The Crew returns home to take on the Giants, who I thought were a lot better than one game over .500. I guess I should pay more attention.
Pitching matchups, lineups and whatnot after the jump.
Dave Bush (3-6, 4.43 ERA) will be on the bump for the good guys this afternoon. Bush's peripherals are pretty ugly this year. He's walking more and striking out less, but he has somehow managed to keep his ERA under 5. What I find most interesting is that Bush managed to hit 15 batters in only 114 innings last year and has only plunked 2 batters in 83 innings this year. Aaanyway, he's been pretty good over his last four starts, pitching at least 6 innings each time and allowing more than 2 ER only once. In his career vs. the Giants, Bush is 1-2 with a 4.75 ERA. Five Giants have faced Bush more than 10 times:
PA | Slash line | |
Pat Burrell | 14 | .385/.429/1.077 |
Aubrey Huff | 24 | .208/.208/.458 |
Edgar Renteria | 12 | .500/.500/.833 |
Aaron Rowand | 12 | .200/.333/.300 |
Freddy Sanchez | 33 | .367/.406/.467 |
He'll be facing Jonathan Sanchez (6-6, 3.26 ERA). Sanchez has been the Manny Parra of the Giants staff for the past few years: all potential and frustrating results. But unlike Manny Parra, Sanchez has gotten better every season, and he is having a breakout season this year. He's striking out fewer batters this year (8.8K/9 this year compared to 9.8K/9 last year) but he is only giving up about 6.8H/9 innings this season. Fortunately for the Brewers, he's been getting lucky this year, with a BABIP of .261, and has not been very good in his career against the Brewers. Sanchez is 0-1 with a 8.31 ERA against the Crew. Only Prince Fielder has faced him more than 10 times; in 11 AB, the Prince is hitting .364/.500/.455 Sanchez.
Via John Steinmiller, here's today's lineup:
Rickie Weeks 2B
Corey Hart RF
Prince Fielder 1B
Ryan Braun LF
Casey McGehee 3B
Jonathan Lucroy C
Carlos Gomez CF
Alcides Escobar SS
Dave Bush P
In the bullpen:
Carlos Villanueva pitched 3.1 innings (38 pitches) yesterday
Zach Braddock pitched 1 inning (8 pitches) yesterday
Kameron Loe pitched 1 inning (19 pitches) yesterday and 1.2 innings Thursday
Todd Coffey pitched 1.1 innings (10 pitches) Saturday and 1 ining Friday
David Riske pitched 1 inning (23 pitches) Saturday and 1 inning Friday
Chris Capuano pitched 1 inning (16 pitches) Saturday
Trevor Hoffman pitched 1 inning (19 pitches) Friday
John Axford pitched 1 inning (14 pitches) Thursday
Go Brewers!