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Sometimes it's hard to remember who is left in the Brewers rotation. Today, Tom Gorzelanny (2.43 ERA, 4.35 FIP) gets his second start of the season. The first came back on June 8, when he threw four innings against the Phillies, allowing one run on five hits.
Gorzelanny pitched 1.2 innings three days ago, giving him one fewer rest day than he had his previous start. He was only able to throw about 60 pitches against the Nationals, so it's reasonable to deduce that he'll end around 50-60 pitches today. Tyler Thornburg already had to piggyback on Johnny Hellweg's start two days ago, so it's unlikely he'll be able to go much in long relief today.
Two Mets hitters have at least 10 PA against Gorzelanny. David Wright has hit .235/.435/.412 in 23 PA while Ike Davis has hit .286/.333/.429 over 15 PA.
For the Mets, Jeremy Hefner (3.54 ERA, 4.32 FIP) will make the start. Hefner is 27, but is just a second-year player. This season has been a big improvement on his rookie year of 2012 when he posted a 5.09 ERA over 26 games, half of which were starts.
Hefner isn't a major strikeout guy, but he will get his fair share. His strikeout numbers in the minors when he was younger were much more impressive, but he has managed to improve his control at the cost of more swings and misses.
Hefner has been phenomenal recently. Over his last six starts, he has a 1.70 ERA with a .644 opponent OPS. Five of the six starts saw him allow just one earned run. The sixth, he allowed two.
Hefner has never faced a Brewers hitter more than 10 times.
Lineup:
In the bullpen:
- Burke Badenhop faced four batters (12 pitches) Thursday and pitched one inning (28 pitches) yesterday.
- Tyler Thornburg pitched 4.1 innings (89 pitches) yesterday.
- Brandon Kintzler pitched 1.1 innings (22 pitches) Thursday.
- Tom Gorzelanny pitched 1.2 innings (20 pitches) Thursday.
- Francisco Rodriguez pitched one inning (22 pitches) on Wednesday.
- Michael Gonzalez, Jim Henderson and John Axfordlast pitched on Tuesday.