Brewers (Drohan) vs Red Sox (Gray): 4/8/26, 12:35pm

[Frisbee Slider]

Sonny Gray makes his 21st career start against Milwaukee. Gray had four starts against the Brewers last season, allowing 28 H, 12 ER, 5 BB and striking out 23 over 21.1 IP (5.06 ERA). Brewers had a 2-2 record against Gray last season.

Shane Drohan makes his major league debut against the team that drafted him. Drohan has 5.7 BB/9 innings over 151 career innings at AAA. This is a higher walk rate than Miz had throughout his time in the minor leagues.

	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	TOT
Ashby	0	41	0	32	0	73
Anderson, G	0	0	12	15	0	27
Hall	0	38	0	0	39	77
Woodford	0	0	0	0	3	3
Zerpa	0	0	23	16	0	39
Uribe	0	14	14	0	0	28
Koenig	0	17	0	0	0	17
Megill	0	22	12	0	0	34

 

[liveforoctober]

Major league debut trying to impress his new club while also trying to prove his old club wrong. This would be a huge mental mind bend for most, good luck to you Shane.

Bullpen is in good shape. Off day tomorrow. 

[jason21nl]

This lineup isn’t exactly murders row 

[titanrick]

12 minutes ago, jason21nl said:

This lineup isn’t exactly murders row 

Yesterday was brutal, missing Chourio, Vaughn, Yeli (until late), Turang and Mitchell.  Arguably 5 of our 6 best hitters.  Just need to hang on until guys get healthy again.

Koenig is the only one who worries me.  I think he's headed for season-ending surgery.  But we are flush with leftys in the pen so that shouldn't be a fatal blow.

[markedman5]

 

[markedman5]

This probably explains why Gasser isn’t starting today 

 

 

[Outlander]

It sure makes it easier on the Red Sox bullpen when  there are 4 LHB and then 3 RHB in a row. Hopefully pounce on Gray early and cruise to a victory.

[Bulldogboy]

More time off for Contreras. Glad he is being rested a bit more do far but lineup takes a hit. Wonder how much Sanchez knows about Drohan.

[wiguy94]

I'm glad Sanchez is catching today after William exclusively called pitches away against his brother yesterday

[Team Canada]

His first AB was a K, he singled on a very low pitch on the 2nd (and there was an inside pitch that AB), and walked in his third when Mis couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.

Feels like there are more worthwhile things to complain about.

[wiguy94]

9 minutes ago, Team Canada said:

His first AB was a K, he singled on a very low pitch on the 2nd (and there was an inside pitch that AB), and walked in his third when Mis couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.

Feels like there are more worthwhile things to complain about.

That inside pitch was a backed up curveball that was supposed to be outside. 19 pitches against Willson yesterday and William wanted every single one to be on the outer half.

[wiguy94]

8 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

That inside pitch was a backed up curveball that was supposed to be outside. 19 pitches against Willson yesterday and William wanted every single one to be on the outer half.

You might think I'm exaggerating, but I promise I'm not. Here are the clips from the 19 pitches thrown to Willson yesterday. William sets up for every single one to be on the outside edge.

https://www.mlb.com/video/?q=BatterId+%3D+[575929]+AND+Date+%3D+["2026-04-07"]+Order+By+Timestamp+ASC&cp=MIXED&p=0

[liveforoctober]

Just offering another way to look at this - perhaps William knew that if Miz threw inside and missed he would have to explain to the Brewers fan base why he allowed a crazy man with nothing to lose get a 45ft head start to swing on our best pitcher.

[liveforoctober]

Also, would it make it better to see Willson's career heat chart and know he is a middle/middle in hitter so pitching away is the general move?

Willson Contreras - Heat Maps | FanGraphs Baseball

Or is this strictly just a pride thing?

[Team Canada]

Maybe he didn't trust Mis's command and didn't want to get him ejected or punched. :)

I'm just saying it didn't affect results, so I'm not going to get up in arms like Sanchez is the answer and William was scared to pitch him inside.

[wiguy94]

2 minutes ago, liveforoctober said:

Also, would it make it better to see Willson's career heat chart and know he is a middle/middle in hitter so pitching away is the general move?

Willson Contreras - Heat Maps | FanGraphs Baseball

Or is this strictly just a pride thing?

He's most definitely not a guy who likes pitches inside and if we are talking strictly fastballs he hates pitches inside. This is slugging on balls in play against FB.

[wiguy94]

1 minute ago, wiguy94 said:

He's most definitely not a guy who likes pitches inside and if we are talking strictly fastballs he hates pitches inside. This is slugging on balls in play against FB.

Then here's ISO on balls in play on all pitches. Really don't think that backs up that he likes pitches middle in.

[ReverendBrewmeister]

1 hour ago, Bulldogboy said:

More time off for Contreras. Glad he is being rested a bit more do far but lineup takes a hit. Wonder how much Sanchez knows about Drohan.

The team has two rookie pitchers in the rotation--Sproat, Harrison--and two other second-year starters--Misiorowski and Patrick.

Both of Sproat's outings have been caught by catchers other than Contreras, with neither of them going very well. (Acknowledge that the rainout double-header in Kansas City made one of those starts basically unavoidable.) While Harrison has thrown twice to Contreras, with good starts in both games.

Don't know if Drohan working with Sanchez behind the plate will be more like the Sproat outings or the Harrison ones.

Contreras definitely needs days where he's not catching. But perhaps trying to plan those days off that don't line up with the rookie pitcher starts might be something worth looking at going forward. Having a good veteran catcher to throw to would seem to be a benefit for a rookie pitcher. (Today is a spot start for Drohan, so it wasn't exactly planned out.)

[liveforoctober]

14 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

Then here's ISO on balls in play on all pitches. Really don't think that backs up that he likes pitches middle in.

I'm willing to wear this one ... I've always read these charts from the pitcher's viewpoint/perspective (meaning in this case I would see Contreras standing on the right side and .403 is an inside pitch). I'm going into timeout for the afternoon.

[Jim French Stepstool]

2 minutes ago, ReverendBrewmeister said:

The team has two rookie pitchers in the rotation--Sproat, Harrison--and two other second-year starters--Misiorowski and Patrick.

Both of Sproat's outings have been caught by catchers other than Contreras, with neither of them going very well. (Acknowledge that the rainout double-header in Kansas City made one of those starts basically unavoidable.) While Harrison has thrown twice to Contreras, with good starts in both games.

Don't know if Drohan working with Sanchez behind the plate will be more like the Sproat outings or the Harrison ones.

Contreras definitely needs days where he's not catching. But perhaps trying to plan those days off that don't line up with the rookie pitcher starts might be something worth looking at going forward. Having a good veteran catcher to throw to would seem to be a benefit for a rookie pitcher. (Today is a spot start for Drohan, so it wasn't exactly planned out.)

I think you make a good point; I love watching Contreras working through games w/his hurlers. But I think the games where Harrison pitched were more about Harrison just having his **** more together at this stage in his career than Sproat than anything else.

I've always liked the idea of a veteran who is defense & moxie first as your backup catcher. Sanchez doesn't really fit that profile but you can't argue with picking him up because I don't know what the lineup would look like vs LHP without him given the injuries.

[liveforoctober]

Kind of want Mitchell to bunt here.

 

[liveforoctober]

3 minutes ago, liveforoctober said:

Kind of want Mitchell to bunt here.

 

It's a decent topic. Mitchell is a strikeout guy ... would you rather he be in the top of the order trying to set up the RBI producers or would you rather he be in the run producing position? Where might strikeouts hurt less/more?

[wiguy94]

2 minutes ago, liveforoctober said:

It's a decent topic. Mitchell is a strikeout guy ... would you rather he be in the top of the order trying to set up the RBI producers or would you rather he be in the run producing position? Where might strikeouts hurt less/more?

For me if you have a strikeout rate north of 35% you need to be hitting in the bottom half of the order even if you have good production.

[RobertCrawley]

Those last two were strikes.

[wiguy94]

Ump needs to wake up and figure out the strike zone