Tonight's Matchup: Brewers (Lohse) vs. Athletics (Griffin)

With the highly anticipated first start of Scooter Gennett tonight, there should be a little electricity in the air at Miller Park. The Brewers could use some kind of spark as they try to bounce back tonight in the second game of their series against the Athletics.

The Brewers will turn to Kyle Lohse (4.37 ERA/4.56 FIP) for tonight's game. Lohse has slowly been declining over his last few starts and have struggled to replicate the early success that he had this season. May was particularly rough on him, as he posted a 6.45 ERA in the month, allowing seven home runs and putting up a 16:9 K/BB ratio over 27.2 innings. A lot of that damage came in his last start against the Twins, where he allowed six runs on eight hits (four of which were home runs) along with one walk and no strikeouts. The Brewers as a team haven't fared much better during his starts, going 2-8 in his 10 starts this season.

Kyle Lohse has faced a few of the Athletics ten times or more. Here is how they have done:

On the other side, the Brewers will face another of the Athletics' young pitchers as A.J. Griffin (4.04 ERA/4.34 FIP) takes the mound for the Athletics. After rising quickly through the minor leagues, Griffin made his MLB debut last season as a mid-season call-up and excelled for the Athletics, posting a 3.06 ERA and 1.4 WAR in 15 starts. It's been a bit rougher for him in 2013, but he has still been a solid pitcher for the Athletics. Like Tommy Milone last night, Griffin has also been susceptible to home runs, allowing 11 in his 11 starts. He puts up an average strikeout rate (7.3 K/9) and walk rate (2.35 BB/9) as well. He mainly throws four pitches: a fastball (89 MPH, 60.4%), a slider (82.1 MPH, 8.5%), a curveball (68.2 MPH, 18.7%) and a changeup (80.7 MPH, 12.4%). Finally, he has never faced any current member of the Brewers.

Here are tonight's lineups, with both Scooter Gennett and Juan Francisco making their first starts as Brewers:

In the bullpen:

• Burke Badenhop pitched 1 inning (35 pitches) yesterday and 1 inning (21 pitches) Sunday.
• Donovan Hand pitched 3 innings (40 pitches) yesterday.
• John Axford pitched 1 inning (9 pitches) yesterday.
• Tom Gorzelanny pitched 2 innings (28 pitches) on Sunday and faced 1 batter (7 pitches) on Saturday.
• Francisco Rodriguez pitched 1 inning (19 pitches) on Saturday and 1 inning (10 pitches) on Friday.
• Brandon Kintzler pitched 1 inning (12 pitches) on Saturday.
• Michael Gonzalez pitched 1.2 innings (14 pitches) on Friday.

Game time temperature is expected to be around 62 degrees with wind from the ENE at 9 mph. With cooler temperatures and a small chance of rain in the forecast, expect the roof to be closed tonight.