What We Learned: September callup Zach Davies will make his MLB debut today

Yesterday's Results

Brewers 7, Pirates 4

It was a game that was never really in doubt for the Brewers last night. Jimmy Nelson bounced back and continued his dominance of Pittsburgh with one run allowed in seven innings, and the Brewers put up four runs in the first, highlighted by a two-run double from Adam Lind. Jean Segura also put together a good night, collecting two hits and driving in three runs. The Pirates did attempt a comeback in the ninth by scoring two runs off of David Goforth on back-to-back home runs, but Francisco Rodriguez came in and finished the Pirates off.

Brewers News & Notes

• The Brewers will take a look at one of their big pitching prospects over the final month of the season in preparation for next year. They selected the contract of Zach Davies from Colorado Springs yesterday, and will have him start today against the Pirates.
• A strong August from Ryan Braun may give some hope to the Brewers as they try to rebuild. Noah writes that Braun's contract extension won't be as big of a problem if he can continue to build on the stats he put together in August.
• Derek has a series preview of the Brewers-Pirates series.
• Jimmy Nelson bounced back from a rough start to beat the Pirates yesterday. Adam McCalvy writes that Nelson didn't change his routine and stuck to what he knew to get back on track.
• Over on Disciples of Uecker, Nicholas Zettel takes a look at Zach Davies and what to expect from him in his first major league start. Also, he continues evaluating the draft history of the Brewers with how Seid's recent drafts have been better than his early years.
• Adam Lind has been struggling over the last two months, and the back injury he had didn't help either. Ryan Romano of BP Milwaukee analyzes why Lind has been struggling in his last 30 games.

Minor League Update

News & Notes

• The Brewers announced their participants in the Arizona Fall League yesterday. Infielder Yadiel Rivers, outfielders Brett Phillips and Michael Reed, and pitchers Josh Hader, Jacob Barnes, Adrian Houser, and Damien Magnifico will all participate in this year's league.

NL Central Update

• Cardinals 8, Nationals 5
• Cubs 5, Reds 4

Today's Division Games

• Reds (Raisel Iglesias) @ Cubs (Jason Hammel) - 1:20 pm
• Nationals (Max Scherzer) @ Cardinals (Michael Wacha) - 7:15 pm

Around Baseball

Roster News

• The Angels designated outfielder Alfredo Marte and RHP Drew Rucinski for assignment.
• The Astros designated RHP Jake Buchanan for assignment.
• The Blue Jays designated LHP Colt Hynes for assignment.
• The Cubs designated relievers James Russell and Rafael Soriano for assignment.
• The Dodgers acquired Justin Ruggiano from the Mariners and Chris Heisey from the Blue Jays.
• The Giants designated outfielder Justin Maxwell for assignment.
• The Mets outrighted RHP Vic Black.
• The Rangers designated RHP Roman Mendez for assignment.
• The Rays designated shortstop Hak-Ju Lee for assignment.
• The Reds designated RHP Dylan Axelrod for assignment.
• The Twins outrighted LHP Jason Wheeler.
• The Yankees designated outfielder Tyler Austin and infielder Cole Figueroa for assignment.
• There were many, many callups yesterday, too many to list here. If you're interested in seeing every transaction that was made yesterday, you can check out the MLB transactions page.

Other Notes

• There's a new epidemic for MLB players to be worried about entering this year's final month: chickenpox. In Kansas City, both reliever Kelvin Herrera and right-fielder Alex Rios have developed the illness and will miss a couple of weeks, but there is concern that other members of the team (and recent opponents of the Royals) may have also been infected.

Today's Action

The Brewers and Pirates meet for game two of their series today. Prospect Zach Davies will make his MLB debut for the Brewers today, and he will face Jeff Locke from the Pirates in his first game. First pitch is at 7:10 pm.