Eye Black

Yelich is on the verge of becoming the 19th player in Major League Baseball history to achieve a 40+ HR and 20+ SB season (list link), some of those other 18 did it multiple times. Yelich has a real shot at becoming the first player in MLB history to record 50+ home runs and 30+ steals in a season. He is currently at 39 HR and 23 SB with 47 games remaining.

[pre]Brewers Lineup Pirates Lineup 1. Trent Grisham (L) LF 1. Kevin Newman ® SS 2. Yasmani Grandal (S) C 2. Bryan Reynolds (S) LF 3. Mike Moustakas (L) 3B 3. Starling Marte ® CF 4. Keston Hiura ® 2B 4. Jose Osuna ® 1B 5. Eric Thames (L) 1B 5. Melky Cabrera (S) RF 6. Ryan Braun ® RF 6. Colin Moran (L) 3B 7. Ben Gamel (L) CF 7. Pablo Reyes ® 2B 8. Orlando Arcia ® SS 8. Jacob Stallings ® C 9. Drew Pomeranz ® P 9. Trevor Williams ® P[/pre] Drew Pomeranz: Batter (Pirates) vs Pitching Stats Trevor Williams: Batter (Brewers) vs Pitching Stats

But did it work? It did not work in terms of the play execution, and Counsell admitted that after the game. Luckily they got bailed out with an interference call which is an extremely low probability outcome.

Good. Shaw has had a tough enough year without idiots piling on unwarranted. That seems like an unthinkably terrible idea on Counsell's part. 1st and 3rd, I could see it. In the 8th, the bases are loaded, where is Shaw going to go? The other team is not stupid. So your plan is to try to draw a throw on a play that the other team knows the runner literally cannot advance because there is nowhere to go? I almost hope that Counsell is just making that up to cover for Shaw rather than him actually deciding that was a good idea. He wasn’t making it up, he was dead serious. They asked him if he had ever tried that play before and he admitted, “no”. He said he didn’t see the obstruction because he put his head down when it didn’t work. I am glad it worked out because losing that game by getting an out in a key situation trying that play (one that is typically reserved for amateur baseball only) would have been pretty demoralizing. It doesn’t seem like Counsell has had a great stretch of managerial decisions lately.

[sarcasm]Need to bench Yelich more, IMO. Clearly this team can do it without him.[/sarcasm]

For how bad some of the losses felt last week (i.e. both losses in Oakland), it feels like luck was on their side tonight.

Wow, WIN!!!!!!!!!!!

Huge play Grandal. Saves the game... for now at least.

Melky has just a 10.3% K-rate this season unfortunately.

Guy on second now, I hope they have their pitch signals buttoned up here.

Matt Albers has pitched in the major leagues for 14 seasons and is seeking his 5th career save here (would be his 3rd with the Brewers).

Woah, Cowboy Joe West strikes!!!

Travis Shaw gets HBP with two outs. BA: “Huge break for the Brewers”

Wow, really awful strike three call all the way around by Joe West.

What inning does MLB usually start pushing the “No Hitter” or “Perfect Game” alerts? It seems like it’s earlier than ever now, I’m guessing maybe it’s the 6th inning?

Coming into tonight the current collection of Brewers have a combined .584 OPS against Brault. They now have more strikeouts (22) against him than hits (21). Hiura now has 3 Ks in 4 appearances against him. Yelich and Moustakas have accounted for 4 of the 6 extra base hits against him (each with a double and HR). For whatever reason they struggle against Brault.

Even without Yeli, we're gonna shell this guy. I like the confidence, but to date the only Brewers hitters who have had much (any?) success against Brault are Moustakas and Yelich.

I wouldn’t read too much into it. He is going to strikeout plenty and the defense isn’t likely ever going to be great, but even Yelich had an offensive stretch towards the end of June where he was was 3 for 26 with 9 K’s. I guess let’s at least give it another week before we declare the song a curse and lock it down.

[pre]Brewers Lineup Pirates Lineup 1. Lorenzo Cain ® CF 1. 2. Keston Hiura ® 2B 2. 3. Mike Moustakas (L) 3B 3. 4. Ryan Braun ® RF 4. 5. Yasmani Grandal (S) 1B 5. 6. Manny Pina ® C 6. 7. Trent Grisham (L) LF 7. 8. Orlando Arcia ® SS 8. 9. Chase Anderson ® P 9. [/pre] Chase Anderson: Batter (Pirates) vs Pitching Stats Steven Brault: Batter (Brewers) vs Pitching Stats

Probably goes without saying, but tonight was a much needed win. I rarely do W/L predictions, but I have a feeling the Brewers are going to win a few more this week. Hopefully they can win the next four and head into Sunday’s game versus the Rangers’ Mike Minor with a chance to propel right back in the middle of the race for the NL Central.

It’s incredible how stressfully close they make every game this season regardless of how big the lead.

According to Adam McCalvy (link) it is Devin Williams.

The Reds pickup a sneaky good bounce back candidate, IMO. Via MLB Trade Rumors: 1:00pm: The teams have announced the move. Atlanta also announced that Mike Foltynewicz is up from Triple-A Gwinnett, so he’ll take Gausman’s spot in the rotation. 12:25pm: The Reds have claimed right-hander Kevin Gausman off outright waivers from the Braves, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN.com (via Twitter). That’s not to be mistaken with the now-defunct revocable August trade waivers, to be clear. The claim means that Gausman is now a member of the Reds, who by claiming him are agreeing to take on the remainder of the right-hander’s $9.35MM salary — a sum of about $2.815MM between now and season’s end. Cincinnati is obviously banking on a return to form following a change of scenery, as Gausman is mired in the worst season of his big league career. The former No. 4 overall draft pick (Orioles, 2012) joined Atlanta last season in a deadline trade that saw Atlanta take on the remainder of Darren O’Day‘s salary while also shipping out international bonus allotments and minor leaguers Brett Cumberland, JC Encarnacion, Bruce Zimmermann and Evan Phillips. Gausman performed admirably down the stretch in 2018 and was a big part of the Braves’ rotation (2.87 ERA in 59 2/3 innings), but he’s been among the league’s least effective pitchers in 2019. Through 80 innings, he’s pitched to a 6.19 earned run average with 9.6 K/9, 3.0 BB/9, 1.35 HR/9 and a career-low 37 percent ground-ball rate. There’s little denying that Gausman has had his share of poor fortune in 2019. His .345 average on balls in play is well north of both his career mark (.313) and the league average (.299), and his 59.3 percent strand rate appears fluky and due for some positive regression toward his lifetime mark of 74.1 percent. Fielding-independent metrics peg him as a candidate for considerable improvement (4.20 FIP, 4.40 SIERA, 4.47 xFIP). Gausman’s average fastball velocity (93.8 mph) is down from its 95 mph peak, however, and he’s allowing line drives at a career-worst 24.7 percent clip. Opposing hitters are barreling up Gausman’s offerings at a higher rate than ever before, per Statcast, and the increased number of hard-hit balls in the air has come back to bite him. The Reds don’t appear to have an immediate need for starting pitching, with Luis Castillo, Trevor Bauer, Sonny Gray, Anthony DeSclafani and Alex Wood all in the rotation at the moment. It’s possible that Cincinnati could utilize Gausman out of the bullpen or deploy a six-man rotation to keep their arms fresh down the stretch. The move could very well have been made with an eye toward 2020 as well — as was the case with their acquisition of Bauer. Gausman is controllable via arbitration for the third and final time this winter, although at present he looks like a potential non-tender candidate. Still, perhaps a strong showing to the season will convince the Cincinnati front office that Gausman is deserving of the $10MM+ salary he’d command in arbitration this offseason. If he is able to return to form, Gausman would slot in fourth behind the formidable trio of Bauer, Castillo and Gray.