature made the point moot as rain forced cancellation of the finale of a three-game series with the Pirates.

As a result, the Brewers will take the field Thursday virtually tied with the Chicago Cubs for first place in the National League Central with the Cardinals lingering 4 1/2 games behind.

St. Louis will try to cut into that deficit behind right-hander Carlos Martinez (3-3, 2.73 ERA), who has struggled since returning from the disabled list back on June 5.

In three starts since then, Martinez is 0-1 with a 7.11 ERA. He struck out 15 while walking 18 in 12 2/3 innings — failing to get past the fifth in any of those outings — while opponents have batted .306 against him with a .908 OPS.

“He’s got to do something different, I know,” manager Mike Matheny admitted. “(Pitching coach Mike) Maddux has talked to him about getting locked in. It just looks different. We need him to be like he can be.”

Martinez was off to a strong start before the injury. He bounced back from a rough season-opening outing against the New York Mets to post a 0.99 ERA over his next seven starts. He still had a 1.77 ERA after the Minnesota Twins tagged him for four runs over five innings in a 7-1 loss on May 8 but was placed on the disabled list the next day with a strained forearm.

“Right when he got hurt, he was as good as anybody in the league,” said Matheny. “We’ve just got to get him back there, that’s all.

Martinez has faced Milwaukee twice this season, dominating the Brewers in each appearance. He held them to a run over six innings in a 5-3 victory on April 10 in St. Louis and fell two outs short of a complete game shutout on April 4 at Miller Park, where he is 4-4 with a 2.36 ERA in 16 career appearances http://www.bearsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-riley-ridley-jersey , including 10 starts.

Overall, he’s 6-4 with a 1.95 ERA in his career against Milwaukee and has held the Brewers to two runs or fewer in 10 of his last 14 starts against the Brewers.

Because of the rainout in Pittsburgh, left-hander Brent Suter (7-4, 4.30) will get an extra day of rest and start for Milwaukee on Thursday, with Junior Guerra, Chase Anderson and Jhoulys Chacin rounding out the series.

Suter is 1-0 with a 3.48 ERA in two starts against St. Louis this season, and 1-2 with a 4.10 ERA in eight career appearances (four starts) against the Cardinals..

OXNARD, Calif. (AP) — Travis Frederick’s first day in pads after a year of battling back from a nerve disorder wasn’t particularly emotional for the Dallas Cowboys center.Those moments came earlier, like the first time Frederick hit his max on the squat in the weight room, or set a personal best on another lifting technique.“Those days, wondering whether or not I was going to be able to lift again let alone hit my max numbers ever again, those days were emotional,” Frederick said after his first day in pads at training camp this week.“Today’s a day that I just got a chance to come back out and play football. And playing football is something I’ve been doing since I was 9 years old, so that’s second nature.”Guillain-Barré syndrome, an autoimmune disease that attacks the nervous system Jonah Williams Jersey , sapped most of Frederick’s strength and left him struggling to walk when the Cowboys returned from camp in California last summer.There were eye-opening moments for anybody watching practice at camp a year ago, like when Frederick would get overpowered by a defensive lineman in a one-on-one drill. Behind the scenes, it was even more noticeable.“I very specifically remember conversations with some of the scouts,” Frederick said. “All the scouts are out here and they watch every rep. It’s not just every rep of team. It’s every rep of individual. When something goes wrong and the scout comes up and says, ‘Hey, you know, things just don’t look right. What’s going on?’“You’re trying to figure it out and you get the diagnosis and say, ‘Hey, I knew something was wrong.’ They could tell from the beginning.”Frederick said the initial sensations were similar to neck issues that football players call “stingers,” but he was cleared of any concerns by a doctor in the Los Angeles area. When the problems persisted, doctors eventually found the culprit — and it was early enough to avoid worst-case symptoms such as temporary paralysis.Ultimately, the diagnosis wasn’t early enough to save his season. Frederick missed all 18 games, including two playoff games, after playing in all 83 over the first five years of his career. It’s been a long, slow climb back ever since last summer.“Sitting here this time last year Elgton Jenkins Jersey , I had no idea what we were facing regarding Frederick,” owner Jerry Jones said. “And so I’m basing my personal thinking that he’s going to be able to come out here and be right here where we were this time last year, thinking he was going to have a heck of a year. And everything I’m hearing supports that.”Frederick has said all along he’s not really going to know where he is in his recovery until he gets in a game. It’s unclear if or how much he will play in the preseason because it’s easy to forget he also underwent shoulder and abdominal surgeries in the offseason.In the meantime, another test of his strength will be one of the things that revealed issues last year — one-on-one pass-rushing drills. Frederick was held out of those for his first day in pads, with no sign the Cowboys wanted to test it anytime soon. Fine by Frederick.“I hate that drill, so I don’t look forward to it at all,” he said with a smile. “Honestly, the amount of times the center goes one-on-one in the NFL, it’s probably about 1 percent of the time maybe. I think it’s really not great for centers.”There’s some reassurance for quarterback Dak Prescott seeing Frederick lead him to the line, grab the football and point to the assignments on the other side of the line of scrimmage.Even though the Cowboys won the NFC East for the second time in three years with their young quarterback last season and with Frederick trying to help from the sideline, the offense struggled at times and Prescott was sacked 56 times, second-most in the NFL.“A great dude, just being healthy, being back out here, knowing he’s happy http://www.packerscheapshoponline.com/cheap-authentic-jace-sternberger-jersey , knowing he’s doing what he loves,” Prescott said. “Then when you get down there and get in the trenches, get in the Xs and Os and you’re making calls, it’s somebody that you’re comfortable with, making all the right calls.”Curiously, Frederick’s shoulder pads disappeared from the equipment room at the team’s facility during the year he missed. The 28-year-old chuckled at the irony, shrugged his shoulders and agreed that at least the new pads smelled better.“Brand new, so they did feel a little different for that reason, Frederick said. “But no, they didn’t feel different in the fact that I was wearing pads. It feels really normal and it feels kind of comfortable.”It also feels better than what Frederick was feeling — or in some cases, wasn’t feeling — a year ago.