Brewer Daily News for August 15th: Roenicke hopeful, Rangers best Crew

Good morning everyone and welcome to the Thursday edition of Brewer Daily News. Despite their down season, Milwaukee Brewers’ manager Ron Roenicke remains adamant with the team, believing they will finish the season strong. In the second bit of news, last night the Brewers (52-68) lost a close game to the Texas Rangers (70-51).

Manager Ron Roenicke believes his team can turn it around and finish strong. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Out of the All-Star break, the Brewers are 14-12, winning six out of their last 10 games. With all the players that have made their major league debuts this season, Roenicke believes the transition to the younger players will help the team overall.

"“I think we can get it going,” Roenicke said. “How good that is without having the veterans in there, it’s hard to think we could go on runs like we did the last two years.” – via Brewers.com"

Roenicke also went on to talk about how there are some younger players who need to piece it together, but overall the team has functioned well as of late. A big boost has been the tremendous efforts of the Milwaukee bullpen, who rank fourth in the MLB with an ERA of 2.88.

Last night, the Brewers fell 5-4 to the Rangers. Tyler Thornburg was on the mound for Milwaukee and did well, but did not receive a decision. Thornburg pitched six inning and gave two runs (one earned) on five hits, three walks and struck out two.

In the seventh, Mike Gonzalez came in for the Brewers and gave up two runs in 2/3 of an inning while John Axford gave up one run. Axford would be given his sixth loss of the season.

Matt Garza was the starter for Texas and did not fare well, but got the no-decision. Garza lasted 5 2/3 innings while giving up four runs on eight hits, two walks and struck out four. Jason Frasor picked up his fourth win while closer Joe Nathan notched his 36th save by pitching a perfect top of the ninth.

Juan Francisco was the sole force behind the Brew Crew’s offense in the game. In the second inning, Francisco hit a solo home run and in the fourth, he hit a three-run bomb, giving him a total of 17 homers this season. Carlos Gomez and Scooter Gennett both had two hits a piece.

Today the Brewers head home to start a four game series against the Cincinnati Reds (68-52) with tonight’s game beginning at 8:10 p.m. ET / 7:10 p.m. CT. The projected starters are Tony Cingrani (5-2, 2.87 ERA) for Cincinnati and Kyle Lohse (8-7, 3.26 ERA) for Milwaukee.