Tonight's Matchup: Brewers (Fiers) @ Rockies (Francis)

(I apologize for the delay on the preview. We had some technical difficulties with SBNation and lost the original preview for today's game.)

The Brewers play the first of three in Colorado tonight and hope to extend their road winning streak to two games.

To do that, they turn to Mike Fiers (1.80 ERA, 2.22 FIP). He has been amazing so far this season, to say the least. However, we now know that he is going to be shut down at some point the next month. He is at 135 IP between Nashville and Milwaukee this year, after 128 IP between Huntsville, Nashville, and Milwaukee last year. Going by the Brewers rule of not increasing a pitcher's IP by more than 20%, Fiers innings cap would be right around 154 IP. That's about 19 IP left this season, which would be about 3 to 4 more starts.

No current member of the Rockies has faced Mike Fiers more than once. Fiers made his MLB debut against the Rockies last season, pitching one inning and allowing two hits and a walk while striking out two.

On the other side, it is Jeff Francis (6.06 ERA, 4.75 FIP) making his fourteenth start of the season. While the ERA is rough, the splits for Francis are even worse. He has posted a 7.33 ERA in 27 IP at home and a 10.57 ERA in 7.2 IP in August. Right-handed hitters are batting .317/.367/.527 against him as well.

Jeff Francis has four main pitches that he uses: a sinker (29%, 85.3 MPH), a changeup (26%, 77.6 MPH), a fastball (25%, 85.3 MPH), and a curveball (19%, 68.7 MPH). Three Brewers have faced Jeff Francis ten times or more:

It's no surprise that tonight's lineup is right-handed hitter heavy. Here it is:

Norichika Aoki RF
Rickie Weeks 2B
Ryan Braun LF
Aramis Ramirez 3B
Corey Hart 1B
Jonathan Lucroy C
Carlos Gomez CF
Cody Ransom SS
Mike Fiers P

In the bullpen

Kameron Loe pitched one inning (20 pitches) yesterday and one inning (19 pitches) Saturday
Jose Veras pitched .1 innings (4 pitches) yesterday and one inning (16 pitches) Saturday.
Manny Parra pitched one inning (8 pitches) Saturday.
Livan Hernandez pitched one inning (18 pitches) Saturday.
Jim Henderson pitched one inning (33 pitches) Saturday.
Francisco Rodriguez pitched one inning (16 pitches) Friday.
John Axford pitched .1 innings (22 pitches) Friday.
Mike McClendon has started playing 52 card pickup in the bullpen.