As I mentioned in today's Mug, yesterday might have been the best day of the spring for the Brewers. Shaun Marcum finally pitched (and pitched well), Norichika Aoki homered and Scooter Gennett hit for the cycle as the Brewers won both halves of a split-squad doubleheader. They've now won two consecutive games, matching their longest streak of the spring.
They'll get a chance to continue the momentum today as they travel to Goodyear to take on the Indians at 3:05. There's no TV or radio today, but the webcast is available at Brewers.com.
Follow the jump for today's pitching matchup and lineup, then join us in the comments to discuss today's game!
Today the Brewers will face Indians likely Opening Day starter Justin Masterson (7.56 ERA this spring, 3.21/3.28 ERA/FIP in 2011), who has been much better lately since getting off to a rough start this spring. Masterson allowed six runs in his first outing of the spring on March 5, but just one in seven innings since. His last official appearance came on March 15 when he held the White Sox hitless for four innings.
Masterson, who was born in Jamaica, is only 27 but pitched 216 innings for the Indians last season and struck out 6.6 batters per nine innings while walking just 2.7. He throws a low-to-mid 90's fastball almost 85% of the time, but also has a plus slider.
Masterson has pitched all of his four big league seasons in the AL, so he's never faced the Brewers during the regular season.
He'll face Chris Narveson (2.70 ERA this spring, 4.45/4.06 ERA/FIP in 2011), who is coming off his only rough outing of the spring. Narveson allowed three runs on seven hits over four innings to the Dodgers on Tuesday, walking one and failing to strike anyone out. Before that he had only allowed four hits all spring.
Narveson's getting an extra day of rest this trip through the rotation, five days instead of four. If he continues to pitch every fifth day then this will be his second-to-last spring training appearance: His days to throw would line up with the off day before Opening Day on April 5 and the fifth game of the season on April 10.
Narveson has faced the Indians one time during the regular season, getting roughed up in a relief appearance in 2009. That sentence is the least valuable piece of information in this post, unless I wrote something that's inaccurate.
Kameron Loe, Manny Parra and Tim Dillard are also scheduled to pitch today, according to Tom Haudricourt.
Here's today's lineup:
Rickie Weeks 2B
Nyjer Morgan CF
Ryan Braun LF
Travis Ishikawa DH
Mat Gamel 1B
Jonathan Lucroy C
Taylor Green 3B
Edwin Maysonet SS
Logan Schafer RF
Enjoy the game!