Marcum seeks better outcome, series win vs. Reds
May 31, 2011Shaun Marcum will look to bounce back from both his rough outing last week and his ugly Brewers debut Wednesday as he takes the hill in Cincinnati. He'll face off against Mike Leake, who returned from the Minors on Friday and limited the Braves to just one run over six innings of work.
Hart backs Greinke’s hard-fought victory
May 31, 2011Zack Greinke slogged through six innings on 109 pitches, but he limited the Reds to two runs and was backed by Corey Hart's four RBIs in a 7-2 victory that snapped the Brewers' six-game losing streak at Great American Ball Park.
Stat Of The Night: Lucroy Launches
May 31, 2011
Despite the fact that he got a late start to the 2011 season, Jonathan Lucroy hit his sixth home run in the sixth inning tonight. Those six home runs in the Brewers' first 55 games put Lucroy on pace for 18 this season*, which would be tied for the third highest single season total by a catcher in Brewer history:
| Player | Season | HR |
| Ted Simmons | 1982 | 23 |
| Dave Nilsson | 1999 | 19 |
| Darrell Porter | 1975 | 18 |
| Darrell Porter | 1973 | 16 |
| Bill Schroeder | 1987 | 14 |
The last Brewer catcher to hit ten home runs in a season was Johnny Estrada in 2007. No Brewer catcher has hit more than eleven in the Miller Park era.
* - Lucroy has his six home runs in 55 team games, but didn't actually make his 2011 debut until game #11. If you only count the 44 games since his activation he's actually on pace for 21.
Brewers 7, Reds 2: Ron Roenicke’s Postgame Comments
May 31, 2011As seen on FS Wisconsin:
This was joined in progress, so I missed the first question:
I don't look at it that way. We played a nice game. Zack battled today, he certainly didn't get through any of it easy, although the last couple of innings I thought he threw the ball real well. But he struggled.
On Greinke struggling:
The last game he didn't struggle for me. He had that one inning where they scored the three but no, he didn't struggle. He was really good. And the game before I thought he was pretty good. But this was a battle. He just couldn't put guys away. They did a nice job of battling with two strikes, somebody was on base with the leadoff the first five innings, so he had a tough time.
On getting out Jay Bruce and Joey Votto:
I think so. Zack kept the ball down to Bruce and got him out that way, and Votto in the first at bat hit a ball pretty good to center, but I think the guys made some nice pitches to them.
When asked what was wrong with Greinke tonight:
He thought his ball was a little bit flat coming out, the angle wasn't quite like it was last outing. Breaking stuff, kind of sweeping across instead of more of a down angle. But then all of a sudden in the last two innings he gets it. So I don't know what Zack did different or what Rick (Kranitz) told him, I'm not sure.
On getting a boost with Corey Hart back:
Yeah, he's been good for a while now and I know he struggled at the beginning, but he's a guy we always knew would be a big part of the offense, certainly hitting in the second slot makes it even more important for him to produce and not just getting on base but driving in runs also.
When asked if he knew Hart's home run was gone:
I wasn't sure, actually the first one he hit in the first inning I thought maybe had a chance and it got to the middle of the warning track, something like that. But he's having nice at bats, he's taking pitches and not really chasing too many pitches out of the zone.
On Greinke's month of May:
Still not that guy. Not the guy I've seen. I thought the last outing was, but I think when he's right we're gonna see consistent performances from him for a long stretch of time.
When asked if Greinke needs more time:
I don't know, it's hard to say. At the beginning this is what I thought would happen, but once I saw that last outing I really expected the same thing today, and it wasn't. And when you look at it, he gave up two runs. He did a great job, for battling as hard as he battled.
This Could Be The Start Of Something Good: Brewers Beat Reds 7-2
May 31, 2011
W: Zack Greinke (4-1)
L: Chad Reineke (0-1)
HR: Corey Hart (5), Jonathan Lucroy (6)
MVP: Corey Hart (+.184)
LVP: Casey McGehee (-.091)
Win Expectancy Graph and Star Of The Game Voting
Coming into tonight I said this was a game the Brewers should win. That doesn't make the win any less surprising.
Zack Greinke clearly didn't have his best stuff again tonight, but he had enough. He walked three batters tonight, doubling his season total, and allowed two runs on six hits while needing 109 pitches to get through just six innings. He needed a seven pitch frame in the sixth just to reach that mark.
Fortunately, the Brewer bats carried him through this one. They scored four runs in the fourth on a Nyjer Morgan RBI single and Corey Hart's three run routine fly ball ballpark-aided home run, then added another in the sixth on Jonathan Lucroy's sixth home run of the season and one more on Hart's single in the seventh. Hart now has 13 RBI in his last six games.
Given the way things have gone against the Reds lately, it's probably understandable that the Brewers used Marco Estrada, Kameron Loe and John Axford to record the final nine outs tonight in a non-save situation.
Brewers win in May, fans win in June
May 31, 2011The Brewers' successful month of May means discounted tickets for the first series at Miller Park in June.
Wilson’s milestone homer goes unmarked
May 31, 2011Newcomer Josh Wilson hit his first Brewers home run on Monday night, but he didn't bother to track down the baseball for his memorabilia collection.
Improved plate discipline pleases Roenicke
May 31, 2011Brewers manager Ron Roenicke wasn't in Milwaukee last season, but he's done enough number crunching to know he likes what he's been seeing from the heart of the lineup.
Game Thread #55: Milwaukee Brewers (29-25) @ Cincinnati Reds (28-27)
May 31, 2011Current Series
Reds lead the series 1-0
| Mon 05/30 | WP: Travis Wood (4 - 3) LP: Chris Narveson (2 - 4) |
3 - 7 loss |
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Milwaukee Brewers Tuesday, May 31, 2011, 6:10 PM CDT Partly cloudy. Winds blowing out to left field at 5-10 m.p.h. Game time temperature around .
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| Wed 06/01 | 6:10 PM CDT | |
KL's got the dope on tonight's pitching matchup and the Brewers' lineup below.
Join us after the jump for engaging repartee on tonight's game.
Tonight’s Matchup: Brewers (Greinke) @ Reds (Reineke)
May 31, 2011
If the Brewers are ever going to beat the Reds again, it should happen tonight.
Chad Reineke (2.52 ERA, 3.72 FIP for AAA Louisville) is making just his sixth major league appearance tonight, and his first since making one start as a member of the A's in 2009. In 10 appearances (nine starts) for AAA Louisville on the season he's posted a 2.52 ERA but struck out just 31 in 53.2 innings (5.2 per 9) and walked 16 (2.68 per 9). He last pitched against Scranton-Wilkes Barre on Friday, pitching two scoreless innings with two hits, no walks and four strikeouts.
FanGraphs' major league numbers for Reineke are small sample sized and date back to 2008-09, but they suggest that Reineke mainly throws two pitches: A low 90's fastball and a slider he uses over 30% of the time. He'll occasionally mix in a changeup.
As you might expect, Reineke has never faced the Brewers. In fact, there's not a single player on the Brewer roster that's faced him in the majors. And since he's spent the last two seasons pitching in the AAA International League, it's unlikely any Brewers have faced him recently in the minors either.
He'll face off against Zack Greinke (5.79 ERA, 2.78 FIP), who could really use a signature outing to prove he's the player the Brewers thought they were acquiring when he came over from the Royals this winter. He had his best outing of the season on Wednesday against the Nationals, allowing three runs on five hits over seven innings, walking just one and striking out ten. All three runs scored on a fourth inning homer by Mike Morse. Greinke also went deep in the game.
Greinke has been getting hit hard at times this season (he's allowing 1.6 home runs per nine), but the numbers would suggest he's also been more than a bit unlucky. Opposing batters are hitting .348 on balls in play against him, and xFIP suggests his ERA could very well be as low as 1.61 in a luck-neutral environment. That's largely because of his ridiculous strikeout and walk numbers: He's struck out 12.54 per nine this season, and walked less than one.
Greinke faced the Reds once last season and picked up a complete game victory, allowing three runs on just five hits over nine innings, with no walks and 12 strikeouts. Joey Votto took him deep twice in that game. Two current Reds have faced him ten times or more:
| Player | PA | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| Edgar Renteria | 19 | .316 | .316 | .421 | .737 |
| Scott Rolen | 17 | .286 | .353 | .357 | .710 |
As you might expect, most of those numbers aren't recent. Renteria faced Greinke 12 times in 2008 but hasn't seen him since, and Rolen hasn't faced Greinke since going 0-for-6 against him in 2009.
Via Adam McCalvy, here's tonight's lineup:
Rickie Weeks 2B
Corey Hart RF
Ryan Braun LF
Prince Fielder 1B
Casey McGehee 3B
Jonathan Lucroy C
Yuniesky Betancourt SS
Nyjer Morgan CF
Zack Greinke P
And in the bullpen:
Sergio Mitre pitched two innings (32 pitches) last night.
Tim Dillard pitched two innings (24 pitches) last night, and only works on Mondays.
LaTroy Hawkins pitched 1 inning (16 pitches) Sunday.
Kameron Loe and John Axford last pitched on Saturday.
Mike McClendon and Marco Estrada haven't pitched since Friday
And for the weather: It's hot in Cincinnati again tonight and will remain that way into the evening. Game time temp will be around 87, dropping to around 80 by the end of the game.