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Brewers lead the series 2-0
| Fri 10/02 | WP: Braden Looper (14 - 7) LP: Kyle McClellan (4 - 4) | 12 - 6 win |
| Sat 10/03 | WP: Carlos Villanueva (4 - 10) SV: Trevor Hoffman LP: Kyle Lohse (6 - 10) | 5 - 4 win |
Milwaukee Brewers Sunday, Oct 4, 2009, 1:15 PM CDT Jeff Suppan vs Joel Pineiro Partly cloudy,rain. Winds blowing out to center field at 5-10 m.p.h. Game time temperature around . Complete Coverage > | ||
Can the Brewers finish the season with a sweep in St. Louis and win 80 games for just the fourth time in 13 seasons?
Follow the jump for today's pitching matchup, lineup and conversation on today's season finale!
Joel Pineiro (15-12, 3.44) might have been the best pitcher on the Brewers this season (at the very least, he would have had the best ERA), but he's clearly the third best pitcher in the Cardinals' rotation. He's thrown 209 innings this season, leaving him 2.2 short of his career high, and has walked just 1.1 batters per nine innings this season, best in the NL. He's 2-0 against the Brewers this season, having beaten them with a complete game in July and again with a seven inning, four run performance in September. Jody Gerut (.308/.400/.615) hits him well, and Ryan Braun (.200/.200/.267) does not.
Meanwhile, Jeff Suppan (7-12, 5.30) will make his 30th start for the Brewers. He's pitching on short rest, which isn't exactly an ideal situation for a pitcher that's not very good anyway, but apparently his 30th start was just that important. On top of being bad overall, he's been bad lately, posting a 13.06 ERA and allowing 22 hits in his last 10.1 innings. He's only expected to throw 2-3 innings today. Hopefully that won't be enough to take the Brewers out of the game.
He's expected to be followed to the mound by Chris Narveson (2-0, 4.01), who will face his former team for the sixth time this season. Narveson was drafted by the Cardinals in the second round of the 2000 draft, and made five appearances (including a start) for the 2006 World Series Champion team. He's posted a 2.45 ERA in his previous five outings against them, and a 3.38 ERA in four appearances since being moved into the rotation on September 13.
Here's the rest of the bullpen for today:
Todd Coffey pitched one inning (7 pitches) yesterday, and also pitched on Thursday and Friday.
Claudio Vargas pitched one inning (17 pitches) yesterday, and also pitched on Friday.
Trevor Hoffman pitched one inning (9 pitches) yesterday, and also pitched on Friday.David Weathers pitched one inning (20 pitches) yesterday.
Chris Smith last pitched on Thursday.
John Axford last pitched on Thursday.Seth McClung last pitched on Thursday.
Mitch Stetter last pitched on Thursday.