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There are really only so many ways to say "this Brewer team only has two wins in May."
Hopefully tomorrow I'll get to stop thinking of new ones after the Brewers are done with Jaime Garcia (2.88/3.38 ERA/FIP) and the Cardinals. Garcia got knocked around a bit by the Rockies on Sunday, allowing five runs on eight hits over six innings. The home runs he allowed in that game were the first he had given up in over 30 innings.
The challenge in facing Garcia is that he's unlikely to beat himself. His strikeout rate is down a little this season but he's walking just 2.5 batters per nine innings and throwing first pitch strikes almost 70% of the time. His fastball sits in the upper 80's and he'll throw a cutter nearly 25% of the time.
Garcia has already pitched 15 innings this season and allowed just one run over that time, Eight Brewers have faced him ten times or more:
| Player | PA | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| Ryan Braun | 40 | .282 | .300 | .513 | .813 |
| Rickie Weeks | 37 | .233 | .378 | .400 | .778 |
| Carlos Gomez | 29 | .276 | .276 | .414 | .690 |
| Jonathan Lucroy | 29 | .276 | .276 | .310 | .586 |
| Aramis Ramirez | 19 | .222 | .263 | .278 | .541 |
| Yuniesky Betancourt | 16 | .313 | .313 | .500 | .813 |
| Alex Gonzalez | 11 | .091 | .091 | .364 | .455 |
| Norichika Aoki | 10 | .200 | .200 | .300 | .500 |
He'll face Wily Peralta (5.40/4.58 ERA/FIP), who at least is getting a chance to learn at the major league level, I guess. Peralta pitched six innings against the Reds on Sunday and allowed four runs (three earned) on five hits, walking two and striking out three.
The most concerning thing about Peralta's early struggles this season has to be his relative lack of strikeouts. He's punched out just 23 batters over 45 innings this season, as compared to 23 over 29 major league innings a year ago. His walk rate, meanwhile, is about the same (3.4 per nine in 2012, 3.2 in 2013).
The Cardinals singled Peralta to death on May 2, knocking in six runs on eleven hits (all singles) over 4.1 innings. No current Cardinals have faced him ten times or more.
As of this writing I haven't seen today's lineup. If you have, please drop it in the comments.
And in the bullpen:
- Mike Fiers pitched 1.2 innings (24 pitches) last night.
- Francisco Rodriguez pitched one inning (15 pitches) last night in his 2013 debut.
- Alfredo Figaro pitched .1 innings (16 pitches) last night.
- Michael Gonzalez, John Axford and Burke Badenhop last pitched on Wednesday.
- Brandon Kintzler last pitched on Tuesday.