Dave Bush is far too gritty to let a little thing like taking a line drive off the arm keep him from pitching in his scheduled start. So far, his ERA looks pretty and he's striking out more batters than a year ago, but he's given up an awful lot of home runs, and his walk rate has been increasing for each of the past four years. He has managed to strand a lot of runners this year.
Jorge de la Rosa goes for the Rockies. Don't be fooled by the 1-6 record or 5+ ERA, JDLR has really found something in the past two years. He had a 4.06 FIP last year in Colorado in 130 innings, and this season he's thrown 68 with a 3.81 FIP. He's striking out more than a batter per inning (9 per 9) and has the walk rate down to about 4-- those numbers were 7 and 6 when the Brewers gave up on him.
Lineup, featuring a new leadoff hitter and a buried third baseman:
2B Casey McGehee
SS JJ Hardy
LF Ryan Braun
1B Prince Fielder
CF Mike Cameron
RF Corey Hart
C Mike Rivera
3B Bill Hall
P Dave Bush
The bullpen rest report:
- Chris Smith pitched an inning on Wednesday in Nashville (17 pitches) and actually warmed up yesterday.
- Trevor Hoffman pitched an inning on Saturday (11 pitches).
- Carlos Villanueva pitched an inning on Sunday (32 pitches).
- Mark DiFelice pitched 1/3 of an inning on Tuesday (4 pitches).
- Todd Coffey pitched 1/3 of an inning on Tuesday (11 pitches) and 2/3 of an inning on Sunday (6 pitches).
- Mitch Stetter pitched 1 1/3 innings on Tuesday (20 pitches).
- Seth McClung pitched 1 inning on Tuesday (12 pitches).
Game time is 7:05 central. Go Brewers!