After Ryan Braun's late game heroics off the bench last night allowed the Brewers to draw first blood, Milwaukee and Florida get right back to it tonight.
For the Marlins, Chris Volstad (2-4, 5.91) gets the call. If you want a comp for him, Randy Wolf might be a good place to look. Volstad has a 6.58 K/9 this year, Wolf a 6.62. Volstad has a 3.04 BB/9, Wolf a 3.06. Volstad has a 1.35 HR/9, Wolf a 1.27. Their FIP's are 4.44 and 4.63. The major differences are that Volstad has a much higher BABIP and ERA. Volstad also hasn't made a habit of pitching late into games, averaging a little over five innings per start. His last outing, against the Diamondbacks, he only managed to go 3.1 innings and gave up five earned runs.
Texas Leaguers says that Volstad throws five different pitches: A 90 MPH sinker that he throws about half the time, a mid 80s slider, a mid 80s changeup, a high 80s four seamer and a high 70s curveball. Fangraphs has his curveball and changeup as his only two positive value pitches both over his career and in 2011.
Only Nyjer Morgan has faced Volstad at least ten times in his career. In fifteen plate appearances, Morgan has a .167/.214/.167 slash line. Twelve different Brewers have faced him at least once, but only three have an OPS higher than .667: Corey Hart (.750, 6 PA), Chris Narveson (1.000, 2 PA) and Craig Counsell (2.000, 1 PA).
Opposing him will be Yovani Gallardo (7-2, 3.89). I took a look at Gallardo and his recent resurgence last sunday. This is his first start since then, but he has been absolutely outstanding over his past five starts with a 1.29 ERA an opponent line of .164/.239/.246 as opposed to a 6.10 ERA and an opponent line of .329/.388/.503 through his first seven starts. Yo is currently sporting a 3.81 FIP.
Gallardo has never faced a current Marlin at least ten times. He has, however, faced 12 Marlins at least once and the only one that has an OPS higher than .667 against him is Chris Coghlan, who has hit .667/.750/1.000 in four plate appearances.
Lineup:
Rickie Weeks 2B
Corey Hart CF
Ryan Braun LF
Prince Fielder 1B
Casey McGehee 3B
Jonathan Lucroy C
Yuniesky Betancourt SS
Nyjer Morgan CF
Yovani Gallardo RHP
I haven't yet seen the lineups posted anywhere. Have you? If you have, maybe you would be kind enough to post them in the comments?
Outside of The Ax, yesterday was the lower rungs of the bullpen's time to shine:
Tim Dillard pitched one inning (10 pitches) yesterday.
Sergio Mitre pitched one inning (19 pitches) yesterday.
John Axford pitched one innings (28 pitches) yesterday.
Kameron Loe pitched one inning (17 pitches) Wednesday.
Marco Estrada hasn't pitched since Tuesday.
LaTroy Hawkins hasn't pitched since Sunday.
Zach Braddock is back with the team as Mike McClendon was sent down to AAA after picking up the win last night