The Brewers missed facing Walkless Strikeout Doom by one day-Stephen Strasburg struck out 11 Mets yesterday. Instead they face Edwin Jackson (3.73 ERA, 3.96 FIP.) Jackson has only faced the Brewers 5 times in his career; 3 times in August last year (wow, do the Brewers play the Cardinals a lot...anyway) and 1 start each in 2004 and 2010. He's also faced the Cubs a few times. Aramis Ramirez and Corey Hart have both hit two home runs off Jackson in their careers. Jackson is having an excellent year for Washington; his worst start of the year was a 3-inning, 8-run start at Colorado on June 28. His next two starts after that weren't up to his normal 2012, giving up 4 runs in each, but his last start against Atlanta at home was a gem, allowing 1 run in 7 innings while striking out 9; sadly for Jackson his team was unable to score any runs at all, losing 4-0.
Yovani Gallardo (3.72 ERA, 3.90 FIP) is going up against the Nationals for the 6th time in his career. The Nats being found in the NL East, the Brewers don't face them much; longtime NL Central fixture Adam LaRoche has had the most at-bats against Gallardo, an astounding 19. Yes, 19. However, out of the 7 Nationals who have faced Gallardo in his career, 5 of them have hit home runs against him. (The two who haven't: Roger Bernadina, with 2 hits in 4 AB, and Jesus Flores, 0 for 1.) Gallardo has given up 1 home run in each of his last 3 starts. Last week's start at Cincinnati was his 3rd-shortest start of the season and the one with the least strikeouts; there has to be some sort of middle ground between 14 (as in his previous start) and 1.
Today's lineup:
Norichika Aoki RF
Nyjer Morgan CF
Ryan Braun LF
Aramis Ramirez 3B
Corey Hart 1B
Rickie Weeks 2B
Jonathan Lucroy C
Cesar Izturis SS
Yovani Gallardo P
Bullpen usage:
Francisco Rodriguez pitched 0.2 inning (15 pitches) yesterday.
John Axford pitched 2 innings (26 pitches) yesterday.
Livan Hernandez pitched 2 innings (26 pitches) yesterday.
Tyler Thornburg pitched 1 inning (15 pitches) yesterday.
Jose Veras pitched 0.1 inning (8 pitches) Tuesday.
Kameron Loe pitched 0.1 inning (16 pitches) Tuesday.
Manny Parra pitched 0.1 inning (25 pitches) Tuesday, 0.2 inning (26 pitches) Monday, and 0.1 inning (4 pitches) Sunday.
Jim Henderson pitched 1 inning (22 pitches) on Tuesday for Nashville.