Tonight's Matchup: Brewers (Wolf) vs. Giants (Bumgarner)

It's a rematch tonight at Miller Park to start the three game series against the Giants. Madison Bumgarner and Randy Wolf match up for the second time this season in a rematch of the May 5th game in San Francisco.

Tonight, Randy Wolf (6.38 ERA, 4.43 FIP) makes his ninth start of the season for the Brewers. As mentioned before, this will be his second start against the Giants this season. In his first start against them on May 5th, he allowed four earned runs in six innings. He gave up nine hits in that game, but did not walk a batter and struck out three. Despite the high ERA, his FIP is close to his FIP from last season, which suggests that most of Wolf's struggles have been related more to balls finding their way out for hits and a defense that hasn't backed him up as well.

Wolf does have a few stats working in his favor tonight. First, Randy Wolf has put up some good career numbers against the Giants. In 21 career starts, he has a 2.99 ERA and has allowed a .223/.301/.386 batting line against them. Next, Wolf has also been much better at home, posting a 3.52 ERA in home games vs. a 9.78 ERA in road games. Finally, Wolf has not allowed a home run in four straight starts, which is a good sign for him.

Three Giants have faced Wolf ten times or more:

For the Giants, Madison Bumgarner (3.10 ERA, 4.00 FIP) makes the start today. This will be the second time the Brewers have faced Bumgarner this season. On May 5th in San Francisco, Bumgarner pitched seven innings and allowed only one run. He struck out five and walked one on 110 pitches. He has made two starts since then, giving up four earned runs to both Arizona and St. Louis.

Over his career, Madison Bumgarner has pitched well against the Brewers. He has put together a 3-1 record and 1.27 ERA. He has made one previous start at Miller Park. On July 6, 2010, he pitched eight shutout innings, allowing a total of three hits and three walks. The Giants won that game 6-1.

Bumgarner has five pitches that he throws. Most of the time he throws a slider (35.5%, 87.2 MPH), four-seam fastball (25.8%, 90.4 MPH), and two-seam fastball (18.1%, 91.5 MPH). He also mixes in a curveball (12.4%, 75.7 MPH) and a changeup (7.6%, 84.1 MPH).

Four Brewers have faced Bumgarner ten times or more:

It's another day of big lineup changes today. Corey Hart gets his second career start at first base tonight, Norichika Aoki gets the start in right, Carlos Gomez is in center and batting fifth, Aramis Ramirez and Rickie Weeks are back after taking a day off, and George Kottaras is in despite Jonathan Lucroy's hot bat. Here's the full lineup:

Corey Hart 1B
Norichika Aoki RF
Ryan Braun LF
Aramis Ramirez 3B
Carlos Gomez CF
Rickie Weeks 2B
George Kottaras C
Cesar Izturis SS
Randy Wolf LHP

In the bullpen:

Juan Perez pitched 0.2 innings (22 pitches) yesterday, and also pitched 0 innings (9 pitches) on Saturday.
Kameron Loe pitched 1 inning (35 pitches) yesterday, and also pitched 0.1 innings (9 pitches) on Saturday.
Tim Dillard pitched 0.2 innings (8 pitches) yesterday.
Manny Parra pitched 2 innings (23 pitches) Saturday, and also pitched 0.2 innings (29 pitches) Friday.
Jose Veras 0.2 innings (14 pitches) Saturday, and also pitched 1 inning (18 pitches) Friday.
John Axford 1 inning (12 pitches) Saturday, and also pitched 1 inning (15 pitches) Friday.
Francisco Rodriguez pitched 1 inning (19 pitches) Saturday.