The Brewers' longest road winning streak of the season is three games, and they've only done that twice.
They'll get a chance for a third such streak tonight at 6:10 when they face veteran journeyman Freddy Garcia (4.52 ERA, 5.68 FIP). Garcia is in his 15th major league season as a member of his seventh franchise, having been traded from the Orioles to the Braves for cash in August. He made his fifth appearance and second start as a Brave on Tuesday, allowing a single run on seven hits over seven innings against the Nationals.
In 20.2 innings since joining the Braves, Garcia has a 1.31 ERA with 13 strikeouts and four walks. I have no idea what to make of that. He's also only allowed one home run in his last five appearances after giving up 16 in 53 innings (2.7 per nine) as an Oriole. His velocity has rebounded a bit recently, as he was clocked around 90 with his fastball on Tuesday but is averaging just 87.5 mph for the season.
Garcia has faced the Brewers three times in his career, but hasn't seen them this year and has only pitched against them one time since 2007. Two current Brewers have faced him ten times or more:
PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aramis Ramirez | 18 | 18 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | .444 | .444 | .611 | 1.056 |
Yuniesky Betancourt | 17 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .067 | .118 | .067 | .184 |
Total | 38 | 36 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 2 | .306 | .316 | .417 | .732 |
On the other end of the career spectrum we have 24-year-old righty Tyler Thornburg (1.96 ERA, 3.33 FIP), who will start tonight for the Brewers. Thornburg has been excellent as a starter this season and that continued on Wednesday, when he shut out the Cubs for six innings and allowed two hits and two walks, striking out four.
At the risk of jinxing it, Thornburg has only allowed one home run all season and has pitched 41.1 innings without giving one up (his last eleven outings). That's the longest homerless streak (by innings) by a Brewer this season, although Brandon Kintzler also has an active streak of 36.2 innings.
Thornburg has never faced the Braves in the regular season, and no current Braves have ever faced him before.
As of this writing I haven't seen tonight's lineup. If you have, please drop it in the comments.
And in the bullpen:
- Rob Wooten pitched one inning (nine pitches) last night.
- Michael Blazek pitched one inning (six pitches) last night.
- Donovan Hand pitched two innings (21 pitches) on Sunday.
- Jim Henderson pitched one inning (27 pitches) on Sunday.
- Brandon Kintzler pitched one inning (18 pitches) on Sunday.
- Alfredo Figaro last pitched on Saturday.
- Michael Gonzalez last pitched on Friday.
- Burke Badenhop last pitched on Thursday.
- Jimmy Nelson last pitched on Wednesday.
- Tom Gorzelanny is still working his way back from shoulder soreness.
It looks like a nice night for baseball in Atlanta, but a little rain could change that. Expect a game-time temperature in the upper 60's but the Weather Channel is showing a 30% chance of rain about an hour into the game and lingering into the night.