Today's Matchup: Milwaukee (Peralta) at Los Angeles (Fife)

Unfortunately for Wily Peralta (1-1, 5.16 ERA, 5.02 FIP), the Brewers aren't playing the Cubs today. He has had two good starts out of four, and both have come against Chicago. During each of those two starts, he went 6.2 innings and gave up two runs. In his other two starts, he pitched a total of 9.1 innings and gave up nine earned runs. Hopefully Peralta can break the non-Cubs curse today.

Peralta's numbers this season indicate that he has taken the bad of his minor league career but left behind a good portion of the good. The lack of control is still there. Peralta has a 4.37 BB/9 and the fact that he an struggle to locate his pitches has been cited as one of the key reasons he might not be able to make it in the majors. Meanwhile, his strikeout numbers have dipped to just a 5.16 K/9. Peralta's strikeout numbers have strangely been up and down his whole career, from a double-digit K/9 one season to a 6.0 the next. Still, it would be nice to see him utilize that big fastball and sit more batters down.

It's only been four starts, and Peralta is a rookie. Hopefully he'll work out his troubles against non-Chicago teams soon. Peralta has never faced a current Dodger in the majors.

For Los Angeles, Stephen Fife is making his second start of the season after an emergency outing in place of Chad Billingsley last week. He struggled against the Orioles in that outing, allowing three runs in the first inning and four total runs while not being able to finish the fifth inning.

The 26-year-old Fife made five starts last season and pitched better. He racked up just a 2.70 ERA, though he didn't show much control with a 4.05 BB/9. Over his minor league career he has a 4.14 ERA and unimpressive peripheral stats.

Fife throws three pitches: A 90 MPH four seam fastball, a 79 MPH curveball, and an 85 MPH changeup. Fife has never faced a current Brewers batter.

Lineups:

I have not seen them at the time of this writing. If you have, feel free to post them in the comments.

In the Bullpen:

• Michael Gonzalez pitched .2 innings (16 pitches) yesterday.
• Burke Badenhop pitched .1 innings (6 pitches) yesterday.
• Brandon Kintzler pitched one inning (21 pitches) yesterday.
  
• Tom Gorzelanny pitched .2 innings (4 pitches) on Wednesday.
• Jimmy Henderson and John Axford last pitched on Tuesday.
• Alfredo Figaro last pitched on Monday.