Thursday- Finally a win

 
Some things to read while enjoying what you have.
 
The Milwaukee Brewers have just two wins in their last 15 contests, but one of them came on Wednesday. A solid pitching performance from Wily Peralta and first baseman Matt Clark’s first major league home run helped lead the Crew to a 4-1 win over the Miami Marlins. Jordan Mader of Brew Crew Ball has the recap.

Before hitting his first homer in the seventh inning (against a pitcher who hadn’t allowed one all year), Clark also picked up his first MLB RBI on a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning (h/t @AdamMcCalvy). Despite the big game, however, Ron Roenicke lifted him in favor of defensive replacement Mark Reynolds in the eighth inning.

Clark’s offensive performance was enough to help earn Wily Peralta has first win since Aug. 17. He pitched 6 2/3 innings and allowed just one run on five hits, walking three and striking out five. He needed 110 pitches to get through the outing, but is now one of just 13 pitchers in franchise history to record 16 wins in a season.

The lone run Peralta allowed came on a homer by Marlins outfielder Marcell Ozuna, who went deep for the third consecutive day. Ozuna has actually homered in each of his last four games against the Brewers (including the May 25 finale of a series in Miami), and is only the 19th player ever to do that.

Peralta also got a big assist from Jonathan Broxton, who recorded the final out in the seventh inning and pitched a scoreless eighth. Broxton pitched multiple innings for just the fifth time in the last four seasons (h/t @joe_block), and is now unscored upon in his five outings as a Brewer (h/t @AdamMcCalvy).

• Jonathan Lucroy hit his MLB-leading 50th double of the season in the first inning on Wednesday, but was later thrown out trying to score on an Aramis Ramirez single. Replays seemed to pretty clearly show Lucroy should have been safe, but umpires reviewed the call and confirmed their out call anyway.
• Carlos Gomez stole his 30th base of the season and the 200th of his career in the seventh inning (h/t @Brewers). It means 141 of Gomez’s steals have come as a Brewer, and he’s tied with Ryan Braun for third on the franchise’s all-time list.
• Francisco Rodriguez recorded the final three outs for his 40th save, the fifth time in his career he’s reached that mark (h/t @AdamMcCalvy). He’s only the third pitcher in franchise history to reach that mark.
• The Brewers picked up an important run in the third inning when Jean Segura hit a ground ball to shortstop, reached base and advanced to second on an error, stole third base while the Marlins were appealing to see if Segura had touched first, then scored on a fly ball hit by Wily Peralta. 
• That RBI, by the way, was Peralta’s third of the season and his career.
• The Polish won the Sausage Race.

The series concludes tonight with Mike Fiers taking on Nathan Eovaldi at 7:10 p.m., and Joe Morgan has the MLB.com preview. Despite Fiers’ 2.03 ERA, Jeremy Blachman of NotGraphs notes (satirically) that the Brewers are 10-19 since calling him up on Aug. 9.

If you’re heading out to the ballpark tonight, you’ll probably want to get there a little early. The Brewers are testing new security procedures, including metal detectors, for tonight’s game and have a video starring Bob Uecker to help everyone understand the system.

If the Brewers’ bullpen looks a little more crowded during tonight’s game, that’s because it will be. After multiple weeks in the starting rotation, Jimmy Nelson will be available to pitch in relief starting tonight, and before Wednesday’s game, the Brewers also recalled Rob Wooten. Wooten has appeared in 39 games during his various stints with the Brewers this season and has a 4.59 ERA with 7.8 strikeouts per nine innings. The Brewers now have 17 active pitchers on the roster, including 12 relievers.

Gerardo Parra had two hits Wednesday night and continues to be one of the Brewers’ hottest hitters, going 17-for-41 (a .415 average) while many of the Brewers’ other top bats have cooled in September. Parra was starting for the second consecutive night in place of Ryan Braun, who is expected to return to the lineup tonight. Braun was available to pinch hit on Wednesday but was not used.

Speaking of Braun, a recent story quoted Ron Roenicke as saying the Brewers needed to get more from him and Aramis Ramirez down the stretch. Roenicke took issue with that story while meeting with reporters on Wednesday, arguing that his quotes were a response to a specific question about those two players but were portrayed as him bringing them up on his own. 

Meanwhile, during Wednesday night’s game, the Brewers officially announced the two minor leaguers headed to Cincinnati as the players to be named later in the Jonathan Broxton trade: pitchers Barrett Astin and Kevin Shackelford.

Astin was the Brewers’ third-round pick in the 2013 draft and spent the entire 2014 season with Wisconsin. He pitched 121 2/3 innings over 27 appearances (18 starts) with a 4.96 ERA, six strikeouts and 2.7 walks per nine innings. He’ll turn 23 in October, and before the season, John Sickels of Minor League Ball ranked him as the organization’s 19th-best prospect. Baseball America had him 22nd.

Shackelford is 25 and was the Brewers’ 21st-round pick in 2010. He had a very good partial season with Huntsville in 2013 that led to the Brewers adding him to the 40-man roster last winter, but he had since been outrighted off after posting a 4.86 ERA in 40 appearances for Nashville this season. Through slightly more than 300 professional innings, he has a 3.97 ERA with just 5.6 strikeouts per nine innings.

If you watch tonight’s game, odds are you’ll see the Brewers use some defensive shifts. Big League Stew has a Wall Street Journal graphic showing the Brewers had employed a shift almost 4.5 times per game entering play on Monday, and had allowed approximately 17 fewer hits by doing so. Both numbers place them around the bottom of the upper half of MLB teams.

With right-hander Nathan Eovaldi on the mound for Miami, however, you probably won’t see Rickie Weeks in the starting lineup tonight. Jeff Todd of MLB Trade Rumors notes that Weeks needed 600 plate appearances this season to vest his contract option for 2015 and 400 to earn a $1 million buyout, but he’s come to the plate just 256 times with 16 games to play.

Seven of those 16 games are at home, where the Brewers’ recent struggles have certainly impacted the atmosphere. With most tickets sold in advance, Rich Kirchen of the Milwaukee Business Journal notes that paid attendance has not declined during the slide. But the no-show rate at Miller Park is climbing, leading to a downturn in retail sales inside the ballpark. In addition, there’s a significant concern that the team’s rough finish will hurt season-ticket sales for 2015.

We don’t have any transactions to report today, so let’s go around the NL Central:

• The Cardinals dropped a game in the standings on Wednesday, losing 4-2 to the Reds. Starting pitcher John Lackey was ejected from the contest in the third inning for arguing balls and strikes.
• The Pirates closed the gap a bit with a 6-3 win over the Phillies. Pittsburgh tied the game in the fifth inning on a stand-up inside-the-park home run for Andrew McCutchen.
• The Cubs have lost six in a row and were defeated again in Toronto on Wednesday, losing 11-1. The Blue Jays scored three runs in the sixth, five in the seventh and two more in the eighth to run away with the win. The loss clinched Chicago’s fifth consecutive losing season.
• The Brewers, as you likely know, beat the Marlins 4-1. 

As of this morning, Baseball Prospectus gives the Brewers a 16.8 percent chance to make the playoffs, which is actually down 2.3 points despite their win on Wednesday. Jeff Sullivan of FanGraphs has a look at how that number has cratered recently.

Meanwhile, around baseball, the list of teams that have been mathematically eliminated from postseason contention grows by the day. The Red Sox and Diamondbacks were both shown the door on Wednesday, and the Twins and Astros could join them tonight.

Today in former Brewers:

• Jerry Crasnick of ESPN has a story on Ned Yost’s efforts to lead the Royals to the playoffs. Kansas City currently has a one-game lead on Detroit in the AL Central.
• Longtime baseball analyst Will Carroll listed Craig Counsell and Gabe Kapler among three former players he’d consider if he was hiring a manager.

And in baseball economics: The Rays set a franchise record with an $82.1 million payroll for the 2014 season, and the results have not followed, as the team is 70-76 and 10 games out of the playoff picture. Wednesday, owner Stuart Sternberg said this season’s salary number was “an enormous aberration,” and next year’s mark is “clearly going to be lower.”

Finally, with help from Brewerfan.net and the Baseball Reference Play Index, we’d like to wish a happy birthday today to:

• Wisconsin Timber Rattlers shortstop Angel Ortega, who turns 21.
• Huntsville Stars pitcher Andy Moye, who turns 27.
• 1985 Brewer Brad Lesley, who would have turned 56. 
• 1971 Brewer Larry Bearnarth, who would have turned 73. 

Today is also the 37th anniversary of Robin Yount’s 121st consecutive game without a home run in 1977, the longest streak of his 20-year career. Follow the link for that event’s entry in Today In Brewer History at Brew Crew Ball.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for another snack.

Drink up.

Don’t forget to follow Kyle on Twitter @BrewFrostyMug, and check out and “like” the Mug’s Facebook page. The Frosty Mug runs mornings Monday-Friday and is brought to you by Legends of the Field, a sports memorabilia company you can trust.